Maya, the fabric of illusion. As long as there's been people there's been the idea that life is a dream/illusion. Solipsism is nothing new. However, there's a very old, very true saying to recall if you're ever in doubt about it all....'Whether you believe in the ocean or not, if you step in it, you're going to get wet.'
8
Isn't this high-minded simulation hypothesis just the wealthy techie way of denying their region's realities? Million dollar homes at overinflated rates, while the homeless population grows on your streets... That is reality
"Pretending" the next generation is in control of any of this merely allows the wealthy out-of-touch techies to avoid responsibility for their daily actions internationally. As the social consequences of inequality become more obvious, the wealthy retreat into their make-believe world's, content to pass these social problems on to their children as their legacy... Deny today, but postponing reality will be brutal for your downline.
30
I'm not aware of anyone who uses the simulation hypothesis to discount responsibility or fault.
The simulation hypothesis claims we run on the laws of physics, which is just what a real universe would do.
We must all make the best of our world - simulation or no it's the only one we have.
2
The British documentary film maker Adam Curtis made a film for the BBC called Hypernormalisation which is now made available on YouTube.
In this film he posited that since Reagan/Thatcher power has shifted from politics to money. And as part of that move our relationship to reality has shifted. That we have been sold a version of reality where what is on screen is what’s important and what is actually present in the world, has become neglected.
So we step over bodies on the street looking at our phones, saying the economy is picking up to each other while homeless lie beside our Uber pickup point.
This is the simulation in our lives. And it’s very real.
18
The human suffering caused by this pandemic should put to rest nonsensical fantasies like the idiotic "simulation hypothesis" and inspires us to live fully in the present. Technology is at its best when it is used to promote human health, effective communication and the common good but its worst when it becomes a source of distraction from reality and medium for disinformation and incivility.
5
The simulation hypothesis is either a high-tech leading edge idea dependent on Quantum information in some way that I can't imagine, or what the Buddhists have been saying all along.
15
Odd how believing that we live in an environment created by an all-powerful supercomputer to do... er, something... is considered clever, mind-blowing, sophisticated and interesting... while believing that we live in an environment created by an all-powerful Supreme Being to determine our capacity for faith is considered quaint, old-fashioned, and silly.
27
@JL Williams
By 'an all-powerful Supreme Being' are you refering to that trump figure wondering around the White House?
1
@JL Williams Oh, SNAP!!! ;-P
This reminds me of the old canard, give enough monkeys with typewriters enough time and you will get Hamlet. But the universe isn't old enough for that, no matter how many billions of typists you put on it. We have a poor innate understanding of large numbers. Physicists have a measure of the total information content of the universe. It is a large but finite number. As we get a sense of the scale of computing possible it is well to remember that there is a huge branch of mathematics devoted to problems considered uncomputable, see the Travelling Salesman problem. So one needs to consider if there is either enough information available to create such a simulation, or if indeed that is uncomputable. My sense is the real solution however lies between out ears, and until we understand that and all out (known ) sense, its a fools errand. Until we know what it is we are trying to simulate, how can we speculate we are in a simulation. Perhaps it is helpful to have experienced hallucinations as a reference point.
2
@bparsons What's beautiful is how the universe preserves its secrets. It's entirely possible that, no matter how much we learn about reality, we will never be able to fully see behind the curtain. My belief is that there is a creator and that the curtain is there for the purpose of maintaining individual beliefs and mystery. For knowing how everything works would kill further curiosity. Not knowing, we are left with individual beliefs which are all equally valuable yet not fully provable. I'm okay with it.
2
Imagine that an alien civilisation has found Earth, and wants to stop us destroying ourselves with global warming and Mutually Assured Destruction. Intelligent life is precious, and it generously extends that category to include us. Or multicellular life is precious. Yet it does not want to reveal itself, because them we will turn into slavish imitators of the greater culture.
So it creates many simulations to test possible minimal interventions. Will those interventions save us?
Testing Trump, we may be in a simulation where the interventions fail. However, the Earth in the simulation is from our point of view as complex and wonderful as the real Earth, and the simulated individuals as precious and as deserving of our moral care.
So even if we are in a simulation, the moral duty to do no harm still applies. (I have just seen the flaw in this story.)
5
In support of the other commenters referencing Vedantic philosophy, for me the clearest explanation of the "simulation hypothesis" was presented by Paramahansa Yogananda who made the observation that just as the light of a movie projector creates a reality on a screen, so is the "reality" of this world created as a projection of light known as maya.
The premise being that just as one could watch a variety of traumatic or amazing events from war to love on a movie screen and consider it to be entertainment, so could one gain personal enlightenment and thus learn to view this external world as "maya" and not be affected on the inside. That doesn't mean it's easy. Our current "movie version 2020" will give us lots of practice.
7
Interesting, but the root of the problem is the lack of critical thinking in even the university educated. Two perfect examples: When you you think any form of computer, game or film participation is approaching reality you are not applying evaluative criteria. When you accept scientific statement as truth you must examine those findings for yourself and not accept the findings unquestionably. Unfortunately, the minds of people are lulled by day long media sessions and then 'believing' in the often purposely tricky questions from the media posed to scientists, who might say something not founded on validity or reliability.
1
The ultimate irony is that if the premise of a "fake reality" is true, this article is part of the same game. In other words, I am typing this to myself and the overlord who created this illusion and no one else. Welcome to the theater of the absurd. Solipsism: the last resort.
Thank god (or the simulation peeps) for the brilliant scientists and researchers like Dr. Fauci who are working tirelessly to help get this pandemic under control.
1
Dante placed frauds (deceivers of various types and stripes) in the 8th circle of hell, with only one circle deeper (reserved for treachery and treason).
If cosmic justice prevails, these are regions that Trump, Hannity, Alex Jones, Mitch McConnell and so many other right wing liars, frauds, and traitors should inhabit.
1
@David Macauley One description I have heard of the afterlife that has stuck with me is that our disembodied souls, the light that constitutes our essence, returns to the realm of creation, which is the brightest beautiful light constitutes 'god.' All energy is vibrational. Our souls are vibrational. Those who do the most good in life here on earth greatly raise their vibration.
When we 'cross over' those who have done much ill in their time have already lowered their vibration. Their existence on the other side is not hell, but it perhaps will be not unlike it. At a low vibration one is far from god, drifting low in darkness. God and the higher realms can be glimpsed like a distant star that is impossible to reach until the hard work of self-reflection is done that begins to raise one's vibration again towards goodness.
This is not to be taken as proof or gospel. But I find the analogy fascinating. One psychic I came across described the existence of Jeff Epstein in the afterlife as like this, drifting far from the light. The prayers of angels and others who still care for him is part of a long journey of trying to gradually bring his vibration back up. But there is no way up without facing and owning what one has done to others here.
Certainly no human is perfect. We will probably all have to face some of the unpleasant things we've done, but degree of scale and severity surely apply. In this sense, there is no one I would less rather be than Potus at the end.
1
As flies to small boys are we to the gods
They kill us for their sport (Shakespeare)
Or shadows on a cave wall.
2
Thanks. That was fun!
1
Simulations, like any model, are never truly honest because they are not real. Kind of like Pinochio, they are wooden puppets. Reality is a special case which must be treasured.
@Nick Strauss Who can say? If the participants in a simulation think they're real and feel real, are they any less real? I do agree that existence is to be treasured, whether dream or 'reality.'
1
Whoever built this simulation I’m living needs to be fired. What a cruel creator, allowing dust, grime, and oil stains to exist. I’m constantly cleaning our toilets, wiping down our dusty furniture and picking up my shedding hair. All these tedious tasks! My Sims live more gloriously than I do! Where can I send my complaint? Update this simulation please!
There is no question in my mind that we are living in a computer simulation. The idea of the Big Bang inflation from a single point created this world of ours and so quickly is a hard thing to wrap your head around if you take God out of the mix. How is that possible? Or the fact that the quantum world of physics with charmed quarks and super strings is so bizarre and behaves in ways that drove Einstein crazy for the last half of his life, but what cements it for me when you really think about is that the most irresponsible person that this planet created was elected to lead the free world is just a cruel cruel alien joke. I hope his or her or its parent will pull the plug soon and make them wash their tentacles before dinner.
@Ted Siebert A conundrum of existence is that the Big Bang is unfathomable, as is the absence of the Big Bang. Same for the existence of god, or non-existence of god. At the end of the day paradox remains, and so we essentially live in magic i.e. that which cannot be rationally explained. The universe is as mathematical as it is magical. It is a thing of wonder.
3
Tech moguls and 'gurus' like to believe the simulation theory because it unconsciously reinforces their world view and makes them digital prophets. Or worse, Messiahs.
@j.j. Perhaps. But what they'll discover is that analog death comes to everyone. Even if they manage to 'upload their consciousnesses' to computers, the computers are not them and will diverge and evolve in ways that will make them unrecognizable to their own creators.
To take it in another direction; extrapolate from the Holographic Principle(layman here): all information is contained on the surface, the exterior of a black hole, what have you, a bubble for instance, a Fox bubble specifically. The information that is revealed gives no indication of what lies beneath.
This is a ridiculous and shameful theory to promote with so many people suffering.
Makes as much sense as any other earthly religion.
1
I guess I shouldn't have expected a coherent though after the author mentioned they didn't believe in the simulation hypothesis and called it "crazy". It is a distinct possibility.
That doesn't mean the nihilist mindset should rule. Given that we have no idea if we are in the real world or not, the only logical course of action is to act as though it is. The consequences on the off chance we are in the original reality would be quite damning.
Well, if you believe in that right and wrong stuff.
This techno-gorp makes me laugh. Check out Mahayana Buddhism 101.
1
You are an excellent writer and communicator.
Very well thought out piece. Laced with just the right amount of adroit humor to take the edge off the current potential growing fear out there.
Keep thinking and writing...... we're reading.
JM
1
Excellent article, thank you.
1
It's important to know that the NIH (plural, Institutes) are not subject to POTUS meddling. Fauci is not a Trump appointee---like Redkind for example, or Azar, Barr, Carson, Devos, Pompeo or Ross---or any of that crew of sycophantic greedy incompetents. Thing is, Trump is a creation of the TV age. And he demonstrates the utter vacuity of a typical TV persona.
2
My great-great-grandkids invented an ancestor simulation and all I got was this lousy Universe.
This article does a great job of presenting fact stranger than fiction. We’re seeing media that triggers severe cognitive dissonance. It lets a pseudoscientific “simulation hypothesis” get airtime.
Trump’s happy talk, his Fox friends echoes, the absurd Palin dancing Sir Mix a lot, and lone scientist Dr. Fauci correcting Hannity are just parts of an absurd tapestry. Like a night sky with holes in it that let daylight in, we’re grappling with a failure of government and media to present the real world when crisis is as real as mass quarantines.
You love your elders and vulnerable friends? Wake up! (But don’t fight over toilet paper).
Real leadership isn’t in the White House or in Rupert Murdoch’s news room. Right now, it’s in Dr. Fauci, certain CDC whistleblowers, but even more so in frontline local governments and foreign countries.
Trump’s been selling lowered expectations so hard for so long we forgot that America used to have competence norms like other countries. We can’t very well aim for excellence like South Korea (even drive through testing) because Trump and the GOP kneecapped our CDC and pandemic response, and they’re muzzling most of the experts to try to prevent real warnings getting out, because they’re damning, especially for the seniors that are essential to reelection campaigns.
This is like Bush’s “Mission Accomplished,” except we’re the Iraqi’s living through the truth on the ground. Yet we can’t be sure Americans will choose awareness. It’s absurd.
Kara:
You are an excellent writer and communicator.
Very well thought out piece. Laced with just the right amount of adroit humor to take the edge off the current potential growing fear out there.
Keep thinking and writing...... we're reading.
JM
Any discussion of simulations is restricted to a small group of humans who typically think their brilliance or Ivy league degrees entitles them to flights of fantasy that their genes are superior to other Homosapiens. If these people weren't lazy and were truly curious, they would read up the Advaita philosophy that was dreamt up by philosophers few thousand years back in the region of the world known as Pakistan today.
To sum it up: Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.
Simulation or not, can we please get rid of the malignant “neo-cons” and elect someone more like “Neo” (or Keanu Reeves) instead.
However we choose to make the world unreal, it's on us to wake up and make the most of it. 2D is simply not as good as 3D, imnsho.
People need to get out more. Nature is miraculous, and no simulation is going to be anything but a grotesque distortion of what is possible if we live our lives fully. Doesn't matter if it's a computer illusion or a religious illusion, we have only one life to live.
This world may be a simulation, but I’m clearly not the only conscious entity embodied within it. My moral obligations to other sentient creatures don’t change if we’re all part of a simulation.
If it is a simulation, we may detect flaws from time to time, in the form of physical inconsistencies. Each flaw detected is a glimpse of a larger reality in which our simulation is embedded. With enough such observations, we can begin to describe that larger reality. If we find no flaws, then we have no evidence we live in a simulation.
XKCD 505 (https://xkcd.com/505/) might be relevant.
2
Imprecise or ambiguous language can have purpose, as Kara shows in her deconstruction of the Simulation Hypothesis. But it is also important, especially during scary times, to focus on the meanings of apparently obvious terms and metaphors, such as she also does for "simulation," and quoting Dr. Fauci, for "just like the flu."
So much rides on understanding their intended meanings as it influences views and behaviors.
The same is needed for even fundamental concepts like "Reality" and even "Truth." Not so obvious, as I can think of several nuances of both.
I'd add "fake news" and one not mentioned: free will.
And then there are the human elements, including a scene from "The Matrix" where a character actually knew he was being manipulated--but was fine with it!
This is like the conversation of the topic 2 precious 13-year-olds would have maybe a year after that quick ayn rand phase. Go ask a veteran that has seen combat or a survivor of genocide and ask them if you're living in a simulation. The simulation theory is both a luxury and a fantasy. It's also an escape from responsibility in that if everything if its a simulation nothing you do matters.
2
It doesn't matter if it's a simulation. If it is, we still need to take care of it until its next reboot/
4
The mind sees only what the mind thinks. In other words, the mind creates the world, matter, and experience. Hard to believe? You do it every night when you dream. The waking state is just another dream world, with more continuum in time and space. The Buddhists and early Hindus knew it - and quantum physics shows it: non-locality, quantum entanglement, and no separation between the observer and the observed. The mind creates the world we think is there, but is only perceived/experienced through our sensory system and then integrated in our brains. In the simulation theory, we could all be code (energy) of a vastly more intelligent energy source - and since matter and energy are intertwined (and essentially one being the manifested or unmanifested form of the other, respectively) it is interchangeable. Thus, just because we have a consensual dream and believe in it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It does - for all of those in it. It is the dream of god and all the characters are us...
6
No Dear, we're not living in a simulation. We are living in a real world, several billions of years old, in which human beings have no particular protected status. We should all work together to take care of it.
6
Of course Dr Fauci is also just part of the simulation (who said "All the world's a stage"?).
But including Trump and Fauci in the same simulation is a cruel joke on the rest of us.
4
So then it's not impossible for the beings who have simulated us to be simulations themselves. It's turtles all the way up.
12
@stan continople Touché!
Gotta love those turtles.
1
Okay, I’ll bite. What is the difference between simulation by a higher being and creation by a prime mover? I get it, I get it... computers. But molecules are just a type of information storage with infinitely more complex states than a transistor. We are the computers, biological ones. Isn’t this the same thing? How is this any different?
5
@John you are right, its not different, they are both impossible and require faith, that ability to believe in the impossible. Science, the universe, demonstrable reality, is objective, reproduceable, predictable ( up to a point see Nonlinear), and comprehensible to us. Some of us. As they say, its a good thing mathematics is not a democracy.
You mean you’ll ‘byte’. Sorry.
This is a rather fuzzy explanation of the Simulation Hypothesis. More clearly stated:
Either:
1. Future generations don’t develop the technology to run simulations so sophisticated that the entities in them (us) experience them as reality (meaning that at some point in the relatively near future we stop progressing technologically); or
2. There is some prohibition about running simulations (a ban on cruelty to digital life?); or
3. There would be so many simulations being run at any given time that the chance of us being the original ancestors is so slim that we are very likely living in a simulation.
Given that Back-to-the-Future foretold a Trump presidency, #3 doesn’t seem that far-fetched to me.
3
@Josh Wilson The concept that a simulation can reproduce and stimulate all our (known) senses to the point we cant tell real from simulation is an arm chair fantasy. Like true general intelligence AI, there is no clear way forward. Turns out it is easier to rebuild the roads than teach AI to drive. This shd be a big hint. These are much much more fundamental problems than just more computer power can solve. Human intelligence is ineffable, and still defies understanding. Until you have AI with all five or more senses, you haven't even started, and so far even processing video for sight is prohibitive, and poorly done. How about sound, the feel of the wheel in your hands, the softness and slip and sound of the tires in a turn, the lean of the car, g forces. They aren't even feeding such info in at this point. I am not one bit worried about a simulation. All the computer power in the world cannot summon or simulate a memory like the smell of certain soil can. Step away from the screen, the majority of your senses atrophy there.
@Josh Wilson
The Trump presidency was predicted by Mike Judge in the 2006 film "Idiocracy".
"[W]e are living in a complex simulation that was probably created by a supercomputer, invented by an obviously superior being."
I disagree. If this is a simulation, it was definitely NOT invented by a superior being.
7
Clearly you’ve never held a cute little baby!
Isn't this a great and accurate metaphor for how we human beings process thoughts about ultimate destruction in general?
In January, I awakened to trouble with my asthma (or so I thought). By 1pm I was in the ER with my husband and had been diagnosed with Type A H1N1 flu. This despite having been vaccinated (a vaccine that included that strain of influenza) two months before. I spent the next 48 hours simply trying to breath, an oxygen mask strapped to my face and multiple steroids, antibiotics and anti-virals coursing through my veins via IV drip.
The only thing I remember thinking was, "I don't have a living will. Do these people realize I don't want to be kept alive on a ventilator if there's no chance of me recovering without it?".
I did recover, thanks to excellent care. Only to come home to a headline about this new virus. I figure it'll be what gets me -- but only because I now believe, in a way I never did before, in my own mortality.
If we need an artificial reality to explain our current situation, it's only natural. I would never - ever - have been able to imagine myself starved for oxygen and yet thinking primarily about how to ensure I died rather than lived that way. It's an extreme example, but modern life IS extreme in so many ways. And also very, very real.
4
@txpacotaco
Condolences, what a horrifying experience. Best wishes.
1
I’ve done something this evening I’ve never done. I’ve made goofy comments throughout a thread. But to you, I’m not being goofy. Please take extra care of yourself if you can. You don’t deserve to go through that twice.
It's not so much that we're just in a simulation. Identical versions of each of us exist in every possible context that could have produced us, and each of us is actually ALL those other selves. You are in multiple universes at the same time. Some of those universes are real and some are simulations. With every experience that changes you the set of YOUs divides, and you are no longer in as many places: there are other yous in different ones, yous that shared a history and then differentiated. As time goes on, the chances that you are in a simulation increase because you will have experienced so many improbable things that there won't be any other way for you to have been made. Subjectively, you live forever. Even mental decay doesn't change that because there's always a set of worlds in which your mind will be restored. If all you care about is yourself. If you care to do real things in real worlds, for their own sake, do them as early as possible and try not to make it necessary to keep you exclusively in a simulation.
7
I really loved that.
@Robert David South
Thanks for that.
My work here is done . . .
The author seems to have omitted the argument for the simulation hypothesis. It is quite a simple proof.
Premise - A sufficiently advanced civilisation (such as humanity 1000 years from now) could create a simulation of a universe that ran on simpler physical laws and still support sentient intelligence.
Premise - such a society would produce many such simulations for a variety of purposes (including historical scholarship, understanding economics, society etc)
Conclusion - a universe with advanced societies would eventually produce many simulated universes.
Conclusion - there will be many more simulated universes than real ones.
Conclusion - it is therefore more likely that you are in a simulated universe than a real one.
13
The weirdest perspective is that the one that says it believes this or that about the possibility of reality being a simulation is a part of the simulation! Yes. Identity, personality, the mind (thought), emotions, feelings, sensations are all a part of the simulation. Both the inner world and outer world are an illusion. Both what one believes themselves to be, and the believer are constantly changing. The personality is always changing. The moods are always are changing. At the atomic level the body is always changing. Thoughts are always changing. What doesn't change?
Continuous change seems to be constant. Except in deep sleep. It is rare to cross paths with one that professes (or reveals) to have 24/7 awareness of existing (or existence) - but it is not unheard of. The teaching is that when one experiences awareness of existence in all states of being - waking, dreaming, deep sleep - then they see this "reality" for what it is. And then one is no longer bound to the fears of the mind (like coronavirus).
Indian philosophy spoke of maya well before modern techies and their simulation hypothesis. Buddha spoke of the emptiness of forms well before quantum physics came along. What is being discussed is an old game. How does the one exist as the many without revealing the truth to itself?
1
@Peter
"At the atomic level the body is always changing."
Yeah, but only while you're not looking.
Dr. Fauci’s nonetheless welcome comments about COVID-19’s mortality rate lacked context. Based on analysis of Chinese data — which fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you view it) they have a lot of, mortality is highly age-sensitive. For those 80+ years old, mortality approaches 20%, and mortality for those 70-79 is roughly half of that. Another crucial difference with seasonal influenza is that COVID-19 appears to be less severe for infants and very young children.
All of which compares favorably with Sarah Palin’s ability to carry a tune, which is truly deadly.
@1954Stratocaster
Mortality is highly age-sensitive, even if you never get sick a day in your life.
" Another crucial difference with seasonal influenza is that COVID-19 appears to be less severe for infants and very young children."
If you are saying 'less severe than the flu' I can't find that here:
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2018-2019.html
"the basic idea around the simulation hypothesis really goes back to philosophers like Descartes"
The basic scenario is closer to Leibniz, for what it's worth.
1
For some reason, people who know nothing about philosophy have a thing for Descartes. This includes all neuroscientists and apparently at least some computer nerds. Maybe there is something reassuringly simple about “cogito ergo sum.”
From a distance, I admire the tech hubris of Musk and others. But I live with a commitment to knowing and accepting the real - and that, in my opinion, is actually much harder. Understanding one's finitude is a crucial component to understanding the pains, ambitions, and freedoms of others.
Today, it is not simulations that should keep us awake. But the full-throated expressions of Neo-fascist propaganda spewing from the rotting head of this administration.
And what makes him so endearing to so many? That other great simulation: religion.
9
Ms. Swisher -
Really wanted to see the film Tron and the generalized works of William Gibson connected more lineally (within existing 20th century segment ) or as outright timeline anchor . Gratuitous nitpicking aside , the articles just a great piece on here today , thanks .
I don’t believe we live in a simulation. I do believe the creator is essentially a super computer of unfathomable intelligence with the creativity of the ultimate artist. Existence is inherently paradoxical because one of these scenarios is true: there is either a god Who has always existed and will always exist and whose origin is essentially magical or there is no god and the universe birthed Itself from nothing. Each answer is a contradiction so the only way you can understand reality is if you accept paradox. I wrote about this in my independent book called God laughs at dirty jokes. My next book in progress is called life is magic.
Uh:
"But while most people think they actually do exist, wouldn’t it be nice to have a blame-free explanation to cope with the freak show that has become our country and the world?"
"Blame free?"
I don't think so.
The simulation hypothesis makes no testable predictions, so it lies outside the realm of science and inside the realm of religion. Wonder about it if you will, but you'll get just as far debating how many angels fit on the head of a pin.
18
The simulation hypothesis predicts that when we examine the laws of physics and phenomena that govern the universe, we will find many quirks that appear to have no rhyme or reason, but would be very helpful for saving a computer system processing time.
For example, the speed of light dramatically limits the ability of objects to interact with each other at long distances, which fundamentally limits the scope of an objects interactions.
That would make things easier to simulate..
1
@Callum I agree it's neat, but unless it becomes falsifiable it's not science. There has to be a way to disprove it, and there isn't.
@M.
Uh:
"The simulation hypothesis makes no testable predictions."
NO, you're wrong.
And - uh:
"Wonder about it if you will, but you'll get just as far debating how many angels fit on the head of a pin."
No - you're wrong again, see:
“Proofs are not abstract. There is no such thing as proving something abstractly. One can, of course, define a class of abstract entities and call them 'proof,' but those 'proofs' can not verify mathematical statements because no one can see them. For example, the theory of relativity explains gravity in terms of a new, 4-dimensional geometry, what makes it so important, is that it explains the fabric or reality itself.” D. Deutsch
It may be so, but without a means of accessing and modifying the source code we're stuck with it as it appears to be. (Show us your tax returns, Trump.)
1
Ancient Indian philosophy has been hinting at the simulation hypothesis for a few thousand years. It is only now that once computing power is near the threshold of replicating this so-called "reality" that those in the Western World have begun to entertain this concept as possible.
Interpretation of Drg Drśya Viveka leads to the understanding of maya-what is perceived through the sensory system that reports to the brain is not what it seems to be. It could be that this reality of names and forms is constantly being made up. The maddening part is that the mind also belongs to maya. So the very instrument that is being used to perceive the illusion is a part of the illusion. And the greatest inaccuracy of humanity is the identification with the illusion (body/mind). And usually that which is identified with and possessed by the body/mind is not very receptive to this perspective about "reality".
It is not that none of what is experienced is real. The illusion and the real are mixed as one. It's just that maya is able to project the perceived world while veiling the real. And the unveiling is the path of enlightenment.
Whether it is a simulation or a lucid dream - none of it can be kept. It is because we are so identified with the illusion that we value life so greatly. And because we are so identified with the illusion, there is a lot of fear for the well being of the body. And in this state of mind it is hard to make thoughtful choices about the well being of others.
6
Yes, the illusion (maya) of the separate self leads to fear and fear leads to suffering. That is the outcome of our egoic thinking - from eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge. But it seems we stand at the crossroads in our evolution (within the dream of evolution) in that we are becoming aware of the illusion, and thus have the possibility to transcend it. Even the simulation presents choice. However, in more ways than one the choices these days unfortunately look more like prisoner’s dilemma...
What a tangled web we weave when we're trying to perceive.
2
Those with curiosity about the history of philosophy may be interested to learn that simulation theories have been around for thousands of years in various forms. The basic idea that the world of phenomena is deceptive in its essential nature has long existed in Hindu philosophy as the concept of Maya. The supercomputer that generates Maya is for convenience called Mother Kali.
Since mystics have been contemplating the nature of Maya for eons, it is at least theoretically possible that brainy Silicon Valley geeks could learn something from studying their efforts. Obstacles would be encountered, no doubt, including some severe limitations on what the human mind can know.
The ordinary mind itself exists in Maya and therefore lacks an external vantage point to view Maya as it is, which has led mystics to seek higher realms of consciousness as a solution. One of the first barriers encountered is, of course, the fuzziness of the concept of individual self and its precious ego sense. In other words, the question of unreality is pervasive and affects knowledge in all its forms.
5
Simusilliness
The key feature of 'the' simulation hypothesis is that there is a boundless (literally infinite) space of possible simulation hypotheses and there is no principled way to choose among them. Mad teenagers, green lizards in space, diabolical superhuman neuroscientists, take your pick. If your tastes incline you to confer the relevant super powers on a great man in the sky or any of countless other fantasies humans have entertained sometime or somewhere, go for it. But until the proponent of one of these 'theories' takes the terrible risk of showing how human perceptions of what we take to be the real world can somehow draw the curtain back and reveal something of how these beings do their work, these stories are all equally plausible and equally implausible.
The fact that techies, or any other clan, can take one of these fantasies and spin within it some story of their own virtue is merely the latest incarnation of a truly ancient tradition. It aims to construct 'divine' sanction for an impressive list of commonplace human perversities.
5
@WC
Right. Our world being a simulation is neither more nor less plausible or probable than our world being a dream of God, or any of a trillion other equally unfounded speculations.
In addition such notions are not only inconsequential, untestable and unsupported by evidence but also unimaginative and tedious.
1
No, this is not a simulation.
We're living in a terribly
realistic Dystopian novel.
The voters who put Trump in office,
wrote this novel, and their votes turned
their fantasies into reality.
19
The idea that we’re all living in a simulation took off big time among tech folks in 2003 ... the idea of the simulation hypothesis has been a long- running, sort-of joke among some of Silicon Valley’s top players, some of whom take it more seriously than you might imagine ... we got a look-see at this tech-heavy idea in the 1999 movie “The Matrix.”
Marijuana in California has been legal for "medical" use since 1996, and for recreational use since late 2016.
Just sayin it reminds me of a lot of dorm room conversations in the late 70s in a very low-enforcement zone of upstate New York.
3
Ms Swisher missed a couple of simulation theory points, without which it's just another theory rather than the foundational reality.
First, belief is irrelevant. The theory is beyond that type of low-brow thinking. It's more like a logical necessity because it is far more probable than any other theory. What that means is we have to believe in it, because any other belief is less probable. There is no choice but to believe it hook, line, and sinker: we are simulations all the way down.
Second is the ramification of that necessary belief. Since it's (close to) a priori true, it changes everything. Thus we have no free will, just an ostensible freedom. Which is to say we are automatons programmed at the quantum foam level and that provides a radical freedom, of a sort. Consider the fixed action pattern of tying your shoe, you do it with unconscious grace - that's true freedom, that's how we live, if you can call it that.
Okay, we live in a simulation. But why would it matter if everything we know and everything can experience is within that simulation, i.e. unlike the heroes of the Matrix we can't have a perspective from outside of the simulation that would tell us that it exists. We are fish who can't understand what is meant by water.
2
If that we’re true, that we cannot access knowledge of the unmanifested you’d be correct - we wouldn’t understand our medium of existence. But there are ways to lift the veil of maya and access this... seek and thee shall find.
What we are living in is an enlarged reality TV series, written, produced and brought to us by Donald Trump. Unfortunately for us, reality has intruded on the script, and Trump has so little regard for truth, he wouldn’t recognize it if it hit him on the head.
9
First, I must digress, Dr. Fauci's statement is correct but not nearly as threatening as it sounds. The lethality rate for current flu viruses is about 0.3%. That for COVID-19 about 3%. A factor of 10 but still low. It's comparable to most other flu viruses before we had vaccines.
Now to this all being a simulation. If true we have been programmed to be unable to verify it as self awareness would likely invalidate the results.
The alternative hypothesis I prefer is that a supreme intelligence ("God" in the common vernacular) triggered a physical process that will ultimately achieve some unrealized goal. If we are to believe this goal is a being of similar intelligence and power then I argue that the process is barely underway.
@Alan
1) You mean like the flu of 1918 that infected one of every three people on earth and killed about 30 million? That low risk infection? IF only 1 billion of the 7.5 billion people currently alive is infected, 3% still means 30 million deaths. If one of 3 is infected (2.5 billion people), that's 75 million deaths.
2) What would be the point of your God's goal to create a being of similar intelligence to God? And why would it need to kill 30 million people every now and then in the process? Doesn't sound like supreme intelligence to me.
Yes, we must be living in a simulation. The proof, Mr. Trump's statement: "the testing has been going very smoothly".
8
It'd certainly give his frequent "Buh-leeve me"s new, terrifying meaning.
Yes, the people who believe in the simulation hypothesis have (like me) dedicated their lives to make the next level of simulation a reality (in our case, starting with atoms and working our way up). It has a lot of practical impacts but my primary goals are to simulate consciousness and eventually the universe as we know it (which of course we're very far from doing and we may even never do, but for me it is the process of trying that matters).
3