"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." --PKD

If the Earth were destroyed in some sort of cataclysmic event and all humans were gone, what would remain? What would still be true about the universe?

To put it another way, if we are not the only scientifically capable species, would a different species discover different physics? How different? Would there be at least some ideas that overlap?

These topics get explored in science fiction. Carl Sagan and James Burke also wrote quite a bit about how humans discover new ideas and suddenly the universe changes.

But if you think these ideas are so abstract as to be meaningless, then there is no question to pose, and nothing to discuss.

If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.

- Morpheus

define "define"