You are living in a computer simulation

reply to post by InfaRedMan


You're absolutely right, the brain has evolved for efficiency based on our survival imprint over hundreds of thousands of years of survival.

Now the other apparent trait of the brain is our ability to dream a "simulated reality". Where this differences from the easier task of sensory parsing, is that the brain has to generate every aspect of a dream, project it outwards and sense it inwards in a manner similar to how we perceive sensory reality.

These virtual dream simulations are holographic thought based ideas in the form of virtual reality. In our dreams, we exist in the matrix or software of the mind. Although very subjective, the dream itself is an extension of our greater reality.

Does this explain this reality and how it functions? Perhaps not at the surface, but if you descend down the rabbit hole of dreaming, you'll start to see relationships that can rise up to the surface of our awareness.

You see a process by which consciousness can direct and create a simulated reality in the form of dreaming. This process is very digital, and if you think in terms of a computer generated video game, the dream itself is very close to that type of metaphor.

I am not sure if you have ever had a dream come true, or can link that type of experience into your current model of reality. But if you have, and you can honestly remember such a dream, or several... a bigger picture starts to emerge.

Not that I want to flip the software over to dreaming, but based on the nature of conscious reality, we cannot ignore one of the most potent virtual reality simulators that nature could ever provide... and that is our own mind.

Well consolidating both the evolution-version idea and the Mayan's 4th world entering 5th, or something like that, we're called "God 4.0" which is just about upgrade to 5.0 in 2012.

Is that how Snoop got here?
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/f7cc8f6ca0cd.gif[/atsimg]

Fun article. Not sure what to think of it yet but it's something to ponder for now. I might send this to a few folks as well. Thanks for the link.

reply to post by YouAreDreaming


I don't have a problem with any of that! In fact I agree with mostly all of what you have said. I have dreamed of something that has come true in my own life but I partially attribute that to a mixture of odds, intuition of how events will unfold (driven by experience and observation) and probability.

Dreams are amazing!

IRM

I think the point about Ancestor simulations is interesting. the argument is that if humans progress far enough we will create these programs. Imagine the technology we will have at our finger tips. To me the theory carries as much water as religious theories.

what UTTER TWADDLE - the writer really needs to attend a foundation course in formal logic

he ` opens ` with :

Let me state what the conclusion of
the argument is. The conclusion is that
at least one of the following three
propositions must be true:

and he gives us the following propositions :

1 Almost all civilisations at our level
of development become extinct
before becoming technologically
mature.
2 The fraction of technologically
mature civilisations that are interested
in creating ancestor simulations is
almost zero.
3 You are almost certainly living in a
computer simulation.

and his ` conclusion ` ? a mind blowing leap to :

Another event that would let us
conclude with a high degree of
conidence that we are in a simulation
is if we ever reach a point when we
are about to switch on our own
ancestor simulations. That would be
very strong evidence against the irst
two propositions, leaving us only with
the third.

WHAT ?

the point that he has TOTALLY ignored is option 4 , namely :

assuming ` ancestor sim `tech is possible / implimented then :

4 : there will be a mixture or organic and simulated civilizations

and another point - he even contradicts himself while claiming that the simulators creators would prevent the simulation knowing its a sumulation

if thats trrue - then the simulation will not be allowed to create its own child ` sim - sim ` thus negating his locic that having the ability to do it ` proves ` that we are ourselves a sim

and lastly - he has ensnared himself in an infinite regression paradox too

because if we are possibly a sim - and developing the tech to run our own ancestor sim ` proves ` that we are actually a sim

then this also ` proves ` that our sim creator is acutally a sim too - as by the same logic - thier creating the ` sim us ` proves that they to are a sim

cue infinite regression

[edit on 29-5-2009 by ignorant_ape]

Originally posted by andy1033
reply to post by InfaRedMan

 

You cannot tell us that, just look at the sims game.

So I should look at another form of entertainment for your proof? LOL! You're blurring the boundaries again mate! In case you haven't sorted this one out yet, a game is not reality nor is it proof of concept pertaining to reality!

Just imagine in a hundred years or so, what sort of thing computers will be doing with that game, than in a thousand years.

This is 'pie in the sky' stuff... and largely unknown/unfalsifiable. It cannot be used as any sort of viable argument.!

If you do not think it is possible you are wrong. The brain has been proved to be a transmitter and receiver.

Anything is possible... sure, I agree... BUT probability suggests that we may have to wait for the entire lifetime of the universe and beyond for a said event to occur.

Sure the brain transmits and receives... it's called consciousness. Am I missing something here?

IRM

saying we are in a simulation, is like saying when you die you go to heaven

both means our bodies are remotely controlled from another body somewhere else, whether it's in another plane of the multiverse or another planet or .. heaven

reply to post by InfaRedMan


You are also correct on observing probability from dreams, and this is the kicker, the reason some dreams come true and others do not is based on probability simulations that do not make the cut to become actualized reality.

My personal expeirences with dreams may differ from yours in that I have gone past the speculation of probability, intuition and lucky guesses to actually breaking down the dream model using the only tool I had, which is wakeful conscious exploration of the dreamstate. Lucid dreaming, or conscious dreaming will suffice as an explanation of state.

Imagine observing one of these probable dreams that have yet to come true from a very lucid and conscious vantage point in the dream simulation itself. Call it a lucid precognitive dream for lack of a better label.

If you are conscious, and able to act with intent. Do you think that you could change the dream, thus change the probability matrix and have that change come true in reality?

In my research and experimentation with this observation, I can confidently say yes, changes made with conscious intent in a precognitive dream can affect the outcome when that probability actualizes and becomes reality.

It says less about a computer simulation and more about a consciousness simulation by which we mistake dreams as reality, and do not even realize it. It's a most fascinating observation, to go through the whole process of creating a dream, then watching it come true as this reality.

That is simply the more polished gem that emerged for me when I experimented heavy with precognitive dream control during the late 90's.

The end result is an awareness that "we" do create probable reality, and actual reality in a very obscured manner by which our waking conscious self is generally unaware of the unconscious manner by which it "dreams" reality.

And we run simulation after simulation in the pre-reality stage as we plot and plan our way through infinite probabilities until we reach the point of synchronicity where it all actualizes and becomes real.

Why can Joe, Bob and Doug all have precognitive dreams that come true, because Joe, Bob and Doug are all parts of a greater consciousness where we are all one. Oneness then becomes a new gem that emerges with the realizations of our origin as a conscious reality system.

Anyways, those are some of my thoughts and observations which can then nicely fit into a computer simulation metaphor. We write the software [dreams] and the big computer [the oneness] outputs the actualized reality for us to finally experience and woo at.

reply to post by YouAreDreaming


I like the way you think and theorize YouAreDreaming. Very eloquent!

IRM

reply to post by hisshadow


Take from it what you want. It's a theory. I happen to find it quite thought provoking. Thinking about what possibilities will be available for future generations. Maybe there will be a game where you can create your own universe from scratch. Its not a massive jump in logic. look at the game Civilisation. People enjoy these types of games, give them 50 years and see how advanced they become.

reply to post by InfaRedMan


Likewise IRM, and as you probably note it is simply from experience and observation. It can be dismissed as bullcawky, but the reality is, we are more then just the human observer, and actually in the driver seat of our very real expeirences.

I know that what I observe, is also observed from others and have had lots of opportunity to share notes with people already well advanced in that particular brand of knowing. In the end, we are amazing. I'm going to take a moment to just marvel in how amazing we all really are.

Any neurologist will tell you that the human brain offers no evidence that the physical universe is 'real'. In fact, it hints that it is'nt real at all!

reply to post by InfaRedMan


The theory might scare you but infact Michael Cohen of the maligned news site ANW is in contact with Government departments who are communicating with remote surveillence discs that visit earth and send message regarding the cosmos. He has done radio interviews on the topic but essentially there is something that the inner-sanctum of NASA refer to as "cosmic capitalism"-which is a heirarchy of civilizations, the idea being that at the top of the tree is basically one entity that created the entire program.

[edit on 29-5-2009 by starfemme1]

reply to post by starfemme1


Wow! Quite a rant! You're going to have some real problems qualifying any of that as 'fact'.

IRM

[edit on 29/5/09 by InfaRedMan]

Remember this article? "Scientists discover that our world may be a giant hologram". Gives me chills to think about it

www.newscientist.com... world-may-be-a-giant-hologram.html

HUGE believer, supporter and researcher of the Simulated Reality theory for 3 years strong now

Maybe none of this is actually real, maybe none of us exist, maybe all of this is just a program running on a super computer ran by post-humans or an advanced alien civilization.

I used to be a World of Warcraft fan, and I used to play the game constantly, but one of the quotes from a female human /silly makes me ponder. It's this: "Do you ever feel like you're not in charge of your own destiny, like, you're being controlled by an invisible hand?"

That makes me think. How do I know I'm not being controlled, and that all of this isn't some insane MMO played by advanced aliens who get entertainment out of all this, much like we get entertainment out of controlling a character in a game?

It's probably not the Matrix story of us being used as batteries. It's more likely that they just run this simulation to see how we interacted with each other, thousands or millions of years before them. They are literally looking at their ancestors. I'm sure someone somewhere, far above in the physical world is looking at this conversation and laughing at us mindless peons pondering if we're really in a simulated reality or not.

But what's interesting about the theory of living in a simulated reality, is that there's a chance there's an afterlife, that the creators took mercy on us and made some other program once we die, where we all go. Or maybe they were bastards and just made it happen like when you delete a file from your recycle bin, gone forever, non-existent. Did we ever make a afterlife for all the enemies you kill in World of Warcraft? No. Too much effort and they're so intellectually inferior to us that we don't care. Would they think the same? I personally hope not.

There's also a chance that this is all one massive MMO, sure, it's far-fetched, but I like thinking about it. I mean, does my character in World of Warcraft know he's being controlled? What if he thinks everything he does is on his free will, everything he says he just randomly thinks up, and when I log him off he's asleep or in a state of limbo? I mean someone could be making me type this, but the program is making me believe I'm actually typing this on my free will.

Another fun question: are our creators in the "physical world" REALLY in the real world or yet another simulated reality? Will we get to the point of running a simulated reality, a universe such as the Sims series, but much more evolved? Yes, actually, we will. Someday in the distant future we will have computers fast enough to run such a program, and we will be able to see our own little worlds, evolving, growing, and perhaps living long enough to make their own simulated reality. And then the process repeats.

Maybe our creators were nice enough to give us an afterlife. Free of pain, free of confusion, of course until we're taking up too much memory and they have to delete. There's no way to actually find out. For all we know, everything around us could be a projection our brain has created for us to cope with whatever reality we are really in.

Okay, believe it or not but listen, one day we will be able to create completely simulated realities. Does it have to be that day when we stop and ask ourselves "Hmm. This is oddly familiar. Feels like I've been here before." Personally, I don't think it should be like that. We're on the verge on a technological age beyond any other and very soon we will be able to create completely intelligent universes. Look at the GAMES we already have: Sims, Spore, Little Big Planet, and those are just games. Can you imagine when we can actually create entire digital planets and even universes, not for entertainment but for observation and what-if scenarios? Will no one ask before then if we're actually just living in such a simulation?

We are today only starting to create virtual worlds such as Second Life, always with the goal of making these worlds more realistic, more indistinguishable from real life.
Currently its pretty obvious whether you are in a virtual world or not. But futurists are already predicting the virtual reality that is just about as real as our "reality". This raises the question: Are we already in such a reality? Have we merely forgotten that we are?

And if so, who are the masterminds that created the simulation? Did we ourselves create it as a game that requires us to forget that it's a game and that there is a superior reality-domain above? Or was it created by other beings, extraterrestrial or extradimensional and are we merely their pawns?

Nobody actually knows where they are from or who they were before birth? It's easy to see how we`d be unable to accept this reality (or game?) as "real" if we would not have this amnesia of "what was before".

Nobody wants to watch a movie while constantly being reminded that its only a movie or constantly being distracted by what goes on in the theater room itself rather than the screen. Perhaps it's the same with reality. Perhaps our memories have been removed for our own enjoyment of the experience.

Would you behave differently if you knew for sure that you are living in a simulated reality? How could you tell for sure?

The idea of us living in a simulated reality is not new. Especially ancient buddhist doctrines and the ancient Vedas (India) make plenty of references to our reality being an illusion. According to these doctrines, the act of incarnation into a body means leaving the real world and entering the illusionary world or the "secondary world".

Nick Bostrom's argument uses the premise that given sufficiently advanced technology, it is possible to simulate entire inhabited planets or even larger habitats or even entire universes as quantum simulations in time/space pockets, including all the people on them, on a computer, and that simulated people can be fully conscious, and are as much persons as non-simulated people.

Prof. Tipler identifies this final singularity and its state of infinite information capacity with God. According to Prof. Tipler and Prof. David Deutsch, the implication of this theory for present-day humans is that this ultimate cosmic computer will essentially be able to resurrect everyone who has ever lived, by recreating all possible quantum brain states within the master simulation, somewhat reminiscent of the resurrection ideas of Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov.

This would manifest as a simulated reality. From the perspective of the inhabitant, the Omega Point represents an infinite-duration afterlife, which could take any imaginable form due to its virtual nature. Some theorists have argued that if the "consciousness-is-computation" version of computationalism and mathematical realism (also known as mathematical Platonism) are both true our consciousnesses must be inside a simulation. This argument states that a "Plato's heaven" or ultimate ensemble would contain every algorithm, including those which implement consciousness. Platonic simulation theories are also subsets of the multiverse theories and theories of everything


www.simulism.org...

www.unmuseum.org...

www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...
novaspivack.typepad.com...
www.davidicke.com...
www.davidicke.com...

When we have strong ai we will have to run detailed sims. These sims will likely have ai incorporated into them in an artificial environment created in a "bubble"... a sophisticated enough sim would be indistinguishable from the real universe.

Additionally, the universe is nothing but information in the form of physical processes and structure.. .like atoms etc. All matter is information... therefore if it isn't a sim the universe actually is a computer anyway! :-D

Tell that to the weeds I pulled today and the fingernail I broke. It really didn't feel like a simulation to me.