If you absolutely must assume that we are living in a simulated environment, then it is also assumed that we are a self aware A.I. of some sort. The
various theories people have come up with, including finding recurring patterns in existence such as how the universe resembles blood vessels or how
numbers are affected before large scale events all lead to such a theory holding some water. If you also consider how essentially anything in
existence can be digitized or represented on a smaller scale, then this also lends itself to the theory of virtual existence. Perhaps we are being
represented on a much smaller scale as well, or are part of a program. Atoms, quarks, dark matter, all of the things that make up our physical form
could in fact be bits of digital data, whether quantum or binary. This begs the question though, if we are all A.I. characters in the world, who
created us and what maintains us?
Given my background and love of games, I like to rationalize this theory in a similar way:
Instead of aliens creating or lending themselves to the growth of our civilization, we do in fact have a Creator, and since the aliens are supposedly
tangible beings like us, they too are part of this grand scheme (whether a game, a virtual reality for another self aware being). God would
essentially be the 'player,' or 'watcher' and we are the avatars. This idea lends itself to a similar topic I saw the other day where someone
proposed the idea of 'natural humans' vs empty shells which look like humans.
Here
is that topic if anyone wishes to review it. Just like in a game, it feels as though sometimes we are just more 'awake' than others. It's almost as
if we are being 'played.' It's like in GTA V, where you leave a character to his whims, he'll wander around the city until you come back and play
him again; to us, our instincts (programming?) are responsible for us getting food (what food we choose being based on our previous experiences...
hey, we're super advanced and remember stuff right?) or sleeping, or doing random things (just like the Sims).
So how did we become self aware? I suppose this question can be answered best by saying we are simply programmed that way. With the number of people
now searching to break that 'fourth wall,' it's surely more than coincidence or a hiccup in the system. I've been watching an anime called Log
Horizon for the last few weeks. In that particular storyline, several thousands of gamers are suddenly caught up in an online MMO, physically and
mentally. The show is neat, because it explores what it would be like to actually be inside of a videogame, and still have memories of where you were
before. The kicker is, if you die in the game, you slowly lose memories of 'reality' and become ever more entrapped in the game itself. The AI
characters in the game also start to become more intelligent and evolve past their traditional one line replies and quest systems. At some point, one
of the AI becomes an 'adventurer' (labeled as a human player) and opens up the possibility of whether he would then appear back in reality with the
rest of the humans who got trapped in the game. It explores reality in a way that most people don't really think of, getting into metaphysics and the
philosophy of the animus. If anyone here watches anime and is interested in this particular subject, Log Horizon is a good watch to ponder the
possibilities.
Of course, if it's all a game, simulation, whatever... it can be hacked. How does one go about hacking reality? This question has been asked many
times throughout history for sure. What if it would be as simple as opening an interface and seeing what sort of permissions you have? Wouldn't that
be wild? I often wonder if there are already people who have essentially done this, such as the people currently in power and manipulating the rest of
the world. What is their secret? Did they perhaps stumble upon a process that other people haven't found yet? Is their skill level just higher than
others?
Or, perhaps we existed before and dropped ourselves into a virtual reality, and have been stuck in here ever since. Perhaps before then, we put
ourselves into a virtual reality and got stuck there too, like a nesting doll. It's like an inception scenario, going ever deeper into ourselves.
Where did we first begin? How much intelligence have we lost? How different did we look? Can we ever get back? ...