After Life
Solipsism
After the death of his old friend, Albert Einstein said, “Now Besso has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us … know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
When I was younger, I philosophized that when I die, everything would cease to exist. Years later, I met a Dentist who shared the same philosophy. I was surprised to find out that another human being had those thoughts.
Several months back, I came a crossed an article that stated the theory was a known philosophical theory and had a name. Hastily. I discarded the article. Without writing down the name of the theory.
Later I tried to recall the name of the theory but had forgotten it. Searching for story topics, I decided to do some research on the theory. I came up with two possibilities, biocentrism and solipsism.
Solipsism is the theory that only the self is real, and that the self cannot be aware of anything else except itself. An example of solipsism is the idea that nothing matters except yourself. … (philosophy) The theory that the self is all that exists or that can be proven to exist.
When I die and cease to exist, will the universe still exist if I am not around to perceive it? For this to be true, you would have to be the only entity in the universe, and all else a product of your thinking. It would be like living a dream, the dream seems real because it is real in your mind.
It’s impossible to know for sure.
The universe and everything in it could just be a figment of your imagination.
Alternatively, the explanation is that you exist in the universe and not the other way around, and the universe will still exist without you.
In any case, it’s certainly an unverifiable concept — once you’re dead, the universe can’t let you know if it’s still here or not.
biocentrism explains that the universe only exists because of an individual’s consciousness of it — essentially life and biology are central to reality, which in turn creates the universe; the universe itself does not create life.
“The influences of the senses,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson, “has in most men overpowered the mind to the degree that the walls of space and time have come to look solid, real, and insurmountable; and to speak with levity of these limits in the world is the sign of insanity.”
