This question is really the 64 million dollar question for philosophers, the real challenge. None, however, have ever been able to answer it. Why? Because no mind has ever expanded enough to fully grasp the truth behind the concept, if there is a truth of course. This means that in this essay I will not be able to prove that I am or am not a brain in a vat. Instead, I would like to look at the probability of either being or not being a brain in vat. When watching movies or reading books about these kinds of situations, the characters go into a depression-mode, a sort of stage in their life where they don’t want to live in a lie.

I can imagine the same thing happening to people, like me, who question their existence in- or outside of their TOK class. But when properly thought about, there is really no point to ending your life for the sake of living in this “lie”, because whoever is behind the creation of this virtual world, obviously, has a purpose for you. Therefore, he/she will not pull the plug on you, which basically means that no matter how much you want or don’t want you will always live in this world until you “die”.

If that is, of course, what we really do!!! The concept of dying brings me to my next point. Do we really die? Or do we instead wake up on the “other side”? I, personally, am an agnostic. In other words, I do not believe in god or a superior being at this point in time, but if it is prove by reason then I am willing to begin believing. If there is a virtual world then there must be someone operating it, someone who controls us. This might not sound like a good thing but it is possible.

Wouldn’t then also be possible that when people die, they end up on the other side and see this being. Not many people have returned to us from the dead with a sound proof but most who come back say that there is “something” else besides just blackness and emptiness. Maybe they see this being? Who knows!!! Personally, I have always believed that there are other beings in the universe. If we are brains in a jar then at least we know that there are other beings in the universe. But if we are not brains in a jar, then it is just lonely us.

I have hoped that there was other life, but if there isn’t then I would be sad because it gives life a sort of lonely sound to it. Of course there are about 6. 5 billion people on this earth. But if we are brains in a jar then those people are just figures of our imagination and don’t really exist. Therefore I think it is assuring to know that there would be other beings controlling me. I can only show you possibilities and not the real truth. Personally, I don’t think we will ever know the truth but then again that is my opinion and it really all comes down to our brains and us.