The Limits of this World

My position as the up and coming lord of darkness does not often allow me the luxury of free time. The responsibilities bequeathed unto me by this world are great in number, and greater in arduousness. In these fleeting, ephemeral moments that seem to come and go like the pappus of a dandelion in the wind, I find myself partaking in the refined, yet comforting texts that can only be found within the contents of a visual novel. Eh? What's that? "A visual novel can hardly be described as 'refined'?" It's clear that you have a terribly long journey in front of you, on your path to enlightenment. Perhaps when you find me at the end of it, I'll offer you but one, opulent chance to apologize to your future lord. That is, if I haven't already overthrown that "father" of mine... Kuhuhuhu... 

Ah, it appears as though I have lost my train of thought. I hardly have the opportunity to daydream, tantalizing though the activity may seem... Returning to the topic at hand, the visual novel that I have been reading is none other than Subarashiki Hibi. "Wonderful Everyday," as it's known outside of its mother tongue. I've just completed the arc known as "Down The Rabbit-Hole II," which serves as the second chapter to the novel. Many philosophical ideas are examined in this tale, which you should know piques my interest by more than a scant margin. 

Of all the cogitations explored in the novel, the concept that most intrigues me is the idea of Worlds. The character Ayana considers the idea that the world may be demarcated into an external world, that which you can analyze with your senses, that cannot be defined with mere language, and an internal world, the result of sensing that external world, what you process with language. This alone is fascinating, but the concept becomes ever more thought provoking when viewed through a lens of solipsism - the belief that the self is all that can exist. If the internal world is the result of how we process the world, then how can we be sure that the external world truly exists? By definition, it is impossible to understand the external world itself, as any attempt to do some becomes an understanding of our internal world. For example, if you were to see a lemon in the external world, sensors in your eyes would relay the information of "yellow" to your brain in the process of sight. It is only within the internal world that we can process this sensory information as "yellow." However, if something in the external world were to trick your mind into merely believing that you were seeing the color yellow, you would be none the wiser. Though the factors of the external world are different, the result within our internal worlds are the same. If we follow this train of thought, then that means the internal world, otherwise known as our own minds, are all that we can know exist for sure. It's possible that the external world doesn't exist at all, as we can never truly process it. This becomes troubling when you consider that other living beings, be they human, animal. angel, or demon, are all factors of the external world as well. How could one know if other lives, other minds, truly exist? How can one know it's not merely a façade, a la the the false lemon from before? 

I believe that is where the matter of faith presents itself in all its effervescence. Even if you cannot prove something to be true, that in and of itself does not mean that it is false. To believe in that which cannot be proven is the very definition of faith. To have faith in that which cannot be proven, in the existence of life other than your own, in the minds of those you can never truly process, is one of humanity's greatest strengths. 

But what if we could obtain proof of the external world? What if we could obtain proof of minds other than our own? Perhaps, a place in this universe exists in which that may be possible. Would it be a place? Or a state of mind? An idea, or an object? Whatever it may be, I hope to one day find it. I would love nothing more than to understand you, if only by an infinitesimally small margin. If I could reach you, if the limit of my world could become the same as your own, it would bring me immense happiness.