Discuss Philosophical musings here.

How can I prove that you are not puppets being controlled by a malicious demon to screw with me?

Hmmm, an excellant question! However I don't think you'll be very fond of the answer because, you see, just about everyone on this forum IS a puppet controlled by a malicious demon. Does that answer your question adequately?

Yes. A better question is: how do I know that other people that I see every day are not controlled by a malicious demon?

You can try an ancient devil-testing/purging method. Breakdancing usually does the trick.

*Shudder* I'll stick with possessed people, thanks.

I believe what you guys are getting at (also note that one sentence reponses are generally frowned upon in the SSB) is known as Solipsism, Wikipedia will give you a quick rundown if you so desire:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsist

I've given it the thought a few years ago, but that was just general paranoia which I got over rather quickly. Though the idea is both pleasing and, for lack of a better term, lonely. But who knows, maybe there is one true Solipsist somewhere and we're all just subconscious avatars they whipped up when they were 'sleeping'

thats a bit freaky. What kind of freak would think that there mind was the only one that existed. A concieted one, thats what kind.

The idea is fascinating, ZE. It really opens my mind. Or maybe its this bag of grass that I rolled up with paper, tripped over a fire, and then had a strange urge to inhale on.

I've often though that the universe exists many times for every person and all the people in each universe ar auto matons that behave just like their person in annother universe. This renders the whole thing completely pointless but it's a bit of a trip to think about.

Sir.Link, it's not conceited. It is only a viewpoint that says that I cannot prove that any other mind is actually there and functioning similar to mine. For example, you could be just a bot created by a program created by a programmer, as there is no way to prove there is a person actually sitting there typing. An analogy is a puppet show. If a puppet was to gain conciousness and freedom from the puppet master, he would most likely be unable to tell that he is in a puppet show. This represents most people. No matter what the puppet does, he cannot prove that the other puppets are acting out of their own free will, as it is the puppet master controlling them.

Either way, this topic IS getting pretty creepy. The only ways to figure it out are probably to dissect the person ( ), ask them if they're puppets ( ), or breakdance ( ).

I personally wouldn't do any of those. Except maybe the breakdancing. But yeah, you could be the only person in the universe with your own mind. Pretty creepy line of thought we have going in this thread, huh?

Not creepy, just paranoid. Another question: what is it like to be a bat? We might know how we would behave, but what would it feel like? What would it feel like to utilize echolocation?

Why not ask the people who do?

Number 4: http://www.cracked.com/article/114_5-su ... -from-you/
Number 6: http://www.cracked.com/article_16449_7- ... owers.html

Quite different I imagine. Try closing your eyes and just listening. I think that's a small piece of what it feels like.

I think much of the raw information of sound would be processed automatically, similarly to how your brain processes the information from your eyes to create the image of your surroundings.

True, but actually having echolocation would be a surreal experience and most certainly not describable by humans, as we actually cannot hear the sounds that are used.