Scientist comes up with theory we could all just be brains kept in a jar living in fake reality
Laura D'Olimpio, who lectures at University of Notre Dame, Australia, suggests we may all be taking part in an experiment by an evil genius
A SCIENTIST has suggested we could all just be brains in jars living in a fake reality created by an evil genius.
Laura D'Olimpio, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Notre Dame Australia, has written about her theory in The Converation, and suggests humans may be taking part in a science experiment.
She puts forward people's brains are being kept alive in a vat of nutrients that sits on a laboratory bench.
In the essay she suggests: "The nerve endings of your brain are connected to a supercomputer that feeds you all the sensations of everyday life. This is why you think you're living a completely normal life.
"Do you still exist? Are you still even 'you'? And is the world as you know it a figment of your imagination or an illusion constructed by this evil scientist?"
And just to add to anyone's confusion she says: "Can you say with absolute certainty that it's not true? Could you prove to someone that you aren't actually a brain in a vat?"
She is not the first to make this suggestion. The philosopher Hilary Putnam said we could all just be brains-in-a-vat in his 1981 book, Reason, Truth and History.
But it was French philosopher René Descartes who originally came up with the idea - saying we were all being controlled in his 1641 Meditations on First Philosophy.
D'Olimpio said: "It is from Descartes that we get classical sceptical queries favoured by philosophers such as: how can we be sure that we are awake right now and not asleep, dreaming?
"To take this challenge to our assumed knowledge further, Descartes imagines there exists an omnipotent, malicious demon that deceives us, leading us to believe we are living our lives when, in fact, reality could be very different to how it appears to us.
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"While such thought experiments might seem glib – and perhaps a little unsettling – they serve a useful purpose."
However,for those who may be horrified of a Matrix style existence really being real - there is one way we can provide proof we really do exist.
D'Olimpio said: "At least we can be sure that we ourselves exist, because every time we doubt that, there must exist an 'I' that is doing the doubting.
"This consolation results in the famous expression cogito ergo sum, or 'I think therefore I am'.
"So, yes, you may well be a brain in a vat and your experience of the world may be a computer simulation programmed by an evil genius. But, rest assured, at least you're thinking."
