According to the simulation hypothesis, all of reality and the universe is an artificial
computer simulation.
The simulation hypothesis is a legitimate theory often discussed by physicists, cosmologists,
philosophers, and the rest of the scientific community.
Even billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk said we are probably living in a simulation, which
essentially means that the matrix is real, and our existence is one big computer game.
So are we living in a simulation?
That’s the question we’re asking right now on Life’s Biggest Questions.
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Picture this.
You are a sim.
You’re a computer generated character being controlled by an all-powerful being.
Your thoughts, your feelings, your entire existence is essentially a lie, created for
someone elses entertainment.
And the worst part?
You have no clue.
Pretty scary to think about, isn’t it?
There are many works of science fiction that present the idea that we are living in a simulation,
like the Matrix, Neuromancer and Ready Player One.
But the idea is not new, it actually dates back hundreds if not thousands of years.
The Chinese philosopher Master Zhuang, who lived in the 4th century BC, wrote a story
called the butterfly Dream, where he interprets the universe as a thing that changes spontaneously,
controlled by a conscious god.
This is the core concept in Daoism.
The ancient indian religion maya dictates that the universe is a magic show, an illusion
where things appear to be present but are not what they seem.
Even the greeks theorized that dreams within dreams could be possible.
On the Joe Rogan experience podcast, Elon musk said that we are probably living in a
simulation.
He said the universe is 13.8 billion years old.
That’s plenty of time for a complex civilization to develop the systems needed to create a
simulated universe, or many simulated universe.
The idea that we are living in a simulation essentially supports the theory of the multiverse.
Each simulation, or universe, is profoundly more interesting than the original substrate
on which they are running.
Essentially there could be an advanced alien civilization that has the capability of creating
hundreds, thousands or even millions of fake universes, where the inhabitants have no idea.
Neil de Grasse Tyson believes that the odds are 50/50 that our entire existence is a program
on someone elses hard drive.
The more we learn about the universe, the more it becomes apparent that it its based
on mathematical laws.
The Simulation hypothesis would actually be a viable explanation for the fact that we
can’t seem to find any other intelligent life forms in our universe, even though the
laws of probability dictate that the universe is so vast, there must be someone else out
there.
According to Riche Terrile, astronomer and director of the center for evolutionary computation
and Automated designs at Nasa, you can simulate the universe with a series of equations you
can carry around in your pocket, like a video game.
Every element of our universe is computable, they can be understood individually, but also
as a wider mathematical framework that predicts the way the natural world behaves.
Terrile says that if we are currently able to do this, then in the future it could be
entirely possible that we could digitally live within simulations.
Would it really be such a bad thing if our universe were a simulation?
If we were simuated, this could essentially mean that our souls could be reprogrammed
into new bodies.
It opens up the possibility of eternal life.
It would also support the idea of religion.
The complex entity controlling us is essentially God, someone looking out for us.
So, to answer the question, are we living in a simulation?
Well, even though the idea is very compelling, according to a team of theoretical physicists
at Oxford university, the answer is no, its physically impossible.
Essentially, they calculated that in order to store the amount of information required
to create a universe would be impossible.
Storing information about a couple hundred electrons would require a computer memory
that would require more atoms that exist in the universe, let alone store all the electrons
that currently exist in our universe.
The study was published in the journal, scientific advances.
So rest easy, dear subscribers of life’s biggest questions, you, your experiences and
your feelings are very much real, probably.
Then again, if we were living in a simulation, there is no way we would know.
There are many futuroligists that predict that in the future there could be an enourmous
amount of computing power possible that we currently could not comprehend.
The universe in which we live could be a simulation so advanced, and is being controlled by an
entity that’s so advanced, that it’s undetectable to us.
It would essentially be impossible to prove, and to this day, no one has.
What do you think, are we living in a simulation?
Why or why not, write your responses in the comments down below.
For now, I’m charlotte dobre, and you’ve been watching life’s biggest questions,
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