this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2026
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Asklemmy

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[โ€“] RoddyStiggs@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yes. You aren't the main character of reality.

[โ€“] pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

Obviously they're not, because I am.

[โ€“] Abyssian@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

I'm not aware of anything that does.

Physical things exist, and will continue to exist. Energy is not created or destroyed, only converted.

Abstract things may come and go. Thoughts and ideas, understandings, etc...

Math and language are constructs we created to better understand and describe the world around us, and when the last human dies, so may all our amassed understandings.

[โ€“] instantnudel@feddit.org 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Classical question. Heard it often. I mean, yes without someone being aware we can't prove the existence of it. But I think this is a really human self centered world view. The earth existed for millions of years even before we or any other animal was aware of it. I mean we can prove that now later. Yes this prove now also only exists thanks to someone being aware. But it shows to the past to something that was there already even without it.

I don't think the Universe cares. It was before us, it will be after us. Yes we have no prove while we are gone, but the Universe doesn't care.

[โ€“] chirayu_alias@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 days ago

Ok, new question: can something exist if there is, was, and will be, nothing or no one that is/was/will be aware of its existence?

Note my definition of being aware here: if that something can be illuminated, photons are "aware" of it. If it can fall freely, gravitational fields are "aware" of it.

[โ€“] marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today 34 points 3 days ago (1 children)

No, things outside the player's field of view are unloaded to save memory, obviously.

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[โ€“] Mikina@programming.dev 36 points 3 days ago (3 children)

People were dying en-masse because you had doctors not washing their hands when moving from autopsies to giving birth.

No one was aware about the germs that are causing this. It still killed people.

This is true for most of the early medicine/illneses/hygiene, this was just an example I remember. Especially in regards to germs and bacteries, the humanity wasn't even close to getting it right.

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[โ€“] sangeteria@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

Girl, go read some Enlightenment philosophy, why're you askin us ๐Ÿ˜ญ๐Ÿ˜ญ๐Ÿ˜ญ

[โ€“] plutopos@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 days ago

By definition, we don't know

[โ€“] Fleur_@aussie.zone 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Write your definition for "things" and that'll answer your question for you.

[โ€“] BenLeMan@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (3 children)

This is the correct answer. It seems like matter and energy exist regardless of our attentions but the rest comes down to ontology. What is a thing? How does it come into being? How does it cease to be?

Next, ask yourself "do things need to be made of matter and/or energy to exist?" What about Mickey Mouse?

Then you move on to questions like "does a piece of art exist if nobody has ever witnessed it?"

And finally, the psychiatric ward. ๐Ÿ˜œ

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[โ€“] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 11 points 3 days ago

Yes, they necessarily do.

[โ€“] luthis@lemmy.nz 14 points 3 days ago (7 children)

Obviously, yes. But now the question is, can you be aware of things that don't exist?

[โ€“] ILikeToMeow@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 days ago

As fiction exists but describes things that may not exist, I think the answer is also yes.

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[โ€“] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

No. There is always at least one observer.

[โ€“] kalkulat@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Animals are sometimes declared 'extinct' (no one is aware of any living examples) while they still exist (sometimes for decades).

Until 1967, noone was aware of the existence of gamma-ray bursts, the result of the biggest explosions in the universe. The bursts were only visible to specialized satellites.

Right now, people are suffering from diseases caused by unknown viruses.

[โ€“] agent_nycto@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Yeah we find new bugs and animals and plants all the time. We find new planets. Stuff doesn't pop onto existence once we find it.

[โ€“] lonefighter@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Well I exist, despite it seeming that no one else in the world is aware of my existence.

[โ€“] Amro@piefed.social 3 points 3 days ago

You're ruining it.

did neptune exist before somebody looked at it?

[โ€“] gointhefridge@lemmy.zip 8 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Yes, my one man black metal project exists and no one knows about it. ๐Ÿฅบ

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[โ€“] cynar@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (10 children)

Object permanence is technically an axiom. The idea that things exist even when we aren't observing them.

There's also a problem with terms, particularly related to quantum mechanics. It uses the term observer. To a layman, that's a person watching. To a scientist its any collection of atoms/fundamental particles that can cause the quantum waveform to collapse.

The results of the axiom are that things do exist when we are not observing them. Our observations don't back propagate to retroactively bring them into existence. We can't prove that however, though it's fundamental to a lot of science making sense (quantum mechanics being the oddball).

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[โ€“] Mantzy81@aussie.zone 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Bacteria and viruses existed for billions of years before humans ever existed and the majority of the time since. Dinosaurs existed before we were aware of them. Lots of things have.

This isn't a very well thought out Shower Thought

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[โ€“] blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 3 days ago (3 children)
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[โ€“] AstroLightz@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Your question is a lot like this thought experiment:

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

Whatever your answer is to the above text can be applied to your question.

[โ€“] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 days ago

Does the pope shit in the woods?

[โ€“] Melobol@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 days ago

Technically they exist.
But do they exist for you if you don't even think of them? Theological/ philosophycal views might say no.
Tho you can still be affected by unkown therefore "non-existent" things.
Nowadays I call "tap to pay" magic. I know the very basic things to go in there - but I couldn't recreate it. Thos is kinda the same tone as your question.

[โ€“] Ephera@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 days ago

The atoms are there for sure, but we could argue, whether it is a thing/object without an animal being aware of it, since it's us that define things to be objects.

The universe doesn't care whether a pile of atoms behind Pluto happens to be chair-shaped. It's only when we look at it, that we declare it an object.

[โ€“] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yes. Because people are not the only observers.

What qualify as observers though? Or, how far divorced from an event counts as unobserved?

If a tree falls in a forest and scares a rabbit which a dog barks at which I hear... is that chain of observation enough to grant existence to the tree?

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Ye no one was aware I existed until my mom went

thought-side-r-1 somethings differentthought-side-r-2 phoenix-think

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