I have the sneaking suspicion I have done this one before as well. But it was in my cache of future posts, so maybe not. Maybe I just think I did it. Anyway...
What if you were the only sentient being in existence, and everything you see around you was a projection meant to keep you sane? That is, what if our world and everyone in it is some sort of computer simulation (for want of a better description) made just to fool you into believing you're not the only real being?
Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...
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Interesting question, Liz. What if? Hmm. I'd look to my child and said: I birthed you, I know you're real or partially read, so there'd be at least two of us. :)
ReplyDeleteSilvia @
SilviaWrites
I didn't think of children. But if this is all a delusion...?
DeleteIn high school, I had a buddy from England who honestly believed there were like 10 real people on the face of the earth, and the rest were just fake models placed there by aliens or something. When I asked if I was real, he said, "I don't know. I'm still trying to figure that out." Thanks, Gavin. Love you too. *shaking head*
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't want to live in that world.
Ooh, I like this random question. I may have to write it down in my book of ideas! As for my answer...If that were true then it would mean I'd have to be logged in, so to speak, otherwise nothing would feel real, So we'd have a matrix type scenario. Then, it would likely take a while to figure out that I was living in a virtual world (maybe there would be some precipitating events that clued me in). Once I found out, however, my mission would be to find out what happened.
ReplyDeleteYup. I'm writing this one down.
I'd be wondering who made the computer program.
ReplyDeleteAlso, world domination.
Guess if I didn't know what was going on I'd be happy as a clam. If I did, I would be trying to escape.
ReplyDeleteShells–Tales–Sails
The trying to escape would make a better story...
DeleteI've actually thought about this one before. I took a philosophy class in college and that was one of the theories we talked about- what if all of life and experience is just illusion created by your mind. I don't like that idea at all! So here's hoping that instead of just believing that I am enjoying your A-Z posts and commenting that I really am and it's not just my mind conjuring experience!
ReplyDeleteYou come up with these interesting questions and I visit your blog at the end of the day when my brain is "fried" and I can't think coherently, LOL :)
ReplyDeleteI think I would be okay with it as long as I never found out about it and the people I loved were kept safe in the program with no grief or sadness.
betty
I sometimes actually wonder things like this! I've always been a bit of an odd bird with a rather gloomy outlook. Family history explains some of that, bipolar disorder explains a little more, but I think some of it is just me.
ReplyDeleteThings like this? Next time I'm at a loss for a Thursday question, I'll have to pick your brain...
DeleteI never thought about this .. wonder I would react .. not very sure .
ReplyDeleteI don't know how I would react either (the positive of posing the questions).
DeleteI would take the red pill, (or the blue one. which ever one Neo took) My serious answer is...it isn't, but if it was I wouldn't care if I didn't know, and if I did know I would probably not be able to do anything about it so.
ReplyDeleteI'd wonder why they weren't doing a better job of it. Come on, supreme being, level up!
ReplyDeleteI'm a little late to this, but did you ever read Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker series? There's a part in there where a character is shown into a machine that's supposed to destroy his mind by showing him exactly what his role in creation is, and thereby prove to him how insignificant he is. But it turns out that the character is in a fake universe created specifically for him (to help him survive that exact trap) and so the device tells him he is the most important thing in the universe.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, this question reminded me of that.
I think I would be sad. This question hit on the same kind of thing I wonder about a lot: whether having a memory of something is the same as doing it. That is, if you simply make me BELIEVE I did something when I didn't do it, is that the same as having done it? I don't think so, but I can't figure out why so I think about that a lot.
(I'm fun at dinner parties!)
This seems to be like that: An entire existence that's not real and I'm the only one around? What's the difference between that and insanity? Learning that everyone I've ever loved was fake, I think, would be awful... even if I had nothing against which to measure it.
I'm a big Douglas Adams fan. I even read Dirk Gently. But I don't remember that scene. I guess I'm due for a reread...
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