Matter =frozen energy
I know I am responding a little late, but I happened to have almost the exact same debate in my head recently, completely independent of this, then a friend steered me towards this so here I am. Must be a meme goin around…
[QUOTE=Stranger On A Train]
Metaphysical solipsism is an entertaining notion for dorm room bull sessions but, as Bertrand Russell observed, it has no real application or use. The external universe will continue to exist, or not, dependent not one whit whether you are paying it any mind. Any philosophy that states otherwise is built on the undisciplined egocentricism that the philosopher is manifestly important to anyone other than himself.
[/QUOTE]
Really enjoyed this post Stranger. If you could indulge me (I haven’t read much russel), why is this idea so useless? It seems to me that a universe that can’t be observed (and I mean that in the absolute loosest sense) is indistinguishable from a lack of universe altogether. So while sure, all life is wiped from the universe, the planets etc continue to orbit, who really cares if nothing is there to respond to it?
The practical answer, I think, to this thought exercise, lies in abiogenesis . If spontaneous life can occur, than there has to be a universe around which the appropriate conditions can be set up such that it can occur. The universe sounds as good as anything in this regard. So occasional blips in the observing populace would not have too much effect.