Any?
No Proof - No Disproof
You won't be able to argue against this idea. That's like arguing about aliens or god. You could say that it seems unbelievable, after all, you got all your memories, right? And they feel real, everything you remember seems real. The better you remember something the more real it seems, in the end, it's just memories. The thought that these might have come into existence the same time the world came into existence seems absurd and yet it could very much be possible. You have no proof to confirm this. Just like there is no hard evidence on the existence of god or aliens. At the same time, you can't rebut it either. There is no evidence to approve these from not existing. We have the same case without an example.
The Phenomenon's Name
This may be called Last Thursdayism, Omphalos Hypothesis or Five-minute hypothesis. In all of these the basic concept is the same:
- happened some or a specific time ago
- the world came into existence just like it is right now
- we came into existence with all the memories we have
The only thing that differs is the time-span or the story behind.
Omphalos Hypothesis This hypothesis says god created the world several years ago the way it was back then for it to be able to function. If everything is supposed to stay in balance you have to create everything at the same time, right? That's the idea behind it.
Last Thursdayism According to it the world was created last Thursday the way we remember it to be on that day with all the memories of what happened before.
Five-minute hypothesis, in this case, we, the world and everything came to be just five minutes ago with all the memories of what happened before.
Regardless of what the parameters are it's always the same problem. If everything came into existence as it is and you have all these memories it's hard to disprove it.
Trying to Disprove
One attempt that was made, was of someone who had a note from before last Thursday. They said it can't be that they have a note with a date written on it from before last Thursday and remember what they wrote on it.
However, if the note came into existence on Thursday and you were given the memory of it being written by you before Thursday, the attempt already failed.
Conclusion
So what does this all tell us? Like the example of ghosts, god, aliens, demons or this hypothesis, some things can't be proven nor disproven. In these cases, we should stay skeptical. Though in my opinion, it's never a bad idea to give anything a benefit of a doubt. You'll never know and being open to changing your way of thinking is better than being wrong and trying to hide that fact.
By the way, it would be cool to hear your attempts on trying to prove this hypothesis wrong, such a great topic for discussion.
~GreenyNeko, out!
