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Originally Posted by tomn8er  What is your understanding of how other people fit into subjective reality NightOwlNation? Or anyone for that matter. I'd like to hear a more in-depth explanation of how it makes sense to doubt that other people are conscious, and still regard them as significant human beings as opposed to fake robot-like illusions? |
Okay, I'm not
NightOwlNation but how I deal with this dilemma is through this analogy:
Now has anyone heard of the game, The Sims? If not, the game is about you controlling up to 8 sims (human like creatures) as they go through the motions of every day Sim living and yet aspire to greater Simmish heights.
You design and create your sims. You guide them to riches or ruin or anything in-between. Now when I played the Sims, each Sim had their own special character and their own plans I designed for them. Hopefully, if I didn't lose interest in them they would usually see through to the plans or end up in some pretty interesting places. Just like they would learn, I would learn some stuff too. The Sims were my digital avatars to explore and learn about lifestyles I was always interested in.
Now the Sims are just like us- humans. Behind us humans is an consciousness driving each of us, empowering us and desiring to learn everything there is to know about everything through us. We humans in our physical bodies and special personalities go through the motions of daily living yet also aspire to greater heights of living.
So you see in subjective reality, when Steve says other people are just projections of our beliefs, desires, etc. that includes the body we sit in right now. The consciousness is happily clicking away, learning and learning through us. The other the idea people don't exist is both right and wrong if you consider it like the Sims.
And as for cheat codes... unfortunately pounding in 'rosebud' a thousand times is going to make you a millionaire here, but cheat codes certainly allow us and our sims to experience things more quickly and to our benefit, and to have interesting experiences. So perhaps the cheat codes for us is the IM model, everyone is so used to plodding along, working and saving... and not realising there is a so much smoother and more relaxing method to it all.
However, keep in mind The Sims themselves are rather limited because we haven't mastered true AI or created some wonderful piece of programming that really mimics humans or their situations to the point of scarey.