what if everything you know from the
people you love to the activities you do
and even your very own body and mind is
part of an expansive and immersive
illusion to fool you and everyone else
about reality as we found out in
previous videos scientists are now
increasingly convinced that there's more
to this universe than just this universe
and the consideration of multiple
universes in one way or another is now
par for the course for most theoretical
thinkers but meanwhile humanity has
witnessed so many great advances in the
field of computing over the last century
or so enabling us to create massive and
simulated worlds of our own in the name
of entertainment gaming virtual reality
and ai could it ever be possible then
that we aren't just building these
worlds but are actually living in one
ourselves this is unveiled and today
we're answering the extraordinary
question are we living in a simulated
multiverse do you need the big questions
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the concept of a simulated reality has
perhaps a surprisingly long history it
was first seriously thought on by french
philosopher rene descartes in the 17th
century among many things descartes
imagined an evil demon figure using a
great and ominous power to deceive
unsuspecting humans by projecting a kind
of unreal reality a modern take on
descartes evil demon argument has since
been formulated by the oxford
philosopher nick bustrom in his 2003
paper on what's now known as the
simulation hypothesis the premise behind
boostrom's hypothesis is that all of
reality could be an artificial sim most
likely run by an advanced super computer
or civilization in pop culture the 1999
movie the matrix offers perhaps the most
famous use of this idea where humans
live in an artificially constructed
world run by highly advanced machines
but putting while blockbuster
imagination aside could this really be
what's happening to us right now
well it depends any civilization capable
of running such a sim must first have
reached a level of technological
advancement enabling them to create one
remember we're talking total control
here over everything from the smallest
atom to the largest galaxy and to apply
all that to the multiverse model the sim
controllers would need to have built a
kind of endless loop into their system
too
to generate all of the infinite
possibilities of multiple realities such
a civilization would also need to have
generated a convincing means of
simulated consciousness however to match
natural genuine consciousness so that
inhabitants of the sim in this case us
remain totally unsuspecting the idea
entirely depends then on whether such an
advanced and capable civilization could
ever exist but a simulated multiverse
has certainly been theorized before
including as part of the theoretical
physicist brian greene's nine multiverse
types so what would a sim multiverse
actually mean
well the advanced civilizations needed
to run them would firstly require access
to enormous amounts of computational
resources in their world the real world
some possibilities for obtaining this
include the building of a civilization
that's based on nano machines spreading
out forever or on giant megastructures
like metroska machines where the entire
energy output of a star is harvested to
power a stellar computer pool all of
that power together into one single
spectacular generator machine and a
custom-built multiverse might be
possible in theory although of course
that multiverse could never truly
encapsulate all of reality seeing as the
controllers themselves would exist
outside of it it places a different
slant on the overall idea however
wherein humanity the universe and all of
reality as we know it exists as just one
simulation among potentially millions of
others much as with various simulator
video games in our world everything we
know and can ever know could then exist
on some disk somewhere or as part of
some kind of expansion pack which is a
pretty frightening thought especially if
that disc were ever to get lost or
scratched or snapped or thrown away it's
a somewhat outlandish way to view life
certainly but thanks in part to our own
rapid technological advancements in the
past few decades support for the
simulation hypothesis in general has
mounted in recent years including
famously from neil degrasse tyson and
elon musk physicists generally interpret
the simulation hypothesis by viewing the
universe as a flow of information as
opposed to energy this shift was
particularly pushed by a one john
wheeler a pioneer of quantum computing
in the late 1970s in almost all models
though reality true reality needs to
exist as though on another higher level
a different dimension or a different
plane of existence it's only from there
that this sim our world could possibly
be born although there are various down
the rabbit hole theories to propose that
actually a sim might be possible on our
level too so that we end up with
simulated realities inside simulated
realities and on and on forever clearly
if this is true it's pretty advanced
stuff down here though on the ground so
to speak we know that there are endless
mysteries and inconsistencies about our
reality that could quite simply be
explained away if we just blamed it on
the controllers of the sim the many
wonders of quantum mechanics especially
would begin to look different from our
point of view for example in one version
of the multiverse all moments of choice
or chance even at the quantum level are
actually the genesis for another new
timeline and therefore another world
this is already an eerie thought but in
a simulated hypothesis it begins to take
on a different meaning now those quantum
splits are controlled by whatever runs
the sim in a similar way as to how we
press buttons to make even tiny choices
for characters in video game sims today
perhaps more so than with any other
multiverse model the simulated
multiverse certainly does require some
sort of higher power you might call it
god to make it work if we were to accept
the simulated multiverse then how should
we go about our lives with that
knowledge one suggestion might be to
strive for greater heights in this world
as we understand it to better our
position and therefore to lessen the
likelihood of ourselves getting turned
off it's an idea that's been mused by
amongst others the economist robin
hansen but it's an approach that could
also inevitably lead to a selfish
existence for all where our personal
wants and goals would trump everything
else and perhaps that particular reality
wouldn't function all that well for all
that long before chaos took hold
another aspect to consider is should we
even be trying to prove a simulated
reality at all if indeed that is what
we're living in according to some
interpretations of the model this could
spell instant trouble the idea being
that if we were to somehow know the sim
was true then that act of knowing could
either end our simulated existence or
crash the simulation itself in other
words we may have effectively completed
the game or corrupted it which in either
case would result in game over but
finally to be clear the simulated
multiverse is still an idea only there
is very little beyond our own
imaginative theories that we can use to
support the view as a true way of the
world the simulation hypothesis in
general isn't without its fair share of
skeptics or detractors either for one
the harvard physicist lisa randle has
continually rallied against the idea one
argument against the simulation might
also boil down to the notion that humans
are inherently motivated by
self-interest but rather than this being
a strategy to survive a simulated
reality we could ask why a higher
species would bother simulating us in
the first place if you had all that
power would you remake humans in the
21st century or would you do something
else there have been various studies too
to show how completely and extremely
difficult it would be to simulate even a
tiny tiny part of this reality of course
on the flip side of that if the
simulated multiverse were true then it
probably would appear impossible from
our lonely perspective and position
ultimately then it's a question of what
we're capable of and what anything is
capable of as we move through the 21st
century our computing powers are
predicted to increase so that within
just one generation's time humans will
look back at today and wonder how the
heck we ever got anything done but even
so there are giant strides between that
and becoming a next level civilization
with the multiverse in the palm of its
hand if no civilization or group has
ever made that jump then no we aren't
living in a simulated multiverse but if
such a power is ever achievable then in
a universe or multiverse with infinite
possibilities perhaps there is something
out there that's guiding our every move
maybe what do you think is there
anything we missed let us know in the
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