A Minor Paradox of Solipsism

Another Perspective on Solipsism, Part 1/2

Preface

Solipsism is a question I’ve been obsessing over since childhood:
If I am the only conscious being in this world, and everyone else is merely a simulation, a script, or an NPC—then can anything I experience truly be called “real”?
There’s still no definitive answer to this question.

But last night, in a moment of deep contemplation, a new paradox occurred to me—
Rather than directly refuting solipsism’s conclusion, it instead challenges the mechanism required to sustain solipsism itself.

The Premise of Solipsism

At its core, solipsism asserts that:

• Only I possess true consciousness;
• Everything external—other people, environments, language, history—is either a construction of my own perception or a simulation orchestrated for me;
• I cannot verify the conscious existence of any “other.”

This line of thought is logically unfalsifiable.
Any attempt at refutation could itself be interpreted as part of the illusion, or pre-programmed input.
But precisely because of this, solipsism often ends up as a kind of philosophical dead-end, isolated and unresolvable.

The Minor Paradox I Propose

While revisiting this topic last night, a paradoxical question emerged:

“If all this is an illusion—then who is maintaining the illusion for me?”

Let’s unpack this:

1. Illusions don’t arise from nothing

The world we perceive is structured, consistent, and follows causal laws.
This illusion is not chaotic like a dream—it’s remarkably coherent and self-sustaining.
If such an illusion exists solely for me, then it demands a mechanism that persistently generates and feeds these perceptions to me.

This mechanism must either be:

• Created by myself (e.g., I am a “true self” in slumber, unaware of the dream), or
• Operated by a higher-level entity—perhaps a simulator, a god, or a conscious system.

2. If such an entity exists…

Then this “simulator” must necessarily possess an existence and consciousness distinct from mine.
It would have to know, design, and maintain the world’s complexity for me.

And here lies the paradox:

❗️“If another conscious entity is simulating the world for me, then I am not the only conscious being.”
→ The “singularity” of solipsism is broken.

In Short: A Contradiction in the Maintenance of Consciousness

This resembles a philosophical version of a “backend maintenance paradox”:

• You claim to be the sole user; all else is illusion.
• But to generate and sustain such a detailed illusion, a backend system is needed.
• If that backend has consciousness—you are no longer alone.
• If it doesn’t—how does it manage such realism, interactivity, consistency, and logic?

I don’t yet have a fully satisfying answer.
But this line of questioning has shaken my certainty in the solipsistic claim of sole consciousness.

Postscript

This piece isn’t a conclusion, but just a record of a mental leap.

Update: If you are interested, there is a follow-up blog on this.