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What if......

[INTP] 
3K views 35 replies 22 participants last post by  Beyond 
#1 ·
You found out everything around you is virtual, and you are the only "real" person alive. Everything is just an automated simulation, kind of like the matrix but you are the only one...... how terrible would that be!? For some reason I just can't stop thinking about this, will someone please snap me out of it.

What would you do..... I mean, what is even the point of living then?
 
#5 ·
lol. It's nothing like the Matrix, this would be infinitely worse!

^^^^ Well, once you die in this "virtual" life you are dead for good. You're the only human to ever live. And sure, you can "influence" it, not like, fly or anything though XD

Turns out all of history has been fabricated, you are the only one of your kind.
 
#6 ·
Well, does it actually matter?

If everything is just a figment of your imagination, you're still living, you're still interacting with others, you're still learning.... it doesn't make a difference if it all comes from your head or if it "actually exists".

(The reason I say it's your imagination is if it were to be a virtual world, and there are no other people, then you must have been the person to create the world..)

If this is true, play with your subconscious! Change the gravity settings! Go to another planet!



If it makes you feel better, I'm 51% sure I actually exist.
 
#7 ·
I don't have an automatic sense of revulsion that this situation would be terrible. I would just try to be like Neo and manipulate the matrix-thing and see what I could discover about it and what I could do in it. suddenly I would be free of any and all responsibility! I don't have to be nice to my neighbors! they are not real! I don't have to be an upstanding member of society! or rather, I don't have to feel bad that I'm not an upstanding member of society! none of it is real! the whole "world" really exists only for meeeee! I guess? but wait, what is making this matrix? what hideous machine is using me? and for what reason? aughhhh! I must be pretty important though, for the machine to go through all this effort. the machine wouldn't want me to self-destruct, would it? maybe I could negotiate with it. maybe it could reset me so that I'm not aware of being in this matrix all alone, and whatever that was making my life seem meaningful before will once again make my life seem meaningful.

=\
 
#14 ·
Yeah, if anything i'd say this is one of my top fantasies, right up there with magic being real (Harry Potter has runied me...). But yeah, the first thing i'd do is find a way to manipulate the system and protect myself from any troublesome "agents"... Then it's just a matter of proving to everyone else that there is no God and everything they believe in is wrong... >: D
 
#8 ·
Lol at the above answer; I quite like it!:crazy:

Apparently INTP's think about this a lot. I'm not quite sure why. Personally, I never have. I think it's much more sensible to believe there really is a world out there.

Perhaps I'm raelly a closet SJ.:tongue:

Just my 2 cents.
 
#12 ·
There is no way of knowing, so you'll just have to live with the fact that the world around you 'seems' to be authentic.
Why waste your time allowing something that may not be true to interfere with your life?

Perhaps if you actually had positive reasons to suspect that you may be the only real person, you should worry, but you don't, so just realize that you probably aren't the only real person.
It's a very silly possibility that is as plausible as the idea that there is a supreme creator in charge of the universe. And we all know how ridiculous that notion is!
 
#13 ·
I've gone through those fits but without the mental breakdown part. I don't see how it makes any difference if anyone is 'real' or not. They still act the same for all intents and purposes. A machine so powerful it could simulate the sentience of over 6 billion people and the history of the world as well as all the laws of physics must be considered sentient so the only real difference it would make is that the machine is god and you are a outside observer that's pulled into his game. Such a scenario is quite pointless and means little and changes less. To me the only thing that would change is that there are at least two sets of laws to the universe that I must unravel: ours and the ones that apply to outside the machines grasp.

Besides, if you are the only real person there is no point in asking us for support on this subject as we wouldn't be real in that paradigm and would just fabricate these answers to try and quell your curiosity. Unless you wanted to warn the machine that your catching onto it's plot but it is a quite terribly powerful machine and it will have no problem stopping you from un covering the truth if it needs to. If it can't access your mind it could just create a unbreakable room with no escape to lock you in for eternity so you never get the resources to bring it down. If I were you, I wouldn't let the machine know that I was catching onto it.
 
#16 ·
I remember first having a similar sort of thought sitting outside at recess when I was in about 2nd grade. (Us INTPs are rather ridiculous people :p)

I still have bouts almost panic attacks when I contemplate the enormity of existence, so I do my best to block the thoughts out of my mind as much as possible
 
#19 ·
My idea is that life is that it just exists. Every time I think about it (like today coming back from 7-11), I just end up at the same place: the world is what it is. Things happened and now we're here. Maybe we're as real as the flow of data allowing you to read these words, or maybe we're completely real and this universe is all that is real. Or maybe this is an afterlife or the start of a new one. Or maybe this whole life is just a dream and we're the memories of someone.

See, the point is, there are too many possibilities and no one can know for certain what the truth is until we die. Even then, we'll probably never know.
 
#20 ·
If that's the case than all morals and ethics don't exist, the only 'good action' is an action that is positive to you no matter how hurtful it is to us 'fake people'. But, I must regretfully inform you that you are wrong. I'm a conscious being with thoughts. Although proving this to you is pointless as it's impossible. I now have to consider the possibilty that the machine was disapointed I havn't caught on to it yet, and used this forum and your post as a way for me to reconize that I am infact the only person who exists. Clever...Clever indeed..
 
#26 ·
I'm not sure if the OP was meant as purely solipsism - as a philosophical dilemma, or derealization as a psychological effect.

But, as some have already stated, if it's just a philosophical dilemma, then it makes no difference. Even if everyone and everything is virtual, the feedback feels quite real - pain is still pain (whether physical or emotional). A virtual jail cell is just as bad as a real one, if you can't get out of it.

So, programs on a computer or figments of my imagination, you're still fascinating to observe or to interact with.

Dealing with the eerie sensation that nothing/no one is real though, which is more on a psychological level I think, I have found that stimulating my tactile sense makes it easier.
I think the sense of touch feels the most "real". Visual and aural senses are easy to deceive: TV, radio etc. Same can go for smell and taste, to some extent.

So when I experience derealization (which isn't that often by the way!), I try to gently poke my skin with a sharp pencil, fingernail, toothpick, etc, then I move my fingers across different surfaces, and I focus on those sensations (with my eyes closed).
It's pretty effective in 'bringing be back'.

*crazy face* :crazy:
 
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#28 ·
(somewhat off-topic)
We're all already living in virtual reality. Our brains take sensory input provided by our senses and create a coherent virtual reality we perceive as 'real'. The brain even syncs up auditory and visual sensory input that would otherwise be out of sync (at least I remember reading about this somewhere...). It's not an accident that there's a million ways to cheat our brains with illusions etc.

Anyway, we only have one data point, ourselves. Statistically it's insignificant, but so are we. We either accept both ourselves and the outside world as 'real' or assume it was all created for us and us alone.
 
#36 ·
Upon realization, I'd immediately go to the search engines and try to find a good walkthrough and known cheats/glitches for this "game". Yes I am that lazy. But it intrigues/amuses me that although I might avoid doing this for a real game, I wouldn't even hesitate to do it for real life. Next, I would look for the download for the woman in the red dress.

I don't see how everyone else missed these important steps. :tongue:
 
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