Is the world we live in an illusion?

Question

I would like to discuss this in a philosophical skepticism aspect more than spiritual aspect.

It's based on the thoughts emerged after the movie Matrix. Further there is 'Brains in a vat' theory: "It is drawn from the idea, common to many science fiction stories, that a mad scientist might remove a person's brain from the body, suspend it in a vat of life-sustaining liquid, and connect its neurons by wires to a supercomputer which would provide it with electrical impulses identical to those the brain normally receives. According to such stories, the computer would then be simulating a virtual reality (including appropriate responses to the brain's own output) and the person with the "disembodied" brain would continue to have perfectly normal conscious experiences without these being related to objects or events in the real world."

Imagine characters in the computer game "The Sims" could think and feel. Just like this, could our conciousness being designed completely in a world that actually doesn't physically exist?

What do you think on this?

Answer 1

Dude, who the **** really knows.  Think of the oracle (343 Guilty Sparks) from the Halo franchise.  It was designed by the forerunners to do an assigned task and not know anything except for that one task.  Not why it has to be done, only to do it and not ask questions.  If we were programmed like this, then by all means we can only learn what we are capable of learning.

And Wierd Black Dude, nice name.  10 Points for creativity.

Answer 2

Some people believe this is the case, and we live in a tank built by a mad scientist called God.

Others would argue that if the tank occurs automatically from a state of no tank, and that there is nothing but the tank, then the concept of illusion is false, as there is only what is.  In other words - if all there is, is your 'illusion', then it is not an illusion.  It is reality.

Answer 3

I've decided that we're nothing like the Sims because we make our own decisions though if you really want an answer i guess Gods playing with us(not in a bad way) and you'd do the same if

you were the only person in existence.

Answer 4

The world we live in would be an illusion when considering the way we perceive the reference from which we drag out different elements that we put in our words, actions, relationships and motives. Each one of our worlds would be filled and emptied simultaneously. We could say the world we live in is an illusion because of the absence that is needed first to have the structure only. Without the structure, there is no possibility of filling. On the other hand, when the structure is full, there is no possibility of emptying, except by believing that we might be wrong in some way either to believe it is an illusion or to believe it is a reality. What is real is the world I believe in now but on the other hand I accept that on the other way round it is an illusion too. The difference between a machine and a human being lies in the fact that whether an illusion or a reality, the world that a human being structures is never a real world. Human beings can access to illusion, whereas a machine cannot. The question would then be : "What makes a robot human?" Not everyone comes from everything.  

Answer 5

you should ask doctor who.

Answer 6

Nah, life is more like The Truman Show.

Answer 7

Yes.

Answer 8

I understand the Matrix and the Brain in a Vat and all that.

But what it comes down to is simple: if everything is an illusion, WHAT is it an illusion OF?

Kant said the "real reality" was Noumenal, but that we could never know "real reality." So yeah, if you follow that train of logic, of course you will call everything an illusion.

Then there is Eastern Philosophy, some of which says we are all in the Godhead and illusions in God's mind.

Some say that when each of us dies, existence goes with him because everything he knows of existence is LITERALLY an empirical illusion, including the fact that he has sensory feelings. But that begs the question: If he has sensory feelings, if he can wind up in a burn unit near death or have an arm severed in an accident--then what about that is "illusion"?

On the other hand you can disagree with Kant and use your reason to define essences as conceptual, as did Occam (who had to flee the Church on that subject to save his life,) as the Stoic did, as Ayn Rand and many others did. If you do that, then you define "empirical phenomena" as the "real reality," nothing as an illusion which has empirical existence.

Answer 9

i do not understand a word you were saying..... but yes life is only an illusion.... but only to those who see it as one

Answer 10

It depends on how you percieve it. I can go on and on... haha

Answer 11

The brain suspended in fluid remains active and thinks, can draw upon memory from its conscious memory. The subconscious being the imagination and spirit of the brain would not remain. You would have then a brain similar to a computer hard drive with memory able to be activated by emotional responses and produce information on prompt.

Many such experiments are undertaken to further comprehend brain function and excellence. Optimising intellectual potential is accessible however we witness the decline of standards in institutes of education and thereby conclude that the state if not in favour of increasing intellectual quotients of the ordinary person or elected leaders.

The spirit of the brain is the imagination constantly generating new thought processes invoked by interacting with environmental factors. Yes it is possible. If it’s being considered to prolong the life of a mind revered for its potent thought function, then it is highly ill considered and extremely dangerous not to say spiritually and ethically evil.

If such a person were to consent to donate their brain to science then it is entirely the individual’s choice to do so.

Answer 12

I think it,s what you make it.

Answer 13

i dont think so,

the world is really real !

and we can tell the illusion from reality using our brains,

but sometimes we may need a bit of illusion to get motivated in this world

Answer 14

I know i'm really young, and probably not thinking the same way you are, but i reread this a few times and i kind of get the concept (the sims analogy helped, i think lol). But anyways, i think it could be possible. This is kinda off topic but sometimes i think like, what if mirrors are an illusion. My mind thinks in weird and paranoid ways, but sometimes i think like what you see in mirrors is exactly what you think you should see, and what you think you should see, everyone else should see. i know it doesn't make sense, but its just a little thought of mine.

but back to what you were talking about. I do believe it possible because there are many things in the world that we think are fake that are real, and obviously that doesn't apply to everything, but its just a suggestion.

Wow, i'm not really helping here as to why i think it possible, i guess i just do.

But what can a Dreamer do.

Answer 15

i dont know. i've thought about this many times myself. Anyways how would we know the difference if there was a different world out there and the one that we're in is imaginary. it is beyond me and i think it's beyond most people. The ultimate question is if you believe that it is real or if it is simply a figment of your imagination. Or maybe you're in a place like the imaginary world in The Truman Show with Jim Carry. Where all of the things in your world are real but you are being put into fake situations which you think are real situations.  

Answer 16

i am a solipsist

Answer 17

completely.

its the matrix dude. put on your 3d goggles, smoke a blunt.. and enjoy the ride.