Existential asymmetry

Have you ever really thought about how weird it is to be a sentient being in this world? From the moment you were born, you were inculcated with the fact that you are just one of billions.

Yet your entire subjective experience tells you otherwise. You are the only one in your head — from your perspective fully half of the Universe. Everybody else exists to you only as a manifestation of your senses.

It is only your social conditioning that tells you that the evidence of your senses is in fact misleading. You are taught that you and everyone else are, on an existential level, somewhat interchangeable. That, at least, is the operational social construct which allows you to be a functioning member of society.

You could always, of course, go with the clear evidence of your senses and simply say “I am the only one who undeniably exists here.” But that wouldn’t work very well in practice.

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