Do you think us humans are just an experiment by another being from a far away planet?

Yes. They’re a pair of little white lab mice. At least in this dimension.

Yup….we’re a mere ant farm!

I suppose it’s possible.

I’m like eh on this one. I certainly do believe in other beings out there, but stating that other civilizations created us, it’s just hard to see. So, the answer to your question would be: no.

So the whole world is a giant Truman Show?
I do remember some sci-fi show or movie that had this theory, that the Earth was a giant Reality show, I just can’t remember what the name of it was.

Very interesting idea. Makes as much sense to me as a supernatural creation idea.

No. I think we are sentient characters in a software program.

Does it make any difference? If you knew that we were an experiment, would you change the way you behaved one iota? Would you try to be a better person, in hopes you could get some attention from them? Would you try to communicate with them? Would you maybe even see signs everywhere that they were communicating with you?

Life is an experiment, no matter how you look at it. It matters not whether there is a who running the experiment or not. And if there is a who (that Horton heard of), it really doesn’t matter who that Who is. There’s no persuasive evidence to suggest such a thing is true, but you can’t prove it isn’t true either.

These kinds of thought experiments seem to be a phase that people go through. Am I me or am I really a butterfly dreaming I am me? Is there a reality out there, or am I just imagining it? Does it all take place inside my consciousness? Am I real because of some very powerful entity such as your experimenters or such as God, or did I come from processes stemming from the way the universe behaves? If the universe started from the big bang, how did the big bang get started?

If you think about it enough, you realize that whether or not all of this is true or none of it is true, your behavior and the behavior of the universe is extremely unlikely to change. At best, thinking about this stuff helps you learn how to think, and how to carry thought experiments through.

We may or may not perceive much of reality. I doubt if we perceive much of it, but we do perceive enough to get along. To keep beings of our type successfully reproducing. To generate enough free time to conduct thought experiments like this. Personally, I think it’s more interesting to wonder why we carry out thought experiments of this sort, than it is to think about plausible answers to the questions.

If so, he must be pretty disappointed.

@PerryDolia I was just going to say, GA

It’s just as feasible as any other story about human life.

Makes me think of the movie Dark City. You should watch it, that’s exactly what it’s about! It’s kind of freaky to think about it. And scary.

It’s certainly in the realm of possibility.

Whether it’s aliens on another planet, God on another spiritual plane or a programmer running this world as a simulation, the objective seems to be something long the lines of “what will happen? what will they do?”

I take this as a call to arms to be the best I can at being me and doing what’s best for those around me.

I’d say it’s about time somebody came to clean the cage.

I’ve met some online who most definitely are.

I read in the NY times that there is a 20% chance that we are all just a bunch of neurons in a computer simulation made by a higher intelligence. So . . . God does exist?

I thought about this when I was a kid and saw the Truman show. It’s possible. Unlikely, just like religion, but possible.

@ShanEnri- Dark City is in my top ten list of favorite movies.

There’s no evidence to support that.

Sure there is. It’s in my DVD player right now. Come look.

Don’t know about far away planets.
The federal government probes my butt often enough.

It’s pinky.. it’s pinky and the brain brain brain brain..

I think the evidence for human development here on Earth via natural selection and evolution is strong enough to discount any type of panspermia.

No, but I’ve often thought that either
a) we’re part of a galaxy that’s part of a universe that’s part of a vast and infinite multiverse, that’s nothing more than a bubble in a test tube of a giant scientist (each of his fingers millions of lightyears long), or
b) what we consider as “life” is nothing more than a dream. We have come here willingly to live this experience (perhaps even planned it) and the universe revolves around us individually. One we’ll wake up to find ourselves in the body of that giant with the million-light-year long fingers.

42?

No. Why would anyone even entertain that idea? Just because someone can say something doesn’t mean it’s got legitimacy.

It has just about as much legitimacy as every other “How did we end up on this rock?” theory (That is to say, they all have no legitimacy).

Read Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke, the answer lies there. =)

Is very improbable because if you create life somewhere probably you want to see how it ends up so our ’‘creator’’ should live billions of years otherwise I don’t see any reason to create life on Terra(maybe just space colonization would be a reason).

In my opinion if you want to create life just for studying,it’s best to do it in an artificial environment(like a big sphere with an artificial universe inside) where time is dilating thousands times faster so that you could observe everything during your lifetime.

Now probably you’ll ask ’‘How do we know that we don’t live in an artificial universe?’’
Well we can’t know for sure butt I think that if we lived in an artificial universe,probably that universe would be influenced by exterior factors from the real universe like gravitation of nearby corps and more important:how do they observe us without introducing light from the outside.And as far as I know the current laws of physics can explain what’s happening in the universe and no human has find inexplicable source of light,particles or gravitation so this makes me think that we don’t live in an artificial universe.

Or I might be totally wrong and the one who create us has find a way to isolate us from his universe and at the same time he can observe us.Butt this seems highly improbable because I think that a total isolation means that he can’t observe us.

You might find this interesting:

From Wikipedia: The zoo hypothesis is one of a number of suggestions that have been advanced in response to the Fermi paradox, regarding the apparent absence of evidence in support of the existence of advanced extraterrestrial life. According to this hypothesis, aliens would generally avoid making their presence known to humanity, or avoid exerting an influence on human development, somewhat akin to zookeepers observing animals in a zoo. Adherents of the hypothesis consider that Earth and humans are being secretly surveyed using equipment located on Earth or elsewhere in the solar system which relays information back to the observers. It is also suggested that overt contact will eventually be made with humanity once humans reach a certain level of development.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoo_hypothesis

@AstroChuck mine too!

We live on a planet-sized super computer. 42!!!

@benjaminlevi It had to be The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

I think it’s possible that some passerbys dropped us off to see how we would develop. On top of that, it’s even more possible that because the Earth is so old, this human existence is not the first in history, there have probably been multiple evolutions of the human race. Just look at the moon for example, there are structures there, what took place in 1969 was not the first time someone from Earth set foot on the moon.

@Eastender42- I’ll have whatever you’re having.

I agree with @AstroChuck… We’re all sentient Sims in a computer game on God’s Playstation…

Yeah, I hate it when his mom comes by and pulls the plug, so he can do his homework.

@RocketGuy – That’s what we experience as Deja Vu and memory lapses…

in a way yes. God is experimenting with us, he is testing us.

I’ve sometimes wondered if humans haven’t evolved on some other plant in the galaxy, or even in another galaxy, and when they discovered that manned interstellar space travel and/or colonizing other worlds is neigh impossible, sent out “probes” shotgun style to inject their DNA into whatever life-bearing planets they happen to crash into and force humans to evolve from the native fauna there…

Yep, first 6 mile wide probes to get rid of the dinosaurs and other pesky native life. Then the human DNA probes to seed the desired fauna.

Exactly

Check out a book called Urantia. It says the earth is a prison for undesirable imortal souls. Their memories are erased and through reincarnation contained on this planet, far from the galactic federation. It is an interesting theory.

Hey guys! Hows it going? I am the one of those creator beings- just patrolling the planet carrying out an audit of this experiment no. 45A2D- yeah there are millions of other experimental worlds too!
What? is there any cheat code to get through successfully through this experiment? oh yes there is- come close and i shall whisper it into your ears-
make sure you value the present moment , and live with love, peace and fun ofcourse