I suggest the author test reality this way: step off a fifth floor ledge.
If he falls, he has confirmed reality...
Each generation believes they are wiser, smarter, better than the previous because “It’s self-evident!” It has never been true. Indeed, it is often provably untrue. What is funny is that practitioners of the Science of Speculation (Philosophy) like me have been saying this for centuries. The hard sciences are just now catching up.