My friend, we cannot even prove that our entire life is real.
We know the human mind is capable of extreme delusion, we can observe this in mentally unwell patients who are convinced their delusions are reality.
So if we acknowledge the human mind is capable of delusion, delusion so strong to be certain in its veracity, then there is no way that we can confidentially conclude that anything and everything we know isn’t delusion.
So in short, there is no way to definitively prove the internet is real because we can’t even definitely prove that reality is real.
I could be laying in my crib right now having imagine this and every interacting leading up to it entirely, just waiting to wake up. Literally every single thing I think I know could actually fully and completely not exist. The only thing I can be certain of in all reality is that I exist because I am considering my reality: I think, therefore I am.
I think therefore I am. If reality is fake it’s such a convincing fake that it effectively doesn’t matter.
Absolutely. But the harrowing part is realizing this applies to some folks we deem delusional in the context of our world too.
Yooooo
I think, therefore I am
From that we can affirm that at least one thing exists [me], thus the one and true question remains: Why does something exists instead of nothing ?
This suggests a cosmic reason or purpose, yet I find no evidence for that conclusion exists.
There just might simply not be a “why?”
Yup,
Idk how likely we are to know
Personally, I think it’s extremely unlikely. That’s why I think Apatheism is the way:
The theist says there is a God with certainty, the atheist says there is no God with certainty, the agnostic says we cannot be certain the existence of God, and the apatheist says “guys why are we wasting our time stressing out about unknowables? Let’s go get a pizza.”
What do you mean by “simulation”?
Simulation as in “the internet is not real and our computers somehow have everything already stored on them and there’s no data transfer happening across telco infrastructure” ?
(Because that’s easily disproven - you can message your friends and tell them to meet you somewhere, and when they meet you there, that proves data was moved from your device to their device. )
If that’s not what you mean, please explain (in detail) what you mean by “the entirety of the internet was a simulation”
You discussed some of the possibilities. How about like an MMO where some of the people are real and some are NPC but the entirety is being ocastrated by a single entity.
That’s already been proven too.
I know a couple of people in real life who are also on the internet. If the entirety of the internet was a simulation, I’d ask them about stuff they’d posted and they wouldn’t have any idea what I’m talking about.
It provably isn’t, so I’d have to lean on dishonest proof. My contenders are:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kettle_logic Tim Bernes Lee said the internet was’t actually feasible. They just theorized the concept. Also, the initial darpanet servers that supposedly turned into the internet were shut down in 1965. Network cables would actually melt if they transferred data on internet scale.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_composition Need proof? The internet’s most prominent facet is MMOs: Simulated worlds.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_projection_fallacy It’s just pixels moving on my screen, people. It’s not real in any real sense. The computer is making all the words show up on my screen by following its internal machinery.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_by_assertion It is a simulation. The internet is clearly a simulation. Everyone says it’s a simulation. The intetnet is a simulation.
Thoroughly enjoyed your comment 😊
All of it? Like people I know IRL are actually fake online or something?
Was about to point this out. I’d just go to one of my IRL friends and have him send me an E-Mail/PM/whatever while i watch him do it.
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I would set up A shop to sell stuff, AI don’t got no money.
Jokes on you people already use AI to invest so they technically have money
Propose to meet someone from the internet IRL
Sorry, I’m busy.
Cash me c/outside, how 'bout dat?
Umm.
The Internet already is a simulation of real places and things.
Look at phenomena that should be totally random, and try to find evidence that they were produced by pseudorandom number generators.
