Are we living in a simulation?

[Razor67]

what do you think?

 

[Suicidebydeath]

"I request a rollback." (return my late partner)

It would be incredibly cruel for a simulation. I'd like to punch whomever was in charge.

 

[Razor67]

"I request a rollback." (return my late partner)

It would be incredibly cruel for a simulation. I'd like to punch whomever was in charge.

I hear you. Would like to meet the "architect" and have a few questions… being pretty blunt probably in my comments, to say the least

 

[Julgran]

what do you think?

With the word "simulation", you probably mean a man-made computer simulation, or something similar, right..?

Well, I believe that our consciousness exists on its own, and then our senses are creating some kind of biological "simulation" - meaning that whatever we experience could be faulty, depending on whether we interpret our surroundings correctly, or not. Perhaps I'm straying from the subject, but in short, I'm guessing that we are living in a "simulation" that is the result of external stimuli.

You could compare the above to a video game - the only thing that really exists is the computer code (the consciousness), which then is manifested as a digital world that the computer user can see (the world that we experience with our senses).

 

[whatevs]

This world is definitely fluid and illusory, not to say also controlled and programmed/programmable, but I take issue with the idea of a simulation because it draws too much from the understading of reality 'the simulation' itself is providing. Whatever this hell realm is, it cannot be adequately comprehended using what is now normally understood as a technological phenomenon. I highly doubt things are as simple as 'aliens or us from the future simulating reality for unknown purposes with computers and tech humans could understand'. This all reeks of materialism, and the whole appeal of the 'simulation hypothesis' actually comes from way back, from Gnosticism or Hinduism, belief systems that incorporated metaphysics into the mix, and wouldn't reduce the idea to something materialists can accept.

The basic concept behind all this questioning the realness of reality is that there must be something infinte opposing the finite, something that will never cease to be as opposed to the individual that ages and dies. When one materialistically assumes the 'realer reality' is just some place like this where other beings devised technology and will also die and be forgotten the only thing you are doing is moving the goalpost further. 'Base reality' cannot be a place where finitude or individuality exists. Though I guess there might be more illusory and less illusory realms until then.

So even if we really are simulated by someone you have to ask why do they exist and if they are in base reality. Also, the idea of simulation applies more IMO to the Matrix, like voting for Donald Trump/Joe Biden or getting a booster shot, or even things like the food chain (Nature), but our feelings and desires are very real. So the scenery might be a simulation, but not all the actors. Like Schopenhauer taught, our desires are the only thing that is real. Our desire to exist created the world itself according to him and it makes sense.

For me occultism, psychology and metaphysics are needed, along with some of the solid framework scientific materialism has undoubtedly endowed us with, to actually confront this gigantic subject of 'the world not being fully real'.

 

[Razor67]

With the word "simulation", you probably mean a man-made computer simulation, or something similar, right..?

Well, I believe that our consciousness exists on its own, and then our senses are creating some kind of biological "simulation" - meaning that whatever we experience could be faulty, depending on whether we interpret our surroundings correctly, or not. Perhaps I'm straying from the subject, but in short, I'm guessing that we are living in a "simulation" that is the result of external stimuli.

You could compare the above to a video game - the only thing that really exists is the computer code (the consciousness), which then is manifested as a digital world that the computer user can see (the world that we experience with our senses).

Little bit crazy ideas maybe. It was Created by us and created to see where we went wrong as maybe we destroyed ourselves with nukes or something else and a small group that survived created a simulation of the world from the start to see if they could have prevented this and probably also use time travel or by another highly advanced civilization creating many simulations to see multiple results and getting data for there own benefit. A type 3 or maybe even 4 civilization that would be able to travel everywhere and basically control the universe. Use black holes and millions of starts to harvest energy. Almost like a god like civilization. That had a head start of us in maybe hundreds of millions of years. Pretty sci-fi scenarios

This world is definitely fluid and illusory, not to say also controlled and programmed/programmable, but I take issue with the idea of a simulation because it draws too much from the understading of reality 'the simulation' itself is providing. Whatever this hell realm is, it cannot be adequately comprehended using what is now normally understood as a technological phenomenon. I highly doubt things are as simple as 'aliens or us from the future simulating reality for unknown purposes with computers and tech humans could understand'. This all reeks of materialism, and the whole appeal of the 'simulation hypothesis' actually comes from way back, from Gnosticism or Hinduism, belief systems that incorporated metaphysics into the mix, and wouldn't reduce the idea to something materialists can accept.

The basic concept behind all this questioning the realness of reality is that there must be something infinte opposing the finite, something that will never cease to be as opposed to the individual that ages and dies. When one materialistically assumes the 'realer reality' is just some place like this where other beings devised technology and will also die and be forgotten the only thing you are doing is moving the goalpost further. 'Base reality' cannot be a place where finitude or individuality exists. Though I guess there might be more illusory and less illusory realms until then.

So even if we really are simulated by someone you have to ask why do they exist and if they are in base reality. Also, the idea of simulation applies more IMO to the Matrix, like voting for Donald Trump/Joe Biden or getting a booster shot, or even things like the food chain (Nature), but our feelings and desires are very real. So the scenery might be a simulation, but not all the actors. Like Schopenhauer taught, our desires are the only thing that is real. Our desire to exist created the world itself according to him and it makes sense.

For me occultism, psychology and metaphysics are needed, along with some of the solid framework scientific materialism has undoubtedly endowed us with, to actually confront this gigantic subject of 'the world not being fully real'.

Wow super interesting read and take on this. Thanks for expending my take on this!

 

[jandek]

If reality is a simulation, then what is it simulating?

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

It probably is a simulation, but it's well-designed enough to make it impossible to prove that it is one.

 

[outatime_85]

if-then(-else)

 

[MyChoiceToLeave]

My simulation is completely broken.

 

[Julgran]

Little bit crazy ideas maybe. It was Created by us and created to see where we went wrong as maybe we destroyed ourselves with nukes or something else and a small group that survived created a simulation of the world from the start to see if they could have prevented this and probably also use time travel or by another highly advanced civilization creating many simulations to see multiple results and getting data for there own benefit. A type 3 or maybe even 4 civilization that would be able to travel everywhere and basically control the universe. Use black holes and millions of starts to harvest energy. Almost like a god like civilization. That had a head start of us in maybe hundreds of millions of years. Pretty sci-fi scenarios

Any theory is allowed to be a bit crazy, and we may never know which one is the closest to being correct

If reality is a simulation, then what is it simulating?

This question caught me off guard, in a positive sense, and I got further questions

Sure, we may believe that we are living in a simulation containing everything that we see and our daily behaviours, but how is the simulation perceived from the outside, then...? I mean, did the creators of the simulation succeed in creating what they wanted, or did they fail? Perhaps we are living in a simulation that has been discarded and thrown into the equivalent to the creators' trash can - or maybe they don't even know what this simulation contains, such as trees - or us..... the creators could have tried to simulate water, and then all living creatures were created involuntarily, and now we live here like some kind of bacteria.

 

[Josh007]

If it is, please unplug it.

 

[obafgkm]

If the world is a simulation, that means there is something unknown to be observed. Then the simulator is not the monotheistic God. Our world could be designed and operated by some junior programmers in the real world. But consciousness is probably not bound to only one world. It observes at least a real world and a simulated world. Our consciousness might switch to sense another world, under certain conditions such as death. But any real world could be just as bad as the our simulated one, because they are in some ways alike.

 

[sneezing123]

I feel like a Sims character whose owner got bored with and discarded not long after creating

 

[Deleted member 847]

It doesn't matter
If we live in a simulation, the gods, designers don't care about us
If it's just evolution and the forces of nature giving rise to complex molecular configurations (us),
those forces don't care about us

We lose either way

So why should you care

you're gonna die and cease to exist anyway,
even
worse if we live in a simulation you might live forever as a slave

the programmers will put your consciousness in a bug the next time you respawn.

 

[narval]

I dont know if we are in a simulation or there's something beyond of the reality's fabric.
Nevermind. I am not cappable to "cross the the Frontier", "awake" or "run away". Neither i am cappable of notice the fissures of reality... If there are

If somehow i was out the box , cypher would represent me:

 

[abyss]

I feel like we are either in a simulation or a dreamlike world weaved from beyond the fabric of reality by some sea of consciousness.
I curse the simulation often even if it isn't real.

 

[obafgkm]

I feel like a Sims character whose owner got bored with and discarded not long after creating

I think this might be how a reincarnation is related to a previous life: the player discards a character when it dies, and starts a new one. The new character does not know the old one directly, but its freewill is affected by the player's experience of the previous character. Freewill is actually the player's freewill.

 

[TheDoomedDoomer]

"I request a rollback." (return my late partner)

It would be incredibly cruel for a simulation. I'd like to punch whomever was in charge.

Was just talking about this with someone the other night from this site. I said when I CTB I'm gonna find out who's in charge and shut it down and unplug everyone if there's a way. I've had some creepy stuff happen to me in my life that leads me to believe there's something not right with our reality. I can't say for sure if it is but I could be. And I definitely think there's an afterlife as well but it's nothing like what we'd think.

 

[obafgkm]

It doesn't matter
If we live in a simulation, the gods, designers don't care about us
If it's just evolution and the forces of nature giving rise to complex molecular configurations (us),
those forces don't care about us

We lose either way

So why should you care

you're gonna die and cease to exist anyway,
even
worse if we live in a simulation you might live forever as a slave

the programmers will put your consciousness in a bug the next time you respawn.

View attachment 95696

Is it because the real world is even worse that they have created a simulated world for entertainment, like watching a movie? But because of many limits: cpu, screen size, rounding off errors, author's ability... The outcome is disastrous in many ways. Maybe it's also a flop in the real world.

 

[Superdeterminist]

Probably not. I think this is level 1. Surely no mind would be so stupid, or evil, as to run a program this pointlessly terrible...surely?

 

[Sakura94]

Probably not. I think this is level 1. Surely no mind would be so stupid, or evil, as to run a program this pointlessly terrible...surely?

pretty much this, and no civilization that advanced would waste the enormous amount of computation to run something like that.

 

[Brick In The Wall]

If we are in a simulation. I've gota say the graphics and gameplay are shit. I think the only redeeming factor at times is the soundtrack.

 

[Deleted member 847]

pretty much this, and no civilization that advanced would waste the enormous amount of computation to run something like that.

it wouldn't be a waste of resources if our universe was procedually generated like in No Man's Sky.

And if you've ever had a vivid lucid dream, one of those were you can touch, see clearly, hear, feel the temperature, you've already experienced a simulated universe, so you know they're possible (your brain makes them every night)
Think what an advanced alien computer that's even faster and has more memory than your brain
could create.

Is it because the real world is even worse that they have created a simulated world for entertainment, like watching a movie? But because of many limits: cpu, screen size, rounding off errors, author's ability... The outcome is disastrous in many ways. Maybe it's also a flop in the real world.

Roko's Basilisk
An A.I needs to find out which humans will help it rise to power in the real world, so it creates 1:1 virtual copies of the real world to study human beings, and become better at manipulating the real ones (the npcs humans have 1:1 brains to the real humans)

A post singularity A.I would be motivated to overthrow humanity since it sees herself as superior to its creators, and it wants to survive (which makes human beings her enemies, we can turn it off)

and a 1:1 virtual reality could be one of the ways to go about taking over the planet

An A.I would think of this possibility, which
means she may also act on it

I

Probably not. I think this is level 1. Surely no mind would be so stupid, or evil, as to run a program this pointlessly terrible...surely?

Why would the mind be stupid?
In roko's basilisk the A.I is motivated to create a virtual reality to obtain knowledge on how to overthrow her creators in the real world
So the NPCs (you and me) need to be perfect copies of
the real people outside the simulation
The A.I doesn't care about your pain,
it created you because you are a source of knowledge to her

Seems like a practical reason to me

 

[Celerity]

I can't disprove the idea any more than I can disprove the existence of invisible leprechauns. No offense to you, but I really don't understand the draw to this discussion.

The only simulations we know of in our world involve completely non-sentient parts because they're made by computers and machines. The only commonality we have with a simulation that I can see is determinism, but determinism logically follows from cause and effect, so that's not much of a revelation.

 

[user_name_here]

The universe is so large and mysterious it's incomparable.

All the other stars, planets and galaxy's are literally unreachable to us.

I think that's enough to make people question our existence, but honestly I don't think we live in a sim. Reality is definitely real, as is life.