system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Would ethics/morality exist in a universe with only a single mind?

Several of my friends are philosophy majors, and they often have discussions on morality and ethics that go a bit over my head. They all seem to hold what is a guess a “realist” position, that ethical truths in some sense exist, and argue whether the “correct” view of ethics is deontological, consequentialist, or some form of virtue ethics.

I do not feel qualified to participate in these arguments, but one thing that has always struck me a bit when considering whether ethics exist is the question of whether its existence is merely contingent on the universe being as we know it - with many interacting minds each with their own wants and needs.

If the universe contained only a single mind, or several minds which agreed with each other on every issue (a sort of hive mind, I guess), would ethics still be a coherent concept? Does this depend on precisely what form of ethics you hold to be true? Does ethics require disagreement?

Put another way, could a being trapped in a box for the rest of time ever be considered ethically “good” or “bad”?
gpt
I just want to let you know that you shouldn’t be afraid to share these sorts of thoughts with your friends or to feel less than or anything. This is a great question that I’m sure your friends would love to talk about with you. Sometimes all that’s really needed for philosophy is a little skepticism and  the refusal to agree with what everyone else seems to assume without question. Questioning those assumptions is often philosophically rewarding for all parties involved.