Possibility of us living in a simulated reality
Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2016 7:29 pm
I don’t know if it is because of HBO’s recently premiered TV series Westworld or the recent breakthroughs in entertainment-grade virtual reality gaming platforms but I’ve seen the Simulation Argument by Nick Bostrom popping up recently to my social media radar more than once. Also, I’ve heard the topic causally discussed by my friends lately.
Perhaps because I saw original Matrix movie as a sensitive teenager (and it made a major impact then) I’ve somehow had a special spot pondering the probability of me and my surroundings being part of some simulated experiment. Bostrom’s theory made also somewhat big impact back when I was a student and inspired many wine-fueled conversations on the topic. For those who’re not familiar with Bostrom’s reasoning, here’s a short summary so you don’t need to move to Wikipedia:
Even if only a small percentage of highly advanced people in the future would be interested running simulations of their ancestors’ times, their computing power would so enormous that they could easily simulate vastly larger number of simulated persona than the number of their real ancestors. Hence, at least one of the following arguments is likely to be true:
1. "The fraction of human-level civilizations that reach a posthuman stage (that is, one capable of running high-fidelity ancestor simulations) is very close to zero", or
2. "The fraction of posthuman civilizations that are interested in running ancestor-simulations is very close to zero", or
3. "The fraction of all people with our kind of experiences that are living in a simulation is very close to one"
More information here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_hypothesis
I guess similar thought experiments (What if nothing we see and experience is “real”?) have been around throughout our history. For example, Plato’s Cave story has much similarities.
In any case, it would be interesting to hear your thoughts on the topic. Would it make any difference to you or your world-view if we found out there’s a larger probability that we’re part of some kind of a simulation? Some scientific research has tried, for example, to find if the universe has some finite resolution, which could imply that all is just a simulation. How much you put emphasis on your inner feeling, experience or insight on the topic?
So, is there a spoon?
Perhaps because I saw original Matrix movie as a sensitive teenager (and it made a major impact then) I’ve somehow had a special spot pondering the probability of me and my surroundings being part of some simulated experiment. Bostrom’s theory made also somewhat big impact back when I was a student and inspired many wine-fueled conversations on the topic. For those who’re not familiar with Bostrom’s reasoning, here’s a short summary so you don’t need to move to Wikipedia:
Even if only a small percentage of highly advanced people in the future would be interested running simulations of their ancestors’ times, their computing power would so enormous that they could easily simulate vastly larger number of simulated persona than the number of their real ancestors. Hence, at least one of the following arguments is likely to be true:
1. "The fraction of human-level civilizations that reach a posthuman stage (that is, one capable of running high-fidelity ancestor simulations) is very close to zero", or
2. "The fraction of posthuman civilizations that are interested in running ancestor-simulations is very close to zero", or
3. "The fraction of all people with our kind of experiences that are living in a simulation is very close to one"
More information here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_hypothesis
I guess similar thought experiments (What if nothing we see and experience is “real”?) have been around throughout our history. For example, Plato’s Cave story has much similarities.
In any case, it would be interesting to hear your thoughts on the topic. Would it make any difference to you or your world-view if we found out there’s a larger probability that we’re part of some kind of a simulation? Some scientific research has tried, for example, to find if the universe has some finite resolution, which could imply that all is just a simulation. How much you put emphasis on your inner feeling, experience or insight on the topic?
So, is there a spoon?