Asklemmy

Yes. You aren't the main character of reality.

No, things outside the player's field of view are unloaded to save memory, obviously.

I'm not aware of anything that does.

People were dying en-masse because you had doctors not washing their hands when moving from autopsies to giving birth.

No one was aware about the germs that are causing this. It still killed people.

This is true for most of the early medicine/illneses/hygiene, this was just an example I remember. Especially in regards to germs and bacteries, the humanity wasn't even close to getting it right.

Classical question. Heard it often. I mean, yes without someone being aware we can't prove the existence of it. But I think this is a really human self centered world view. The earth existed for millions of years even before we or any other animal was aware of it. I mean we can prove that now later. Yes this prove now also only exists thanks to someone being aware. But it shows to the past to something that was there already even without it.

I don't think the Universe cares. It was before us, it will be after us. Yes we have no prove while we are gone, but the Universe doesn't care.

Physical things exist, and will continue to exist. Energy is not created or destroyed, only converted.

Abstract things may come and go. Thoughts and ideas, understandings, etc...

Math and language are constructs we created to better understand and describe the world around us, and when the last human dies, so may all our amassed understandings.

By definition, we don't know

Write your definition for "things" and that'll answer your question for you.

Obviously, yes. But now the question is, can you be aware of things that don't exist?

Yes, they necessarily do.

Girl, go read some Enlightenment philosophy, why're you askin us 😭😭😭

Animals are sometimes declared 'extinct' (no one is aware of any living examples) while they still exist (sometimes for decades).

Until 1967, noone was aware of the existence of gamma-ray bursts, the result of the biggest explosions in the universe. The bursts were only visible to specialized satellites.

Right now, people are suffering from diseases caused by unknown viruses.

Yes, my one man black metal project exists and no one knows about it. 🥺

Well I exist, despite it seeming that no one else in the world is aware of my existence.

Object permanence is technically an axiom. The idea that things exist even when we aren't observing them.

There's also a problem with terms, particularly related to quantum mechanics. It uses the term observer. To a layman, that's a person watching. To a scientist its any collection of atoms/fundamental particles that can cause the quantum waveform to collapse.

The results of the axiom are that things do exist when we are not observing them. Our observations don't back propagate to retroactively bring them into existence. We can't prove that however, though it's fundamental to a lot of science making sense (quantum mechanics being the oddball).

Bacteria and viruses existed for billions of years before humans ever existed and the majority of the time since. Dinosaurs existed before we were aware of them. Lots of things have.

This isn't a very well thought out Shower Thought

That's solipsism

No. There is always at least one observer.

Of course.

Unless we're in a simulation, and only things you and other characters perceive are rendered.

Yeah we find new bugs and animals and plants all the time. We find new planets. Stuff doesn't pop onto existence once we find it.

Your question is a lot like this thought experiment:

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

Whatever your answer is to the above text can be applied to your question.

Yes. Because people are not the only observers.

What qualify as observers though? Or, how far divorced from an event counts as unobserved?

If a tree falls in a forest and scares a rabbit which a dog barks at which I hear... is that chain of observation enough to grant existence to the tree?

The atoms are there for sure, but we could argue, whether it is a thing/object without an animal being aware of it, since it's us that define things to be objects.

The universe doesn't care whether a pile of atoms behind Pluto happens to be chair-shaped. It's only when we look at it, that we declare it an object.

Technically they exist.
But do they exist for you if you don't even think of them? Theological/ philosophycal views might say no.
Tho you can still be affected by unkown therefore "non-existent" things.
Nowadays I call "tap to pay" magic. I know the very basic things to go in there - but I couldn't recreate it. Thos is kinda the same tone as your question.

I have a similar question: can things exist if they have no physical connection at all to their surroundings? The double slit experiment shows that light seem to be information (if we pretend waves are information) until its forced (by observing) to exist. This works with photons, electrons, neutrons, atoms and even particles. So what if i take a cup and put it in a "magic box" that disconnects it from every "observing" system? Does it vanish? Is it gas if i open that box again?