Simulated reality

The nature of the reality we live in is an interesting subject. There may well be many interpretations of how both life or well anything came to be and exist in this world. All the rules that this world seems to possess seems to have come from something.

One interesting hypothesis proposed by Nick Bostrom is that our reality can be simulated. The argument is that the rate of technological progress seems to have no end in sight and will always be improving and evolving with time. We can already simulate small worlds with very finite number of rules and interactions with video games and other computer simulations.

In any way, these are just hypothesis and are quite hard to test and see if they are true.

Notes

• Physicists found that simulating a few hundred electrons (using one particular method) would require more atoms than there are in the (known) universe. This is a good argument that we cannot simulate our own universe precisely, but it says nothing about the underlying nature of reality.
  • Consider if Pacman took some time to study physics. He analyzes Ghost behavior and realizes it would take more than 255 levels worth of data to describe it. Pacman concludes that he must not be in a simulation, because clearly there are only 255 levels in the world.
• When you’re thinking about a simulation you are thinking in terms of what you are familiar with - computers, screens, VR etc - and this itself is a sign of the simulation: since you are only able to create a mental construct based on provided metaphors. For example: we often talk about the brain as a computer. But what was it before the computer was invented? The simulation isn’t something exterior to yourself- it is how you think of yourself and the world around you.
• Whether we are in a simulation or not is one of the most irrelevant concepts ever. Human experience is already a simulation as our brains generate reality from data, and we cannot know the validity of this data as it exists outside out senses. What exists outside of your experience of reality cannot effect you, and you cannot effect it, so it's irrelevant.
• The thing that is deceptive about quantum/holofractal/simulation theory, is that many people take this as meaning that reality is a simulation, when really, "simulation" is just an analogy to describe our reality's mechanics. It works like a simulation/video game. It's the only thing we have that we can make a direct comparison to that exists in our reality. I personally believe this deception is intentional, and meant to further confuse people. There are profound philosophical implications to this, although, I believe it's quite myopic to boil it all down to "we are in a literal simulation".

Links

• The Dream Of Life
• Jailbreaking the Simulation with George Hotz (2019)
• HASH - Open-source platform for general purpose simulation.
• The Simulation Argument
• The Simulation Hypothesis is Pseudoscience (2021) (Reddit)
• Harry Mack Freestyles About "Simulation Theory"
• Simulation Save State (2021)
• Simulation / Creation (2021)