Are we living in a simulation?

Ever since I saw an episode of the Series "Through the wormhole" with Morgan Freeman, this idea has intrigued me. It is the possibility that our existence, everyone and everything we know, is in fact, a simulation in a vast computer. G Nick Bostrom of Oxford University published this idea in his paper "Are you living in a computer simulation?"

www.simulation-argument.com...

In short, he theorized that eventually computational power will reach a level where human consciousness could be simulated, and eventually even the environment that the virtual human lived in could be simulated seamlessly. In essence, using a computer with the mass of a planet, the entire universe could hypothetically be simulated. The simulated beings in this universe would most probably not know they were, in fact, simulated. He then goes on to give an estimate of the possibility that in fact, we are, living in a simulation. The funny thing is, if we are, I don't believe there is any way to know it. Unless of course, the entity running the simulation decides to let us know. We are already starting to simulate worlds, Second life is a good example of a very rudimentary reality simulation. One wonders what the state of this technology might be in say 1000 years, especially considering we have gone from the video game pong, to almost photo-realistic video games in under 50 years.

I am wondering if there IS any evidence we are living in a simulation. One interesting aspect is how subatomic particles are basically analogous to just units of information. Also the uniformity of the physical laws throughout the universe. What is the force that controls, creates this uniformity? Very weird indeed.

This is one of the oldest concepts in human philosophy. The ancient Egyptians were certain that life was an illusion. Many Native American tribes as well as the Celts believed that life was a dream. This is just a modern incarnation of this belief system, replacing the dream with a computer-based simulation. This isn't far off the mark of what I believe.

Yes you are my sim character I will run you into a cactus now.

reply to post by siren8


haha, I'm thinking about SimCity, where God cause any natural disaster right now.

Dare I say that what is perceived as, or titled as, time-slips, could be a manifestation of a glitch in the simulation?
Ghosts could be residual bits of a past simulation located where the ghost is seen.

To give purpose and motivation, aside from materialistic needs, their could be different levels of simulation attainable after performing certain required game-play, like meditation or whatever that is promoted to create out of body experiences.

With the number of people disappearing worldwide without leaving any trace, it could be a deletion from the simulation, like sell citizen for 50 gold pieces... That we remember or not is irrelevant because there would be hundreds of possibilities to explain the disappearances.

These could be proof it is happening, but hard to... prove...

reply to post by openminded2011


When you break down distances, you get a minimum size beyond which division makes no sense.

When you break down time periods, again you get a minimum.

The same for energy and just about anything we can measure.

If it looks like pixels...

An intresting theory to say the least... Based on the recent issues with the Voyager probes and the unknown drag on them as they leave our solar system, its posible the program has a bug.

Then again its possible there is another version of Sony, who owns this program we call reality, and the drag being detected is their way of containing the program to just Earth until they milk enough money to complete the space ad on. NASA is just their attempt to divert peoples attention from the fact that while we all paid for the complete program, its actually not done yet.

Sony calls it the "NGE" - New Galaxy Expansion (inside joke for those who played swg back in the day).

and this for humor -