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What do you think about the idea that we're in a simulation?

I don’t think that we’re in a simulation, but I do find myself occasionally entertaining the idea of it.

I think it would be kinda funny, because I have seen so much ridiculous shit in my life, that the idea that all those ridiculous things were simulated inside a computer or that maybe an external player did those things that I witnessed, is just too weird and funny at the same time lol.

Also, I play Civilizations VI and I occasionally wonder ‘What if those settlers / soldiers / units / whatever are actually conscious. What if those lines of code actually think that they’re alive?’. In that case, they are in a simulation. The same could apply to other life simulators, such as the Sims 4.

Idk, what does Lemmy think about it?

shinigamiookamiryuu ,

The idea is self-defeating. A simulation requires a higher reality for it to be contained within. Which in turn would by definition not be a simulation.

Fennek ,

So a virtual machine is a lower reality version of a computer?

shinigamiookamiryuu ,

In a sense, either “sub reality” or “para reality”. The latter is how I think.

unknowing8343 ,

Explain that, please

shinigamiookamiryuu ,

Suppose I had a copy of the Sims. Inside the copy of the Sims, the characters are looking around and notice things that seem suspicious about their world. They come to the conclusion they’re in a simulation, a video game. But nobody asks what they were made to simulate? Because it always implies there is something which, to them, is metaphysical, i.e. our world. And, if they were thinking about this, it would devalue the simulation theory itself, because if the basis is a higher world, that would be the point of reference of why things are the way they are anyways, thus saying “so-and-so is the way it is because we live in a simulation” would be a moot remark.

kromem ,

thus saying “so-and-so is the way it is because we live in a simulation” would be a moot remark.

Not quite.

For example, in Minecraft it approximates aspects of this world, but because of processing capabilities isn’t doing so at the same fidelity.

So people in Minecraft discussing why everything is made up of giant blocks would probably get great value out of the realization that they are in a simulation of a higher fidelity world that needed to be rendered at a lower fidelity for processing reasons. Scientists in Minecraft could further their understanding of the rules governing it likely much more successfully if they also understood the why directing the how.

A simulation is generally unlikely to be an exact replica of the universe simulating it, even if attempting to be a representative digital twin.

givesomefucks ,

Yeah, but the problem is people take it literally when it’s just an update of the analogy for Plato’s cave…

You’re taking it even more literally and saying if it’s not a direct match, it’s not a simulation.

Madden is a football simulation, even though it’s not the same as real life football

It’s not that your thinking deeper than the analogy, it’s the analogy soaring over your head while you claim it doesn’t exist because you’re looking at the ground

Majoof ,

Another way to look at it is as any civilisation gets sufficient technology they begin simulating entire universes, to better understand their own.

That means we’re either the OG universe and haven’t figured out how to run simulations of that size yet (so no simulated universes exist yet), or there is some chain of universes above us who are likely also simulated until you get to the OG universe.

Considering everything in our universe seems to follow a set of base rules (speed of light, attraction between masses, etc), I’m partial to thinking of those as essentially input variables prior to our sim being run.

foggy ,

Before the AI boom I was on the fence. Like it’s not disprovable, so it doesn’t interest me.

But now we’re like… Running actual earth sims.

So yeah. Simulation confirmed. Nothing is real.

kromem , (edited )

Yeah, the speed and direction of advancement of AI definitely further shifted my perspective on the topic as well.

For me the biggest application that raises an eyebrow are the continued and expanding efforts at using AI to resurrect dead people using the data they left behind or to create digital copies of people in virtual worlds.

Is there any reason to think that trend won’t continue? As a person who is part of a generation leaving behind unprecedented amounts of data, it seems like the kind of thing we should be thinking about more.

Nothing is real.

Well, no matter if we are in a simulation or not, we already have experimental evidence confirming nothing is (mathematically) real in our universe. Spacetime itself could be but as far as we know that’s impossible to determine because of the fundamental limits on measurement below the Plank length. But all matter in it definitely isn’t ‘real.’ Which is convenient for simulation theory, as a universe filled with mathematically real matter would be effectively impossible to be a simulated one if free will also exists in it.

JackGreenEarth ,

We could be. We could also be a Bolztman brain, the entire universe could have popped into existence last Thursday, complete with our memories of it existing previously, an evil demon could be sending false sensory information to us to try and pretend the universe is real, when it isn’t (as per Decartes), there are so many things that could be true. That’s why the only intellectually honest thing is to be agnostic.

TGhost ,
@TGhost@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

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    unknowing8343 ,

    A simulation does not necessarily mean a playable videogame it could be like a complex game of life.

    Lost the game BTW.

    Lavitz ,

    I imagine it being more academic. It would take an enormous amount of power to create a simulation like this so my guess is, the civilization running the simulation has a much better understanding of the universe and rather than experimenting in their own world they created one. I also like the idea of a future civilization discovering humans after we have gone extinct and having enough information to create a simulation to watch it happen.

    xilliah ,

    Well I don’t know who it is but I could swear the universe has a sense of humor.

    Like about a week ago I found a single left slipper. I sent a picture of it to a friend. She immediately sent a photo back of the exact same left slipper. Same size, same color, same brand, left. It just happened to be where she was when she received my message.

    And I’ve got a bunch more experiences like that.

    all-knight-party ,
    @all-knight-party@kbin.run avatar

    It's trippy to think about. The only things we know about existence are through our own experience, so there's basically nothing about our reality that we could say proves we're not in a simulation.

    By that logic it seems probable that we are in one that could be ran by any civilization only moderately further along the scale of time and technology than we are. I don't think it would change whether I thought life was worth living or not, but it would certainly be weird to imagine somebody could be watching what you're doing at any given time.

    jbrains ,

    It wouldn’t surprise me. I’m not sure it could possibly matter to us either way. Presumably we couldn’t break out of the simulation even if we knew about it conclusively. It would be interesting, but practically irrelevant.

    JohnnyEnzyme ,

    I agree it’s irrelevant in terms of living our lives, altho perhaps greatly relevant for those in relevant sciences.

    I think there’s also a good argument that we already know we’re in a simulation. That is-- if we already know a lot about the tiny building blocks of the universe, how they interact, and what forces govern them across various levels, then we can conceive of framing the whole of observable reality in to a massive, but known & quantifiable set of calculations… or a simulation.

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