The digital age has seen the creation of simulated worlds in video games where anything and everything
is possible.
As technology progresses, so too does the believability of these worlds.
Games may one day become indistinguishable from reality, providing immersive experiences
with lifelike characters.
But is it possible that we’re the equivalent of a video game to someone else?
This is Unveiled and today we’re uncovering the extraordinary reasons why Simulation Theory
might be a reality.
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Questions about the nature of reality have been central to philosophy for thousands of
years.
According to idealism, which rose to prominence in the 19th century, reality is a mental construct,
the product of consciousness.
In the last century or so, the theory has fallen out or favor, eclipsed by materialism.
But the idea that we reality might be illusory, or even a dream, has persisted on the sidelines.
Of these theories, the Simulation Hypothesis might be the most convincing.
In fact, many famed thinkers such as Elon Musk and Neil Degrasse Tyson think it’s
more likely than not.
The hypothesis states that our reality is merely a simulation, something like the Matrix
where everything is code in some type of computer.
Elon Musk is one of the best known proponents of the hypothesis, giving the odds of us being
in “base reality” at one in billions.
But he’s not the only one who gives the idea serious thought.
There are reportedly two tech billionaires already working on a way to break us out of
the simulation.
The hypothesis was first formulated by Nick Bostrom in a 2003 paper entitled, “Are We
Living In A Computer Simulation?”.
Since then, the idea has gained traction with a wide audience.
NASA Scientist Rich Terrile has argued that there’s no reason we can’t eventually
program consciousness into a computer, and that it’s extraordinarily unlikely we’re
not in a simulation.
He considers it a more reasonable hypothesis than believing that self-aware beings such
as ourselves rose from nothing more than a primordial goo.
It’s a hypothesis that isn’t easily knocked down.
If advanced civilizations are able and willing to run such simulations, and run huge numbers
of them, the result would be more simulated minds than real minds.
In other words, most minds would belong to one of the simulated realities, rather than
the single “base reality”.
Of course, this assumes that the reality we live in can be simulated.
But that at least seems possible.
Matter, for example, is finite, and can be broken down into discrete units - with subatomic
particles analogous to pixels in a video game.
It might even soon be possible to code minds.
In 2015 an international team of researchers was able to digitally recreate part of a rat’s
brain.
If it’s possible to upload entire brains, a concept called mind uploading, then how
do we know that they haven’t been already?
And that our own brains aren’t really uploads, living in a simulated reality?
There’s some physical evidence in favor of the hypothesis too.
For one, at the quantum level, phenomena exist in a superposition of different states until
measured - what’s known as the Observer Effect.
It’s been argued that this could be a way to save memory or processing power, “rendering”
reality only when it’s observed.
Our DNA, too, is eerily similar to computer code.
In fact, in 2017 a team of researchers at the University of Washington embedded actual
computer code in a physical strand of DNA, highlighting just how similar the two may
be.
In addition, Theoretical physicist James Gates claims to have identified computer code in
a form of string theory, the closest theory to everything that we currently have.
For some, the simulation hypothesis is also a more satisfactory explanation for so-called
supernatural activity, as it can be put down to glitches in the program.
Ghosts, for example, could be representations of past lives that accidentally become visible.
If we ARE living in a simulation, can we ever escape?
Well, aliens might provide a clue to that question.
With the sheer number of planets in the cosmos and the staggering amount of time that the
universe has existed, why haven’t we observed intelligent extraterrestrial life?
This is known as the Fermi Paradox, and one potential explanation is that when civilizations
become advanced enough, they learn to escape the simulation we all live in.
Meaning that aliens did exist in our universe once upon a time, but were able to escape
before we came along.
Our ultimate fate may be to learn how to escape our virtual prison and experience the real
outer world.
Then again, why would anyone create a simulation like ours in the first place?
One hypothesis is that our future descendants created us in a simulation to see how we evolved
and to potentially recreate the past by programming the same boundaries of reality.
This is called an Ancestor Simulation.
Another idea posits that we were created to solve a difficult problem that our programmers
don’t have enough time to figure out.
This could potentially be climate change, as it’s more than likely that an advanced
civilization will initially burn fossil fuels for power and run into the same problems as
us.
If that’s the case, we could be a simulation whose purpose is to solve climate change - a
problem that, unfortunately, we haven’t quite figured out yet.
Or, like video games or movies, perhaps we’re nothing more than entertainment; a reality
show for higher beings to enjoy to escape from their own dull existences.
A technology progresses, we’re looking more and more into the Simulation Hypothesis.
When we do get to the point where our own computer simulations match reality, a possibility
that’s all but ensured in time, we may start escaping to these virtual worlds for more
exciting lives.
At that point, we’ll already be living in simulations for at least some of our lives.
There may even come a time when people go to work in simulations instead of physically
travelling to their jobs and end up spending a majority of their lives in a virtual reality.
It’s no stretch to think that since it may one day be possible, we could already be living
in one.
And as our knowledge of science grows, we may be able to mathematically prove once and
for all that everything we’ve ever known has been nothing more than code programmed
into a higher being’s computer.
And that’s Why Simulation Theory Might Be A Reality.
What do you think?
Is there anything we missed?
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