As I recall, Descartes' path to cogito ergo sum was not particularly solipsistic. He did not see his existence as the existence, as a solipsist would; rather he could only specifically prove his existence (and barely that) and didn't want to overstep his logical boundaries by extending the characteristic of being to others. Retracting it in the first place (starting with nothing) was merely a logical foundation, not a judgment or a conclusion. As for the rest, I have no idea if anything I see is "real." It doesn't matter to me. See ecib's post in the thread about the afterlife -- I can barely grasp that anything exists at all, much less ask whether it exists on the plane that I experience every day. We're all just atoms and photons if you want to look at it that way.