Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogito,_ergo_sum
French philosopher René Descartes once wrote “cogito ergo sum” which roughly translates to the well known phrase “I think, therefore I am”. However, scientifically, this could be viewed as insubstantial evidence for your existence in the universe and, as we currently have no means of telepathy to directly detect and decode thoughts, the results from the experiment of ‘thinking’ unfortunately cannot be peer-reviewed appropriately.
Is a thought from my brain for a muscle on my face to twitch a large enough thought to demonstrate my existence or do I need to think bigger, broader thoughts like “God, all the food in my fridge is gone off, how could I let this happen?”. This experiment is very vague and ultimately inconclusive. In this article, I will detail some practical and thoughtful experiments I have performed to confirm my existence in the universe that you too can try at home and ease your mind on the existential question of “Am I real?”.
The criteria for these experiments will be (a) measurements of physical quantities/phenomena that relate to the interaction of matter in the universe and (b) thought experiments to perform in your brain relating to physics and the existence of yourself.
Source: https://in.pinterest.com/pin/i-scream-you-scream-even-scientists-scream-for-ice-cream–437412182550349745/
Practical Experiments:
Experiment 1: Am I interacting with gravity?
Interacting with gravity is a pretty good way to start determining if you are real. Matter bends space-time and these curvatures interact and can cause attraction between matter. If you, a small object are near a large enough object, you are greatly attracted towards it. This interaction can be seen through Newton’s law of universal gravitation seen below where an attractive force is generated between two masses and is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
Source: https://blog.ndepend.com/lets-build-a-metric-4-science-and-experiments/ – Newton’s law of universal gravitation equation
There are two ways I am going to determine if I interact with gravity. One will be measuring myself on a mass balance to determine if I have mass and therefore can exert a force on the Earth through gravity. I will then proceed to jump upwards. If I come back down, then an attractive force must exist between me and the Earth and that I have mass and that I exist in the universe. If I continue to float upwards or accelerated into my ceiling, then this does not hold true, I do not have mass and may not exist.
I first weighed myself with a mass balance. I was found to be 102.1kg. So far so good, one aspect of mass confirmed.
I then proceeded to jump up in my room. This was very tense as, were I to not come back down, my life and paradigm of the universe would change forever. Luckily enough, when I jumped up and that moment where I reached the peak of my ascent came, I was relieved to find myself beginning to move back towards the ground. I did hit my head off the my ceiling light which also confirmed my existence through biology in the form of pain (pictured below):
Source: My Phone – Me jumping and hitting the ceiling light
It took roughly 3 frames at 10fps to go from the ceiling lamp to the floor. I am 183cm tall and the light is 211cm above me giving a jump distance of 28cm with the drop distance being the negative of this.
Using the equation below with initial velocity of 0m/s:
Source:https://thescienceandmathszone.com/suvat-equations/ – Displacement due to acceleration and time
Manipulating for a and putting 0.3s in for t
and -0.28m for s, acceleration due to gravity is -6.2m/s^2. This is -3.6m/s^2 off of the experimentally measured value of -9.8m/s^2 and is most likely due to inaccurate time, distance and velocity measurements due to my crude experimental equipment of a phone. However, this experiment confirmed that I indeed have mass and that I am affected by the gravitational pull of the Earth. Give it a try yourself but don’t sue me if you find you are not affected by Earth’s gravity and go flying away to space.
Experiment 2: Does light reflect off of me and mirrors?
One good way to determine if you exist is simply checking the mirror! Photons should bounce off of you, at the mirror (which is a reflective surface), get reflected and enter your pupil. These photons then get converted to an electrical signal in your retina which go to your brain and then you can see yourself. In this experiment, I located a mirror in my house. I then turned on the light and looked at the mirror to see if this phenomenon was real and that photons did interact with me and that I myself could detect them. When I turned on the light, I could in fact see myself and also took a picture of this which also converts light to electrical signals so the photo below is more evidence as to this and my existence. If you do not appear in the mirror if you try this experiment at home, you are either not real, a vampire or transparent. Also check if you turned the light on.
Source: My Phone – Me verifying light reflects off of me onto a mirror then back at me.
Experiment 3: Static Electricity – Can I apply a charge to myself?
The previous experiment verified existence through the electromagnetic spectrum in the form of light but another way is through static electricity itself. In this experiment, I donned a woollen jumper. By vigorously rubbing my hair with the sleeve of the jumper, my hair was ionised due to the friction and the charges had moved to the sleeve. My hair was then attracted to the sleeve and stood on end as pictured below as opposite charges attract. This confirms that I also interact with electrical charges which means I can interact with the universe and should exist. If you do not have hair on your own head, you can try it with your knuckle hair, beard or even potentially find a pet or friend to verify these results.
Source: My Phone – Me verifying my interaction with electric charges through friction.
Thoughtful Experiments:
Experiment 4: Boltzmann Brain
This one is a bit of a head-melter. In this thought experiment, it is put forward that through random fluctuations in the universe due to statistical mechanics, it is more likely for a disembodied brain with complete memories and experiences of living in the universe to be randomly formed than for the entire universe to be formed from fluctuations in entropy. This could mean that you, reader or me could be a Boltzmann Brain just generated with full experience up till now of reading this sentence. This was a theory used to poke fun at theories of cosmology regarding the entropy of the universe but certainly gives a feeling of dread as to whether you do exist. I would recommend to keep living your life as usual and maybe ask a friend if you are a brain, just to be sure.
Source: https://briankoberlein.com/blog/boltzmanns-brain/
Experiment 5: Schrodinger’s Cat
This is one of the most famous thought experiments where a cat is placed in a box with a radioactive source, a Geiger counter and a vial of poison. If the Geiger counter detects the source decaying which is random, it activates a mechanism that breaks the vial of the poison, leading to the untimely demise of the poor cat. The experiment asks that without opening the box, it is uncertain whether the cat is dead or alive and that is in a superposition of states and only by opening the box and observing the state can we determine the outcome. This weaves into quantum mechanics where an observation causes the collapse of a wavefunction, say one of an electron, which can lead to the determination of the position of the electron. One way to recreate this in real life for yourself is to hide in a box yourself and give your friend on the outside a scratch card. If they don’t win, they’ll remain, despondent at their poor luck, if they do win, they will leave to enjoy their newfound fortune and by leaving your box after a certain amount of time, you can determine what state the outside is in and confirm that you are bound by the statistical laws of nature. Unfortunately, superpositions don’t scale up as much to our length scales and is why this is a thought experiment on that scale.
Source: https://theconversation.com/could-schrodingers-cat-exist-in-real-life-our-research-may-provide-the-answer-147752
That concludes our battery of experiments for this article. I hope your brain isn’t too twisted and the existential dread of existence doesn’t weigh heavily on your mind because, if you followed along with the experiments, you’ve verified your existence in relation to physical laws of nature and can sleep soundly in your real bed in the real universe. That is unless you are a physicist whose job is to question the laws of nature, you may have to seek contentment of existence in concrete societal concepts like eating a cake or getting the bus.
Thanks for reading!
[1] briankoberlein.com/blog/boltzmanns-sbrain/ – Boltzmann’s Brain
[2] https://builtin.com/software-engineering-perspectives/schrodingers-cat#:~:text=Schrödinger%27s%20Cat%20is%20a%20famous%20thought%20experiment%20that%20demonstrates%20the,dead%20at%20the%20same%20time. – Schrodinger’s Cat
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