---
title: "Solipsism · Library · Simulation Hypothesis"
url: https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/solipsism
description: "Solipsism is the view that only your own mind is certain to exist, and that the outside world and other minds might be made up by it."
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
credit: "Ross Allan Dahl, Simulation Hypothesis (simulation-hypothesis.com)"
---

## Epistemology & reality

# Solipsism

Definition

Solipsism is the view that only your own mind is certain to exist, and that the outside world and other minds might be made up by it.

On this site

The Solipsism preset: a single player, with only observed matter rendered. It’s among the cheapest scenarios.

Role in the model

The Solipsism preset is a single player with only observed matter rendered. It’s among the cheapest scenarios. So the universe that fits “only I exist” best is also the cheapest one to run.

Related

[The problem of other minds](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/other-minds)[Skepticism](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/skepticism)[Level of detail (LOD)](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/level-of-detail)

In the trees

[Suppose you are the only one · Ethics](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/trees/ethics?n=x-alone)

## The people behind the terms

14 short pages, one per thinker, each with its matching dial. See also the [reading list](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/reading).

[Plato’s cave](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/plato)[Zhuangzi’s butterfly](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/zhuangzi)[Vasubandhu’s dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/vasubandhu)[Shankara’s māyā](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/shankara)[al-Ghazali’s doubt](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ghazali)[Ibn Arabi’s imagination](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ibn-arabi)[Calderón’s life is a dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/calderon)[Descartes’ demon](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/descartes)[Berkeley’s perceiver](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/berkeley)[Borges’ circular ruins](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/borges)[Nozick’s experience machine](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/nozick)[Putnam’s brain in a vat](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/putnam)[Bostrom’s trilemma](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/bostrom)[Chalmers: virtual worlds are real](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/chalmers)