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mwengler comments on Open Thread for February 11 - 17 - Less Wrong Discussion
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How does solipsism change one's pattern of behavior, compared to other things being alive? I noticed that when you take enlightened self-interest into account, it seems that many behaviors don't change regardless of whether the people around you are sentient or not.
For example, if you steal from your neighbor, you can observe that you run the risk of him catching you, and thus you having to deal with consequences that will be painful or unpleasant. Similarly, assuming you're a healthy person, you have a conscience that makes you feel bad about certain things, even when you get away with them.
Do you think your conscience would cease to bother you if you could know for a fact that there were no other living creatures feeling pain around you? In what other cases does a true solipsistic world make your behavior distinct from a non-solipsistic one?
I'm certainly comfortable with violent fantasy when the roles are acted out. This suggests to me that if I were convinced that certain person-seeming things were not alive, conscious, were not what they seemed that this might tip me in to some violent behaviors. I think at minimum I would experiment with it, try a slap here, a punch there. And where I went from there would depend on how it felt I suppose.
Also I would almost certainly steal more stuff if I was convinced that everything was landscape.
In fantasies you're in total control. Same applies to video games for example. Risk of severe retaliation isn't a real.