+351 You have at one point wondered if every other human in the world wasn't alive, and that they were activated by your presence somehow; that you were the only person truly experiencing consciousness, Amirite?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

WTF, no.That's some semi-deep thought you've got there.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

It's crazy how the most ridiculous thoughts have been thought of by many people. I've thought the same thing.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

That has been thought of before. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_unconscious

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Soliloquy of the Solipsist by Sylvia Plath I? I walk alone; The midnight street Spins itself from under my feet; When my eyes shut These dreaming houses all snuff out; Through a whim of mine Over gables the moon's celestial onion Hangs high. I Make houses shrink And trees diminish By going far; my look's leash Dangles the puppet-people Who, unaware how they dwindle, Laugh, kiss, get drunk, Nor guess that if I choose to blink They die. I When in good humor, Give grass its green Blazon sky blue, and endow the sun With gold; Yet, in my wintriest moods, I hold Absolute power To boycott any color and forbid any flower To be. I Know you appear Vivid at my side, Denying you sprang out of my head, Claiming you feel Love fiery enough to prove flesh real, Though it's quite clear All you beauty, all your wit, is a gift, my dear, From me.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

It's called "solipsism."

by Anonymous 11 years ago

wow, I never knew there was a word for it

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I can honestly say I've never thought about that. I feel stupid because so many people have...

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Silly me here thinking I was the only one who's been in that mindset before, when there's an actual word for it. I'm sure there are fiction novels on it as well, anyone know of one?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I'm coming back to comment again because I had originally come to amirite.net to post, and after reading your post I completely forgot my ingenious idea.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

For all I know, the universe isn't 14 billion year sold, or 10 thousand, but I only know or sure it's 13 years old (I'm 16, but my long term memory didn't kick in for 3 years)

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I don't really get this whole post. Can someone explain it to me?? What do they mean

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Have you ever wondered that the only things that exist are what you see? What if everything and everyone disappears when you're not around, and are only there when you can see it?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Only deep intellectual hipsters are allowed in this post. Sorry, but you have to leave.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I remember when I first thought this. It scared the shit out of me, because there's not many ways to "disprove" that.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I can't imagine any way to disprove it..

by Anonymous 11 years ago

There's a very obvious way to disprove it, at least to your own satisfaction. It would mean that every piece of music that has ever inspired me, every film that has ever awed me, every book that I've ever found creative and profound and to have impressive prose, every scientific,philosophical and political school of thought I'm aware of etc is all my own doing. And not only have I come up with it all myself, but I've come up with it in realtime in a lot of cases. It took Joseph Heller 7 years to write Catch-22 but all the words have immediately appeared on the pages as quickly as I've managed to turn them? And with the convoluted narrative that jumps back and forth, I've somehow managed to factor the whole plot in perfectly as my mind is coming up with the words for each pair of pages in realtime? What an insult to Heller to think I'm capable of such a thing and how much of a god complex would I need to have to think I could have come up with any and all of the things that I've mentioned? Solipsism is actually an incredibly arrogant position to hold, albeit unintentionally.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

That's not really proof, and arrogance means excessive pride, not a belief that you are more powerful than all else.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Sure. Hence the 'at least to your own satisfaction' part. Maybe I should have said 'there's no obvious way to disprove it but it's very easy to convince yourself it's not true'. Merriam Webster defines arrogance as 'an attitude of superiority manifested in an manner or in claims or assumptions'. Solipsism falls under the assumption part even though it is an unintentional assumption as I said.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Oh, the definition I looked up used the word "pride". Yeah, I see what you mean now.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Yeah, definitions can vary quite a lot from dictionary to dictionary. I hate that because it can be hard to decide which one to go by. But we understand each other now anyway so it's all good.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Yeah, I tend to go with the google definition.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Sometimes I think I'm in the Truman Show and everyone is purposefully trying to screw me over.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

The truman show is basically this whole post in a movie.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

In the "Breakfast of Champions" by Kurt Vonnegut, a lonely author named Kilgore Trout wrote a short story in the form of a letter from the creator of the universe. The title was "Now It Can Be Told". After reading it, Dwayne Hoover became a homicidal maniac.. Dear Sir, poor sir, brave sir:’ he read, ‘You are an experiment by the Creator of the Universe. You are the only creature in the entire Universe who has free will. You are the only one who has to figure out what to do next – and why. Everybody else is a robot, a machine. ‘Some persons seem to like you, and others seem to hate you, and you must wonder why. They are simply liking machines and hating machines. ‘You are pooped and demoralized,’ read Dwayne. ‘Why wouldn’t you be? Of course it is exhausting, having to reason all the time in a universe which wasn’t meant to be reasonable.’

by Anonymous 11 years ago

No, but I have thought some very similar ideas, so I won't vote no.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

This is one of the scariest things I think about.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

How is it scary? If it's true, it's not like you can do anything about it, so why worry.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I wouldn't say I'm quite WORRIED about it, but.. I can't really explain why it freaks me out.. It just does.. you're welcome for that extremely intellectual reply

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I read a story on creepy pasta about a man who died and was about to be reincarnated. He was told he could be reincarnated as any person in any time period, since time doesn't exist outside the human world. Eventually he learned that he was actually every person in the history of the world. He was Hitler and every person killed by Hitler. He was Jesus and all His followers. It was pretty interesting and creepy to think about.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

link? That sounds interesting.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I thought I was the only one who thought about this. Every time I try to explain it to anybody they don't understand what I mean. Thank you.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

You're welcome. I felt the same at one point (except I never really shared that thought with anyone before).

by Anonymous 11 years ago