Skeptic Bob
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2014
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- Texas
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- Political Leaning
- Libertarian - Left
Alright, let me get this out of the way. This is pure speculation and hypothesizing. It is not based on fact and is untestable. This conversation is just for fun, as thinking about the nature of reality often is.
Have you ever wondered about the possibility of us living in a simulated universe? Some questions that arise from the simulated universe hypothesis are:
1. Is it theoretically possible for technology to advance to the point that creating a simulated universe would be possible?
2. If it IS theoretically possible, then would the owners of such a technology utilize it?
3. If they did utilize it, would they only run it once or many, many times?
Question 1: So I can't really come up with a reason why it wouldn't be theoretically possible. If you are a materialist, like me, there is no reason to believe that even being capable of consciousness could not arise from sophisticated enough programming. I am aware of the argument that such a computer would have to be bigger than the universe we inhabit in order to replicate perfectly. But who is to say that the universe in which the simulation is being run isn't larger by many orders of magnitude? There is also no reason that that our universe would have to be perfectly replicated down to the quantum particle detail throughout the universe. It would just have to adjust the level of detail when being in the simulated universe looked at it. The very nature of our universe seems to prohibit us from observing too much detail, such as the speed of light and the "fuzziness" of things when you drill down to the quantum level.
Question 2: To me this is obvious. If a society was capable of simulating such a universe, of course they would do it. We would. The reasons for doing so could be numerous. Science, curiosity, entertainment.
Question 3: This also seems obvious. They wouldn't run a simulation just once. They would run it numerous times on numerous computers, testing different scenarios. What may seem to be billions of years passing in our universe may only hours or days in the simulator's universe.
So, IF it is such simulations are theoretically possible then is it more likely that we are living in the "real" universe or one of the countless simulations?
In the big picture it doesn't really matter. Even if our inverse is simulated it is real to us. But it is fun to think about.
Have you ever wondered about the possibility of us living in a simulated universe? Some questions that arise from the simulated universe hypothesis are:
1. Is it theoretically possible for technology to advance to the point that creating a simulated universe would be possible?
2. If it IS theoretically possible, then would the owners of such a technology utilize it?
3. If they did utilize it, would they only run it once or many, many times?
Question 1: So I can't really come up with a reason why it wouldn't be theoretically possible. If you are a materialist, like me, there is no reason to believe that even being capable of consciousness could not arise from sophisticated enough programming. I am aware of the argument that such a computer would have to be bigger than the universe we inhabit in order to replicate perfectly. But who is to say that the universe in which the simulation is being run isn't larger by many orders of magnitude? There is also no reason that that our universe would have to be perfectly replicated down to the quantum particle detail throughout the universe. It would just have to adjust the level of detail when being in the simulated universe looked at it. The very nature of our universe seems to prohibit us from observing too much detail, such as the speed of light and the "fuzziness" of things when you drill down to the quantum level.
Question 2: To me this is obvious. If a society was capable of simulating such a universe, of course they would do it. We would. The reasons for doing so could be numerous. Science, curiosity, entertainment.
Question 3: This also seems obvious. They wouldn't run a simulation just once. They would run it numerous times on numerous computers, testing different scenarios. What may seem to be billions of years passing in our universe may only hours or days in the simulator's universe.
So, IF it is such simulations are theoretically possible then is it more likely that we are living in the "real" universe or one of the countless simulations?
In the big picture it doesn't really matter. Even if our inverse is simulated it is real to us. But it is fun to think about.