Consiousness, What is it?

How can you prove that you are just as conscious as another person? While this exact question has been wondered for thousands of years, surprisingly, research in this field only really began during the 1990s.

There is no concrete way to prove this theory so rather than remaining indecisive about this topic many people have come up with ways to think about consciousness or propose an answer.

There are three major beliefs that attribute to this idea of consciousness, solipsism, nihilism, and the simulation hypothesis.

Solipsism is the belief that you can only be sure that you are the only conscious being in the universe. This belief system does encourage good morals however people that believe this or are diagnosed with the condition tend to perceive reality as “fake” because it is separate from their own minds.

Nihilism, while it is more connected to a moralistic approach to reality, the belief usually stems from the idea that nothing we do on this planet matters because either the universe as we know it does not really “exist” or that after we die, that is simply the end, and nothing they do in this life will matter. People who are nihilistic, because they believe that their actions will ultimately not have any consequences, are usually very unempathetic, uncaring, and in most cases, incredibly hostile. They condemn existence and have baseless values.

The simulation hypothesis is fairly new because as technology has evolved in the past few years humans have begun to realize how incredible it can be. This hypothesis states that the humans on this earth are simply computer generated and all of the neurons in your brain, and every atom in the visible universe, boil down to ones and zeroes. This is not completely unreasonable as we have seen ginormous technological advancements in recent years and the growth has become exponential. It's so reasonable in fact that even great thinkers like Elon, musk have spoken out and said that not only is it possible that we are all living in a simulation, it is actually more than likely. Unlike Solipsism, and nihilism, this theory does not promote the idea of pointlessness or singularity, but instead determines that everything you do on this planet does matter and that feelings are real﹙while they are computer-generated).