Does the Universe Exist if We're Not Looking?

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The discussion centers on the philosophical question of whether the universe exists independently of an observer. Participants argue that while the universe may exist without observation, it lacks defined structure and meaning without someone to perceive it. The notion that reality changes based on observation, as seen in quantum mechanics, is acknowledged but deemed not applicable to the universe as a whole. The conversation also touches on the idea that the universe existed before human consciousness, raising questions about the nature of existence itself. Ultimately, the debate explores the relationship between observation and reality, highlighting the complexities of defining the universe.
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Is the universe my own? I mean the whole of it, because I am the observer. If I was not there to observe it, would it exist at all?
 
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I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure I exist whether you are looking at me or not.
 
I guess It would exist, but not as a universe. It would not have any 'thing' in it at all, just undefined masses of undefined unknowable's.
 
!Jon Snow! said:
I guess It would exist, but not as a universe. It would not have any 'thing' in it at all, just undefined masses of undefined unknowable's.

Why? Why would the univese care whether you are looking or not? Did the universe not exist before you were born? If it did not how did you GET here?
 
phinds said:
Why? Why would the univese care whether you are looking or not? Did the universe not exist before you were born? If it did not how did you GET here?


Why would it have the ability to care or not care at all? Of course it existed before I or you were born, but without an intelligent or dumb observer, there was nobody to think of it as a universe or something well-defined at all, with discernable substructure, discernable objects, discernable events or anything. You have the ability to care, to discern, to call something by a name, to grasp and behold. Without you or anything like you, what is the universe really?
 
Yeah this is very interesting to me as well. I understand that electrons are particles when they're being observed and are waves when they're not so in that case somebody observing something can change the nature of reality. I don't think this applies to the universe as a whole though.
 
"You can't see me!" I cried as I covered my eyes.
 
Sorry, but we don't do philosophy here anymore.
 

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