is reality real??? can it be confirmed that things can and do actually materially exist, and that everything isn't just like a giant video game like 'The Sims'? how could we ever tell if something was ever telling us to do something, like in a game??? building on that, could there also be no 'free will' if so?
or that the mind isn't just some kind of independent, super AI and maybe one of us is the player, and everyone else the AI O_O. would that be possible to distinguish?
The person may be real and concrete, nevertheless the environment around him the way he imagines it in his head, is almost always intangible and nonrepresentational. That cosmos is more perceived than real. The Perceptions prescribe how something a person believes in, becomes his or her 'reality', regardless of the truth. Imagination is potentially "real".
Afterall, what the mind perceives is the information that is given to the CNS from the many sensory nerves in the body. Smell of what we are smelling. Sound of what we are hearing. Light of what we are seeing. Logic of what we are perceiving.
I liked how Dawkins put it in one of his books, that everything we perceive has already gone through and been deciphered by our brain, making all we see and hear and so on some kind of simulation. I mean, hit with your hand hard on the table, and you probably will find it hard to accept that the table, as every matter, is made out mostly of empty space. Or in other words: we don't perceive the world in a purely objective way, far from that. Which doesn't mean we're in a video game. On the matter of free will, well, depends on who you talk to. A determinist will say there is none, I would say there is since I don't think every thing is deterministic; most things, but not all. Also, we personally perceive our actions and decisions as 'free', because that's the way we perceive things. Why bother how it really is since we will always perceive it the same way? Talking yourself into thinking free will is an illusion only will get you depressive.
Before we or anyone can begin to think about your question, you need to answer two questions:
1) What do you mean by reality? Are you talking about some metaphysical concept, or just the stuff around that we perceive? Are you talking about our perception of reality, or how it is intrinsically? 2) What do you mean by real? Are you asking if it's "actually like" how we perceive it? Or are you asking if there are actual objects that correspond to our senses, that would continue to exist even if we didn't?
can it be confirmed that things can and do actually materially exist
Not scientifically. This is a major supposition that nearly all the sciences must make. They must assume that the real world exists and that it's pretty much how we perceive it.
and that everything isn't just like a giant video game like 'The Sims'? how could we ever tell if something was ever telling us to do something, like in a game??? building on that, could there also be no 'free will' if so?
If we were video game characters, then presumably there would still be free will - it's just that we wouldn't have any. Instead, whoever is controlling us would have free will (maybe).
or that the mind isn't just some kind of independent, super AI and maybe one of us is the player, and everyone else the AI O_O. would that be possible to distinguish?
Heh, it's your thought experiment, so do you want them to be distinguishable?
I wonder though. Suppose we are complex simulations run by computers, only programmed to think we are actually making choices. How is it that we are able to prove things like the incompleteness of arithmetic? How are we even able to consider the implications of proofs like these? We have proven that computers can't think like we do. Does that show that we are not, in fact, computer simulations?
kill yourself now, avoid the countless years of therapy and an eventual psychiatric breakdown from trying to realize the meaning and/or origin of everything/anything. just ride the ride baby, don't question why its moving!!
If you want to learn some theories or just want some general argument winners research: Allegory of the cave, brain-in-a-vat, cogito ergo sum, etc. These should lead you on your path to glory.
