How can we test if we're living in a virtual world or real world?

Question

A laughable question i guess, but it seems a question that should warrent a scientific response. Think the obvious films like Matrix, Sixth sense, others, and the truman show. They all deal with a general theme that seems quite outlandish and fantasy like. But the simple facts make many people wonder the same thing. How can we prove the world is real? It simple to say "well pinch yourself and see if you feel it, or touch a tree and see if it seems real, but what if all these scensations were programmed reponses? and in reality we are indeed machines that funtion by the same principles as other machines, they require a power source, fuel etc ..

So back to the original question, how do we scientifically once and for all prove one way or another that what we see, touch, smell, feel and taste is indeed real?

No i'm not american, no i don't believe in a man created need for being the center of the universe (god - religion) i think from a scientific point of view it seems when you die you must still exist, (though not in the traditional sense - ghosts etc ) as science proves itself that nothing can be destroy only transform. The human conciousness is fundimentally made up of electricity, when we die the electricity in our bodies deserpates and no longer remains, well as science proves, nothing can simple dissappear, only transform. So the energy in our bodys must do just that, transform, whether or not there's an inteligence to how this energy is transformed i'm unsure. I think maybe is someway this energy is recycled back into the system - reborn. Like a canvas without the paint. The energy is absent of character or interligence and may even be collective (with all other "ghosts") but when reintroduced into the system, genetics/dna reintroduces what we call inteligence. me talking crp again

What we as a race collectively refer to god, the maker whatever be, is fundementally the universe itself, science. Is there a higher inteligence? god? yes, in a sense but in a very different way than we think. the universe itself is inteligent, concious, we are, from every atom and electronic pulse made and exist from this unverse. I think people need to grasp one simple thing, nothing is ever simply created from thin air, or can ever be detroyed. The particles that make up your body right now have been in existence since long before the earth was thrown together. There just in a constant state of transformation. Energy is provided by fuel, ie you eat a cheese burger, which provides energy, creates cells etc .. that burger wasn't created prior to you seeing it, it originally came from a cow which in turn took energy/atoms from other resources food etc right back until the beginning (which lead to a whole other topic)

So to sum up, your made from a star, and i talk crap :-)

I've set up a blog for this topic to be continued ..

http://everlite1knight.blogspot.com

- Dave.

I'm not arguing if 'A' reality exists, only if THIS one exists. Sure energy exists even in a simuated work, ie; the simulation itself must be bound to some law of science/energy. but who'se to say the key i'm hitting now ain't simply simuated, a bunch of electronic signals telling my brain that it has form, mass, colour etc. In the end this IS ACTUALLY the case and what is happening. We take for granted the senses we have but don't actually realise that these are only interperatations of electronic signals/energy.

Light/energy from the source shoots out, bouces off the wall in looking at, picks up energy from the atomic structure of the wall itself then bounces into my eyes, that energy is then transformed into neurons which travels to the brain ... then what happens to it? i'm a little stuck at that point.

My brains off on one again :-)

Some really interesting and fun reponses, ashame nothing lasts for ever, as such this post will seize to be in a few hours, so perhaps i was wrong :-)

Reality is what it is, an experience that is real to one self. I've always been content with the world in which i exist, i personally have no complaints, if there is another reality on top of this one then i'm sure it can't be as great, why synthesise a reality? the only reason i can imagine is to make a better one.

Oh well. the world is and always will be a mystery to us all.

Be content, live in peace, be at peace with yourself, and at peace with others.

Signing out of this world

## David ##

Answer 1

Kill yourself.

Answer 2

Take a Blue and a Red pill together, move on past GO and collect £200. Then all will be revealed. The fact is that we are all living 2 million years into the future where we have entered into a computer program that allows us to experience what it was like to live in the 21st century. When we 'die' the program has finished and we can then choose another life to live if we wish. Some religions confuse this with reincarnation. Of course we have all experienced what it is to be like if we were kings and great leaders but in the interest of experience we choose to live out the lives of ordinary people as well. The best way to describe it is a very futuristic virtual reality. I hope this helps clear up a few points for you. Well - I have to go now as the pills are taking effect.
P.S. - there is also some mud leaking out of my nose.

Answer 3

You seem like a fairly intelligent person...... I'm amazed that you would actually waste as much energy, time, effort and grey matter as you have on such an insipid issue!!!

You seem to already have the basics of how things work down pretty well, but, if its really real or not??? c'mon!!! From all the nonsense you wrote after your question.... You should have the answer already! YES! Its REAL! How do I know?

Because the ENERGY itself, regardless of its current form or where it came form or where it may go next is real. Not "alive or not"... but REAL. Therefore, all things which that energy makes up is real as well.

Now. Start applying some of your intellect towards something which actually matters and can be helpful both to yourself and the rest of the world! Stop wasting that energy! ;)

Answer 4

Wow...a real thinking and intelligent person showed up here. All I can say is, well, number one, don't ever stop questioning. And believe the answers to your questions are "out there," or "inside" you. Meanwhile, personally, I've had questions like that, too, and I've gotten into Eastern philosophy, quite deeply. Not the airy fairy stuff...but the real deep, for real, stuff. Believe it or not, there is a "spiritual" science to be studied, it's for real and exists for people who really and truly think about deep issues, like who we are and where we came from, where we're going, God, life...everything. Keep your mind and heart open, and the answers will come. Also, in this material world, reality is a relative thing. Just like time is. Things are real, but temporary, and manifested for a certain purpose for a certain length of time. The only thing that is eternal, or is a "spiritual" reality, is you. And you're here in this world temporarily, because of your desires. Try reading some of Deepok Chopra's stuff...he's a real spiritual scientist. I've seen him lecture, and he's amazing.

Answer 5

It isn't provable. Some things we have to take on faith (not the religious kind). Our sensory experiences are innate responses, pre-programmed/hard-wired within the human being. We are interwoven within this 'reality' in such a way that one would need to shut down all sensory responses in a person and then test for your hypothesis. The answer then, I expect, would be that the test subject would experience nothing and when reactivated would have sensory experience again, i.e. reality.
Personally, although the gnostic element of the Matrix was interesting, I have no belief in another reality feeding this experience of reality. I do, however, believe that 'reality' is a communal experience and also an individual one. Thanks.

Answer 6

Read the book of Genesis to see how we were created. Also in the book of Job, Job 38:7 you will read "the morning stars sang together" In leviticus 17:11 you'll read "The life of the flesh is in the blood."

Scientists discovered that sounds come from stars and 3 hundred years ago man discovered that we are fed by the blood as it travels throughout our bodies.

Alot of things such as this were discovered after the bible was written. SO THE BIBLE and SCIENCE AGREE!

what about all the prophecies that have already come true?
read the book of Revelation ans see for yourself.

Have a good day

Answer 7

I like the way morpheus said it: "if reality is what you can see, smell, taste and touch, then reality is just electrical impulses in our brains."

So, with human powers of perception there is no way to really discern the real from the unreal. The only way we can "confirm" the reality of something is to turn to someone and say: "did you see that? was that my imagination?" But that still doesn't prove it.

The people who believe something is real are the ones who have never questioned whether it is or not!

Answer 8

Without an external standard by which you could compare the two, you cannot tell the difference between living in a virtual reality and a physical reality, because any test would be a part of the reality within which you find yourself. The distinction between a virtual and a physical reality would be meaningless. It would be simply your reality.
A more meaningful question is whether it matters to you whether your reality is virtual or physical, and if it does, then why.

Answer 9

This is based on the famous "brain in a vat" conundrum. Or what was answered by Descartes in his Cogito Ergo Sum. Dude, it is real to us because we die when we ignore what we see, feel, taste and so forth. And even if these are programmed responses, it makes no difference because you will die if you jump off a skyscraper and then you will not be able to ask such sophomoric philosophical questions that have no pragmatic application. We accept it as real based on the fact that if we ignore it we would be dead.

Answer 10

You sound like an American. I don't know why, I just get that feeling. Therefore, I will say to you, DON'T pay your utilities! Watch how real it is when they switch off this and that. I saw a documentary about Detroit and people there who could not afford to pay their water rates. The privatised water company just cut them off. Finito - no water. To ensure that they could not tap into the pipelines, they cemented the part of the line that led into the houses that would not pay. I heard there were marches about it but I haven't heard the outcome.
There were people whose grandchildren were living with them but who would soon be taken into care because, without the utililities, the premises would not be fit enough for children to be reared in. Is this virtual? Get real, Sunshine!

Answer 11

Since our perception is nothing more than a collection of interpretations of our senses, there is no telling.

We believe what our senses are telling us, even when they may be inaccurate (as in the case of optical illusions).

If we do live in a virtual world, that would imply all stimuli is controlled, and we are given a censored version of reality. So, would the "controller" allow the concept of the matrix to exist? I know I wouldn't.