Yes. In philosophy class. Descarte I believe. Everything could be an illusion. But I never applied this to physics. More metaphysical.
It's interesting to think about, but I find this sort of thinking leads to a lot of dead ends and rarely any practical experiments or uses in "real life" (or rather the "big illusion" if you prefer).
::update:: oops... the response below for vx220...
As far as time = motion. I see that we have a fundemental difference of opinion that can not be resolved. I feel the universe would exist even if it didn't exist in our minds and that there are potentially portions of the universe which exist forever outside our observation. I believe these loctions are real and experience time without our observation. I believe complete destruction of the earth does not mean the end of universal time... even if we were to be the only life in the universe.
But I see I'm not going to convince you. Your view is as valid as mine. It would be nearly impossible to disprove your argument (or prove mine) in experiment, but now I see where you're coming from.
Holographic storage. Quantum computers. Quantum teleportation. There are plenty of experiments which prove that there is no solid universe, and that the quantum world (the real world), there is non locality. The fact that observation changes information, and the fact that there is proof that distance and seperateness isnt real, and the fact that if you break a hologram theres infinitely smaller holograms, it basically proves the thesis that "matter" is a hologram. We have teleported atoms, in such a way that one atom was in two places at the same time, this is impossible unless there is just one thing under the surface of it all.
As far as time = motion. I see that we have a fundemental difference of opinion that can not be resolved. I feel the universe would exist even if it didn't exist in our minds and that there are potentially portions of the universe which exist forever outside our observation. I believe these loctions are real and experience time without our observation. I believe complete destruction of the earth does not mean the end of universal time... even if we were to be the only life in the universe.
What I said had nothing to do with the earth, or earth based life. I said the universe does not exist outside of divine observation. Just as a quantum particle comes into existance when you observe it, the universe is the same, it only exists because it has cosmic observation in place to maintain the three dimensional structure of matter.
I'm saying that if there were no observers, the material hologram would collapse out of existance back into a singularity, a quantum dot of absolute unity. I'm saying the big bang is the source of all observation, all life, and the spread of energy which is the spread of life and observation, along with design.
I'm saying that the universe cannot and does not exist without energy. I'm saying matter is energy. I'm saying that observation is the universe, and that which cannot be seen, heard, felt, experienced, or observed, ceases to exist, and the only reason anything exists is because it's observeable.
I don't even mean observeable by humans, I'm saying observable by any potential lifeform of the future, or of the past, or of the present, I'm saying any thing which exists must be observable. This is universal law. Very much like the law of life and death.
So if you believe the universe would exist even if you cannot observe it, it's equal to the belief that there is a heaven or hell, even though you have no way of observing it. Quantum entanglement we CAN observe, quantum particles we have seen teleport, morph, and phase into and out of existance with observation. It's basically a fact at this point. The most important quote I can give to explain it all
Our universe is a quantum dot, a singularity, that expands as observation expands. Motion is not real, because the true universe is just a dot, a 2 dimensional dot, or maybe even a 2 dimensional string. This is if you follow string theory.
The reason I prefer a dot is because, at some point there was a big bang, and a singularity, this much is proven, at some point all of us, all of this, we were just a dot of energy, so small and so tight that it was absolute unity of existance, everything was one dot. If consciousness existed within that one dot, we were one person, one being, one consciousness. This was a timeless moment. The creation of the material 3d universe is what caused the creation of the seperateness of existance, distance, change, because you cannot have a 3d universe without the 4d which is change, so you had 1d dot, which became a 2d string/line, which becomes a 3d sphere, which spins in 4d change, in 5d space (infinite distance in all directions, infinite expansion, infinite sizes).
To help you see what I mean, I'll show you an image.
The math
http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/overview.html