• Question: Are humans real?

    Asked by 246grak22 to Daniel, Hannah, Maggie, Ry, Scott on 10 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Ry Cutter

      Ry Cutter answered on 10 Nov 2017:

      We are real, at least I think we are. This is one of those philosophical questions that can be quite hard to pin down a great answer to. Some scientists think life exists to observe the universe, because then the universe can exists!
      There is only one thing we know to be true though and Descartes said it best:
      “Cogito ergo sum”- I think therefore I am.
      Which means because I can think, feel, and experience; I know, whatever I am, I exist.
      Great question,
      Ryan

    • Photo: Maggie Lieu

      Maggie Lieu answered on 10 Nov 2017:

      Nope we are all figments of your imagination. You are special and you are the only thing that is real.

      But honestly I don’t think there are many real humans. A lot of us are very fake. We pretend to be people we aren’t to please the people around us.

    • Photo: Hannah Middleton

      Hannah Middleton answered on 10 Nov 2017:

      Yes I reckon probably we are! But how could we know if we weren’t? 🙂

    • Photo: Scott Melville

      Scott Melville answered on 13 Nov 2017:

      It all depends how you define ‘real’. If you mean:
      when I interact with another human, can I come back tomorrow and they’ll still be there and remember me,
      then sure, of course humans are real (but dreams aren’t). If you mean something very vague like:
      are they ‘really there’ (whatever that means),
      then we can’t give you a precise answer. You can only get answers which are as precise as the question you are asking – if you ask a super vague question, you’ll get a super vague answer.

      I think it’s important to ask and think about these questions, but we shouldn’t feel disappointed if there doesn’t seem to be a clear answer – instead we should think about whether we are asking the right questions 🙂

    • Photo: Daniel Williams

      Daniel Williams answered on 13 Nov 2017:

      Yes. I think from the perspective of other humans, humans are real. There are lots of weird ideas around that we’re all living in a simulation of some sort, but I’m not sure we’d ever have any way of telling that we were.

      I once read a sci-fi story which made me think about the philosophy of these sorts of things by a writer called Isaac Asimov called “Breeds There a Man…?” which is worth reading if you’re interested in this kind of thing!

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