here's my theory:
everyone has heard the saying "if a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" i always answered "no" because a sound, by definition, has to have two components: 1) something actually making the noise, and 2) a receptor for the noise (aka someone hearing it). if there was no receptor, it would be akin to me standing alone in a field, throwing a frisbee, and telling people that i'm playing catch.
if you're with me so far (and maybe you're not, maybe you think i'm a total moron) then i will take the above principle one step farther.
what if there was one person in the forest? they confirmed that, yes, there indeed was a sound. a loud crashing sound. that person comes out of the forest, to my house and says, "brian! i was just in a forest and i heard the sound of a crashing tree!" do i believe this person? the whole point of the original question was that, we ASSUME there was a sound, but cannot be sure, because no one was there to hear it. if i take this persons word, then i'm ASSUMING that he's telling the truth, and that the loud crashing sound he heard actually came from the tree falling and not some other source, that the sound was not some auditory hallucination they were experiencing, etc. isn't this just as bad as the original assumption? of course, it's logical to assume these things, but we know what they say about assumptions. so, for these reasons, i have concluded that if i didn't PERSONALLY hear the tree falling, then it didn't make a sound. and even if i did witness the falling tree, how can i be sure i'm not falling prey to the same problems which may have plagued the person reporting to me?
i will continue this line of (possibly flawed) logic. let's remove the trees and crashing sounds and forests, and replace them with EVERY OTHER ASPECT OF LIFE. if two people in china have a conversation about the weather, and no one else was there to hear it, did it really happen? if an elderly woman has a stroke and dies in her apartment in alabama, and no one was there to see her, did it really happen? did anything that i did not personally witness actually occur? or, for that matter, things that i DID witness? if we're not going to base the answers to these questions on assumptions, then the only logical answer is: NO.
ladies and gentlemen, this concludes my presentation on why NONE OF YOU, AND NOTHING ELSE IN THE WORLD ACTUALLY EXISTS.
thank you, and you may now go back to whatever worthless activities you were previously pursuing.
everyone has heard the saying "if a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" i always answered "no" because a sound, by definition, has to have two components: 1) something actually making the noise, and 2) a receptor for the noise (aka someone hearing it). if there was no receptor, it would be akin to me standing alone in a field, throwing a frisbee, and telling people that i'm playing catch.
if you're with me so far (and maybe you're not, maybe you think i'm a total moron) then i will take the above principle one step farther.
what if there was one person in the forest? they confirmed that, yes, there indeed was a sound. a loud crashing sound. that person comes out of the forest, to my house and says, "brian! i was just in a forest and i heard the sound of a crashing tree!" do i believe this person? the whole point of the original question was that, we ASSUME there was a sound, but cannot be sure, because no one was there to hear it. if i take this persons word, then i'm ASSUMING that he's telling the truth, and that the loud crashing sound he heard actually came from the tree falling and not some other source, that the sound was not some auditory hallucination they were experiencing, etc. isn't this just as bad as the original assumption? of course, it's logical to assume these things, but we know what they say about assumptions. so, for these reasons, i have concluded that if i didn't PERSONALLY hear the tree falling, then it didn't make a sound. and even if i did witness the falling tree, how can i be sure i'm not falling prey to the same problems which may have plagued the person reporting to me?
i will continue this line of (possibly flawed) logic. let's remove the trees and crashing sounds and forests, and replace them with EVERY OTHER ASPECT OF LIFE. if two people in china have a conversation about the weather, and no one else was there to hear it, did it really happen? if an elderly woman has a stroke and dies in her apartment in alabama, and no one was there to see her, did it really happen? did anything that i did not personally witness actually occur? or, for that matter, things that i DID witness? if we're not going to base the answers to these questions on assumptions, then the only logical answer is: NO.
ladies and gentlemen, this concludes my presentation on why NONE OF YOU, AND NOTHING ELSE IN THE WORLD ACTUALLY EXISTS.
thank you, and you may now go back to whatever worthless activities you were previously pursuing.
or maybe...
we are all dreaming.
Here is a quote that applies to what you have stated. I doubt that I need to tell you were it came from.
"Have you ever had a dream that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world, and the real world?"
You should check out "The Matrix and Philosophy"
Some of the essays cover your ideas.