Cogito Ergo Sum

“I think, therefore I am.” Every human questions their existence at some point or another. This phrase explains that by considering the possibility of being a character in a story, or a virtual avatar, this thought process proves your existence. Not necessarily a physical existence as a human, but the existence of your mind. In today’s society, with the creation of artificial intelligence and virtual worlds and avatars, it is easy to think about the possibility of being an avatar yourself. Or possibly being a character written by an author, like Harold Crick in Stranger than Fiction.

As an avatar in a virtual world, when you’re controller logs out of the virtual world and rejoins their reality, the avatar goes into this frozen state of being until the user logs in again. From personal experience, I have never sat in a frozen state, and therefore I believe that I am not an avatar. The fact that I would remember being stuck because there was no one to control me also helps to prove my mind’s existence. An avatar would have no memory of anything that happened in their life, and since I have a memory, I must not be an avatar.

As a character in a novel or story, I believe your actions would be thought out for you, and that you would have no control over your mind or body. You would have no decision making process. Even if you knew that you were supposed to make the decision, you would be unable to actually choose the option you would like. You would find that you had absolutely no control over your actions because they were being written for you, so you would miss out on things that you really wanted to do, but didn’t have the capability to choose to do. I am able to choose what I do in life, I have my own thought process, I can make decisions for myself, and I run my own life. So it is hard to believe that I could be a character in someone’s story.

Some people would argue with this logic by questioning whether an avatar actually shuts down when we log out, because we have no way of proving that they actually stop. I believe they are incorrect because if there is no driving force behind the lives of the avatar, how would they function? They would have no thoughts, feelings, or impulses to act on, and therefore no movement or action could occur. Some might push the argument further and ask about the artificial intelligence some services use. Artificial intelligence also requires an input from someone, somewhere, and therefore avatars do not live in between periods of user activity.

Although the thought of being an avatar or a character is interesting, I don’t think it’s possible. As according to Descartes, the fact that I am even considering the form of my existence is proof that I do exist, and in my mind, this makes sense. Only an existing being capable of thought would be able to consider their own existence. Therefore, because I have written this response, I must exist.