Late Night Philosophy

The Universe and Perception

I recently read in a philosophy book that there is a theory that the universe never really existed until intelligent and conscious minds existed to perceive it. That does seem a reasonable, if self-centered, statement. The idea is that the universe could not provide proof of its existence to inanimate objects. Without people to perceive it, the universe could have just ceased to exist and then reappeared without anyone caring. Who knows if some really strange stuff happened before intelligent life existed since no one was around to watch it? It also seems to have roots in quantum mechanics. If you never observe something, it can take on multiple states simultaniously until it is observed (Schrodinger's cat). Following that reasoning, before intelligent life the universe could have simultaniously existed and not existed. Also, without anyone to say, "This is right" and 'This is wrong" both extremes of the laws of physics could have existed together at the same time. But to say that the universe did not exist until intelligent life was around to see it? I don't know about that. That's like saying, "A rock does not know it is a rock unless someone says it is a rock" or even going so far to say, "The center of the Earth doesn't exist because I've never seen it". Of course, this whole argument might depend on weather or not intelligent life exists anywhere in the universe at time. So a rock was not really a rock until intelligent life existed billions of light-years away with the potential to perceive it. The potential to perceive something is important. I have never seen much of this planet we inhabit, but I know it to exist because I've seen parts of it on television, heard and read about it on the news, and seen maps of it in books and talked to people from those places. Now, I could be paranoid and say that those are all fakes, frauds and deceptions designed to trick the world, but that would not make any sense. But I trust that those places I have not been truly do exist because I have the potential to go there and see for myself. I can buy a plane, bus, or boat ticket and travel there. Additionally, I can potentially build a spaceship and travel to those places the universe I have not yet been to and perceive those previosuly mentioned rocks. Of course, beleiving something exists is only in your mind, but that is a subject for later debate.

Now, before intelligent life, there was no potential for any inanimate object to be perceived. Even primordial life just interacted with the enviroment, but did not really perceive it in the abstract manner that we do (but as a series of chemical reactions and responces). Of course, if an object is not perceived, with no potential for it to be perceived, then what right did it have to exist or not to exist in the first place? Who was around to say, "that exists" or "that may exist"? So, if the universe may or may not have existed before intelligent life, did it? Well, what is the path of least resistence for the universe to take? I would think that for the universe not to exist would require the least amount of energy (effectively none). Of course, the question is, where did we come from for us to bring the universe into existence? That question spawns ideas of divine creation like Adam and Eve. But as we as a species can see, the human race and the universe have a history far preceding our self-awareness. So I must conclude that the universe did exist in at least one state of existence before intelligent life evolved.

Now, assume that there were multiple universes (not parallel universe, mind you), that existed simultaniously before intelligent life came about to bring one (or more) into existence. Some of those universes would never have yeilded life (intelligent or not), others will have only produced non-sentient life, and others were effectively null (like a null set in math). But one or more of those universes had the potential to produce life at some point. So it also had the potential to be perceived eventually at some point. So that universe and that universe alone truly existed because it had the potential to be seen even though sentient life did not exist at the time.

Also, if one beleives in a God that created the universe, then one can say that this universe was always real since there was always a consciousness aware of the universe's existence even before intelligent life.