Is it all your imagination? Are you the only life form in the emptiness of the universe? ?

Question

How can you prove otherwise?

Answer 1

Let us all have another glass of wine and discuss this further.....

Answer 2

If my imagination were that great then I think I'd be better in math.

Answer 3

that would be an awful waste of space if I was all alone.

Answer 4

Look around you...

Answer 5

O MY GOD i used to think the same thing then i realized there were OTHER people in the universe. huh INTERESTING. no but really i once thought i was the only real person in the world and everyone else were complex robots.  

Answer 6

Science.

Pretty sure my imagination didn't dream up cancer or photosynthesis.  

Answer 7

You cannot prove it.  Simple as that.  Go by what you believe, and that is what you live with.

Answer 8

I believe we are not the only life. Look to the vastness of the Universe and still it is beyond humans to even begin to chart it. To every star there is a chance for life, a chance that there is more than just us humans. Humans enveloped in the immeasurable distances of space. There may not be life beyond us but it seems plausible to me that there is.

Answer 9

I can't remember what movie I have heard this quote form, but this is what I can remember:

A woman is talking to a man about proving something.

Woman: Is there a God?

Man: Yes.

Woman: Prove it.

Man: Can you prove to me that you love your father?

Now I figured this kind of related to the subject.

Answer 10

The mind is ones universe wherein one is in full control. Should invasive forces intrude and trespass into the realm of one’s peaceful nirvana, in the guise of adverse thinking and a tormenting presence ridding one of momentary focus, then ones universal imagination is under siege.

I am still the universe, but horrendously polluted by subversive forces wishing to make their presence felt and become a part of that powerful universality. War ensues a battle to regain complete dominance of one’s mental and intellectual domain.

It is the task of most mortals and men in this world. Being invaded or in complete control of this imagination is the difference between clear concise thinking and insanity.

Answer 11

For all intensive purposes you have a point. There is a glitch though. To you, you are real. To me, I am real. Everyone is aware of their own reality, therefore everyone is real to themselves. However, each person is aware only of their own thoughts and feelings and existence, therefore, you can only exist if you are you I suppose.

Answer 12

Oh, philosophy can be so mind bending!

Does that tree in the forest make any noise when it falls down and no one can hear it?  does it actually happen if no one perceives it?

Oy!  no.  I'm pretty sure it is NOT all in my imagination.  I think that would make me Gd, and I know I'm not.

Answer 13

Holy c**p, my imagination is asking me about itself now.  

How dare you, imagination... YOU BROKE THE FOURTH WALL!  I'm not supposed to be consciously aware of this!

~reaches in my ear, and repeatedly jabs you with a q-tip~

Answer 14

If you had my mother-in-law you would realize that your wildest imagination couldn't match it.

Answer 15

Ah, sophistry....

OK, here goes.  If the rest of the universe were all just in my head, and I was really just a brain in a vat somewhere, then how can I account for there being things that I do not know, and for things I can not control?  Simply put, the life I'm living bears no resemblance to what either a regular or lucid dream should be like.

Also, if I _were_ just a brain in a vat somewhere, then how did I get there?  I couldn't have put myself there any more than a person could perform complicated brain surgery on himself--which I'm pretty sure is what would be required to hook myself up.

The other possibility is that I'm not a brain in a vat, but a god, and the entire universe is just my creation.  Maybe the universe is real and I've put myself into it, or maybe it's all in my head.  But either way, again this raises the question of why there would exist things that I don't know about (I should be omniscient, shouldn't I?) or can't control (I should be omnipotent within my own creation, be it real or imagined).

In short, my being the only sentient being in existence would require a lot of very convoluted reasonings, justifications, what-if's, hand-waiving, and unprovable hypotheticals, to the point that it can very reasonably be ruled out.

Answer 16

i'm real

Answer 17

in a way, yes. the only thing that is real to you is what YOU experience. the only people in your life that matter are the ones that you experience. Everyone else is essentially not real because you don't even know that the exist unless you experience them in some manner. Everything you experience is real to you because you don't know any other way. So dreams are real when you sleep. Your waking life is real when you awake. The funny thing about that is that it is the same way for every single other person on the planet. You only matter to me because you are an experience that I came across. If I didn't come across you, then you wouldn't matter to me and therefore you wouldn't exist to me. So whether or not anyone else exists is a matter of what you experience.

However, I feel like it depends a bit on what you consider imagination. I can certainly tell that a lot of the people I'm around are not being thought up by me because if they were, they would not be doing the things they are doing. So in a sense, my imagination is not making them up. However, they are only existent because my brain experiences them to be.

One of my favorite quotes is "Dreams are only real while they last. Can we say more about life?"

Hopefully that gives a better indication as to what I mean.

Answer 18

You can't. But it is a quite brilliant dream, no?

Answer 19

dont know bout being in the mind but we r all alone in the world even if u are in a crowd u can find something that will pull u out of that crowd or something the crowd could pull out of being a crowd its called power if u think ur alone in this universe ur right u are cause no1 has proven life on the otherside i know what it says in the bible but how do u know its real

Answer 20

If your universe revolves solely around you, then yes, yes you are the only life form.  However if you're open to the relative truth of others, then you can never be alone in the overcrowded, overdrawn "utopia" we call the world.