Do we live in a Simulated Reality?

It's a fun idea to play around with, and quite possibly true. However, there is no evidence for it so I tend to remain skeptical, even if a bit indulgent, from time to time. At one time I considered the LGH (Lonely God Hypothesis), which is basically just my late night musings about a lone god, perhaps a night programmer watchman over some server bank somewhere fiddling with the program. Perhaps this simulated reality was created just for this purpose. To eventually create beings capable of communication with god, to give him someone to talk to. We were created, or destined, to be made in his image. Not physically... or even intrinsically mentally. But with the power to be self-aware and to create. However, for such a being, we'd be rather poor company in our present state. He'd need someone on his level. Perhaps our advancement in technology will lead us to being god-like beings one day, and give us practical experience either in our reality or in our own simulations, and put ourselves in his shoes for a bit so we both have a similar frame of reference.

Imagine, I suppose, a group of beings like the Q Continuum from Star Trek breaking through to talk to the creator. Perhaps, when the morning shift comes, our god will go off duty and the research team will return - giving rise again to polytheism? Perhaps this is why God is depicted as having mortal failings? Perhaps he is not omnipotent, and the world merely looks to have come into existence through purely naturalistic means because he is limited by the parameters of the programming?

Of course, as I posted in the Universe is a Hologram thread, perhaps that just as we run simulations to determine the nature of our universe, we are living in a simulation that is trying to explain the universe of a higher reality? That this line of simulations stretches towards infinity vertically stacked in either direction. You could visualize it by thinking of a camera looking into a mirror. Perhaps beyond that, there is a parallel reality in which the Alpha universe was never intended to be simulated, but happened to come into being as an emergent property of a completely separate emergent phenomena. Thus, making us Copies of Copies of Copies - to which there is no original from which TO copy. A giant, cosmic meme that stretches into perpetuity. Copies always contain some artifacts... errors... deviations, from the original - thus giving rise to some of the weird phenomena some people observe. All this computing power to run simulation after simulation after simulation must be very taxing, and I wonder if the lower realities and versions of our universe model are much much smaller?

Again... all very fun to ponder, but really of no practical use to us until there is a way to verify it.

I guess thinking about it more now, I realize I've spent a great deal of my life daydreaming because my present reality was so boring and unfufilling.

Some mudane jobs were much easier to get away with this. Quite often I find myself still daydreaming when reading something boring to me. It's as if daydreaming is our rebellion in our present matrtix. Rebel without a pause....or a remote.

reply to post by Lasheic


Concerning your complacent statements "there`s no practical use of this" and "there`s no evidence".

If we were in a simulated reality, these are exactly the kind of statements that would keep us comfortably locked within them.

I absolutely think my behavior would change. Not intensely, I mena, in the end my personality in this form is what it is. I like what I like and I'll continue to do so.

But if the Universe is a simulated reality then that leaves me wondering if it's able to be manipulated, and if it IS able to be manipulated then to waht degree can we alter and shift? Can I change the color of my skin or my gender with a thought? Can I re-program my head to like different kinds of music or to appreciate one of these "Genre Movie" spoofs that seem to be so popular? Would the ability to alter the sim make your life happier or not?

It raises a lot of questions, some small some extremely large.

Scientists presenting this idea in recent weeks makes me think that they may, in time, come at least close to proving the existance of A God. I'm sure it won't be one any of the major religions are pleased with but the entire thing is so exciting!

I hope I'm still alive for the final developments!

reply to post by Skyfloating


Or if we are not living in a simulated reality, it would save a lot of time by truncating a wild goose chase. There's lots of claims in the world. Anybody can make them, and some of them make sense. I say, however, that we should pursue those which have some evidence backing them.

Just because I find no cause to believe we are living in a simulated reality now, doesn't mean that new evidence we run into might not later suggest or confirm that we are. Believing in something will no more make it fact, than disbelieving it will make it false.

reply to post by Lasheic


I know for a fact that neither you nor I know who we are, where we are from, where we are going.

So the "there is no evidence for something being very, very amiss and there is no reason to look into what reality is" can be discarded.

Good questions.
I thought of another movie, Total Recall. Imagine if your life was just a virtual game, and you'd signed up for it. Then just like the movie, you are suddenly coming out of it, sitting in a chair with that head set thing on going "wow, it was all so real. I had a family, a job, and everyone seemed so real, etc. You may have felt you lived this very long life, that in 'reality' was only 15 minutes or so.

Originally posted by Skyfloating
Questions to ALL:

Would you change your behavior if you knew everything is simulated?

Yes I think I would change. You really couldn't help but look at everything differently. Simple things like a photo album filled with your treasured photos of memories, would feel strangely insignificant and meaningless, because it was 'fake'. Then you'd go deeper thinking about the important things like your family, which would cause thoughts of who where they anyways and why did I worry so much, etc. Ultimately, unless it was like the scenario described above, where you knew beforehand, it would cause a tremendous shock. It would rock your world, turn it upside down, and if this was disclosed to you, and not a universal learning where others experience this along with you, you'd by nature, begin denying it to yourself.

Originally posted by Skyfloating

Originally posted by The 5th
How does this fit in with your spiritual views and occult teachings skyfloating?

Since I dont have any fixed beliefs in anything at all, nothing has to fit into anything preconceived...which allows one to speculate.

That is how it should be. for everything and everyone. The "world" would be a much better place. With this thinking we could accomplish more in this " reality" and get more out of it, learn more from it and eventually come closer to the truth.

Instead there are billions of " know it all-s" who think everything they know is true because what they believe to be true has proven it.

So so so complicated yet so simple.

reply to post by Skyfloating


My name is Jim, I'm in Fort Wayne, I'm from Warsaw, and I'm going to be headed towards the bathroom in a moment.

What you're speaking of is relativistic terms. It's possible that you're right on all counts in with the precept that there is a greater purpose, meaning, or mechanism to our reality beyond our perception. However, it hasn't been established that there is one. Anything "very very amiss" may simply be a misunderstanding, or a pneumonic tick, a side effect of consciousness, that causes you to see things that are amiss even when they are not - possibly because you're already open to the idea of a virtual world interpretation.

Sort of like how after the twin towers were struck, many people saw 9 11 everywhere they looked. When I was younger, I used to smoke weed, and I noticed the same phenomena - only with 4:20 instead.

This is why it's important to have physical evidence, so that claims can be observed and verified by multiple people, and experiments to validate these claims can be tested, repeated, and confirmed. Simply as a means to separate the subjective from the objective.

[edit on 17-1-2009 by Lasheic]

Originally posted by rjmelter
reply to post by Skyfloating

 

I Concur

The past few weeks ive been thinking this exact thing, as scientists have been learning new things and Im researching them it all leads up to something like the theory you have suggested.

The real question however is why are we where we are? Some believe in Horoscopes and they very accurately describe the mental ongoings of certain people, some people try to defy them but are in their inner core those beings... Like pisces, i fit that example very strongly, but i have another side of me that fits others, but my weakness is my caring for others and that is the strong point of a pisces... so anyways

In the bible they talk about hell

I wonder perhaps if this life is hell, because our minds create our realitys, what we think happens in directly, its what we feel inside that occurs...not what we want, what we truely feel, and that to me would be something like hell.

What is this method of telepathy, there are some who do possess this gift... but what does it mean, how does one connect to another and i conclude it means we are already all connected, via biological processes, cells? Atoms? Electrons? Something deeper, something now yet known?

There is something to your theory, i hope to one day figure it out, but as some physicists say, when we figure out how the universe works, it changes... like the one experiment that they shot electrons through this one thing trying to se how it works, 1 slit, 2 slits, and when they added a camera.... the electrons acted unexspectedly because of the awareness of the camera, it shouldn't be possible... but it did happen.

I hope you find the anwsers.

Ahh a fellow Pisces !!!

Yea not too long ago ( 2-3 weeks max) I found an old astrolical horiscope book from like 1889 or something like that. I'll try and get the exact date but it is so old the pages are a distinct yellow .........maybe I'll get a picture of it....anyways..

Yea I happen to look up Pisces and it described me to a T ! I am caring of others like it describes and it said Pisces people love music. I was astounded and had to re-read it like 5-6 times.

I started making my own music about 4-5 years ago and it is a love and pasion of mine. I love it.

Then it got me thinking about when I was a child and still now Love playing video games. Then I realized that half the draw for me with them is the MUSIC ! I had always loved music but didn't really understand that maybe it was my destiny to love music.

Maybe we are given a choice as to what kind of life to incarnate into so we can learn and better ourselves from it.

That made me think that maybe thats how we know about horiscopes and How i fit into that. Maybe I chose to be born into a life where I wanted to better my self for and so the things that happen to me in life happen for a reason so I can learn from them.

Maybe that is how horiscopes are real, because it's all been predetermined what kind of person we will be. ( not absolute but attain those qualities .)

ANd then .. I realized I didn't fit 100% the definition but maybe like 90% , but what if I hadn't done the things in life yet that would make me fit into that last 10% of my destiny..

Maybe 20 years from now I will have experienced things that will fulfill what was said in the Book about Pices!

I'm so excited ! I love when thoughts like this enter my head ( or maybe all thoughts are there and we know them but when we " learn" we just access them ), because it makes me really really think. And when we think hard and ponder something we usually get something out of it weather or not we realize it at first.


All I can say is I feel sorry for people with a closed mind, because they never get to experience these thoughts and have these ideas in their head .


I love Knowledge !

Its funny,I was talking to my buddies today about videogames and had to pipe up that I have found the weirdest,coolest game ever.
Its a word game kinda as I told them.
Its called ats and its about getting points.
The rules are you cannot be ignorant...you need facts.
You cannot belittle or berate people when they offend you...you need to show a fact or a link to a fact.
Providing facts gets you more posts and more points.
Topics range from anything and everything.
You have to be on your toes or you won't last and the vultures will be on you like white on rice.
The idea that we know nothing and search for the truth is the basis of the game.

It kinda made me think that if this game exists in so-called real life then we might all be unaware in actual reality.
The weird thing is,is that we don't really know the facts most times.
Good game and game on!!!

Do the take away game.

Start by depriving yourself of all senses, this can be accomplished by a sensory deprivation chamber.

en.wikipedia.org...

Now what do you have to deal with, your thoughts, next you need to calm those and maybe just maybe will get a glimpse.

You have to understand all of our 5 senses can be deceived all the time, so we need to simplify our current environment from distractions.

Next you need to have courage to do this, because discipline is not an easy task.

Originally posted by Lasheic
reply to post by Skyfloating

 

Or if we are not living in a simulated reality, it would save a lot of time by truncating a wild goose chase. There's lots of claims in the world. Anybody can make them, and some of them make sense. I say, however, that we should pursue those which have some evidence backing them.

Just because I find no cause to believe we are living in a simulated reality now, doesn't mean that new evidence we run into might not later suggest or confirm that we are. Believing in something will no more make it fact, than disbelieving it will make it false.

Well by your conclusion, Nobody should be pursuing GOD because we can't prove he/she/it exists. What do you have to say to that?

This news story was reported in another link and is highly pertinent to this one:
www.newscientist.com...

reply to post by LucidDreamer85

Well by your conclusion, Nobody should be pursuing GOD because we can't prove he/she/it exists. What do you have to say to that?

I would agree with that analysis. Personally, I believe in god, but I do not pursue him/her/it. Such an endeavor would be futile, IMO. I agree with PatCondell's (paraphrased) statements when he says: Religion is a bit like dressing the invisible man. Once he has some clothes on, you can see him! But of course you don't see him, you see the clothes. The problem is that everybody has gotten so obsessed over the damned clothes that they've forgotten if there really anyone even there to begin with.

reply to post by rizla


I think this article is a bit more tailored for this discussion.

Matter is fluctuations in the Quantum Vacuum.

SkyFloating, I do love your posts! I just wanted to point out something I've considered when thinking along these lines. Let me see if I can articulate:

If you believe that a completely undetectable virtual reality - by that I mean one that fools the subject into believing it's "real" - is physically possible; then there should be NOTHING to keep you from questioning the "reality" of this one.

Reality is a hologram / virtual reality... this is modern vernacular for an ancient concept which is paralleled in nearly all esoteric spiritualities, from the aboriginal "dreamtime" to the masonic "Great Architect of the Universe". As many have already pointed out this simple truth reverberates through many of our favourite movies... and for good reason.

Science proved it upon the discovery we are physically nothing more than a vibrating energy field of atomic particles. In fact, just a few days ago this article in New Scientist presents the exact same hypothesis, now with 10% more science!
Our World may be a giant hologram

Exploring the meaning of this concept further, it can be seen as the gateway to enlightenment, because once you realise our perception of this universe is merely an illusion, the spirit can regain control over the 'avatar'. An awakened spirit, can have a much better adventure in this life cycle than a sleepwalker. In fact, by keeping muggles in the dark, the 'illuminati' (sic) are able to harness the full power of an unconscious civilisation, to carry out their bidding.

edit: oic someone just posted the same article

[edit on 17-1-2009 by Shar_Chi]

reply to post by Shar_Chi


I don't recall either article mentioning what you're describing. The two theories are quite fundamentally different, actually. I'm sure that if you suggest such to either of the research teams working on their hypothesis, they would respectfully refute your claim.


I know there is a LOT of confusion over exactly what "Evolution" is, even among those who claim to understand it. I sometimes wonder if people aren't similarly confused by the term "Grand Unified Theory" as if it's supposed to explain everything including the apparent disconnect between the Natural and Supernatural... when really, all it has to do is reconciling the functioning of the universe on the sub-atomic level, with how the universe functions on the atomic and higher levels.

[edit on 17-1-2009 by Lasheic]

If everything was a game, or simulated, wouldnt we all be having a good time? I mean not being born into poverty etc etc. Just a thought, why would we enter a game that will cause us misery??

Cheers