Are we living in a computer simulation? Simulation Argument

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Jim Elvidge author of "The Universe Solved" discusses alternate realities, living in a programmed reality. Is the concept of the Matrix possible? If we're not living in a simulation right now? Then how far away are we from creating our own simulated reality?

http://www.theuniversesolved.com/evidence.htm

OK, how about some of that evidence...

1. OUR DISCRETE WORLD - It takes an infinite amount of resources to create a continuous reality, but a finite amount to create a quantized reality. The very nature of the computational mechanisms of a computer are essentially the same as Quantum Mechanics - a sequence of states, with nothing existing or happening between the states. The resolution of any program is analogous to the spatial resolution of our reality, just at a different level. In fact, if you carry Moore's Law forward (which has been consistent over the past 40 years), computers will reach the Planck resolution in 2192. Not too far off. However, you don't need to model reality all the way to that level for the model to be indistinguishable from our reality. Let's say you want to examine the guts of a tree. You cut it open, scrape off a few cells and put them under a microscope, maybe an electron microscope. To simulate this computationally, one doesn't have to model every single tree down to the Planck level. Only the OBSERVED tree needs to be modeled, and then only the cells selected, and then only down to a resolution that matches the observational limitations of our measurement devices. The program can do that dynamically. And all quantum effects can be programmatically modeled without building a reality model to the Planck level. So, given Moore's law and the limitations of "observational reality", we should be able to create Virtual Realities that are indistinguishable from our current reality within 20 years or so. The very fact that our reality is quantized may be considered strong evidence that reality is programmed.

2. THE SIMULATION TIMELINE - Various modern philosophers and scientists have posited that we are likely to be living a simulation. This is because it is highly probable that we will be able to create ancestor simulations within a few years, when we achieve a trans-human stage. Due either to the number of simulations that will be run, or to the proximity that we are to that stage, it is actually more probable that we are in one than the case where we haven't yet reached that stage. Again, there is no way to tell that we aren't in a programmed reality.

3. THE FINE-TUNED UNIVERSE - The universe is unbelievably finely tuned for the physical existence of matter, let alone life. For example, universal constants cancel out all of the vacuum energy in the universe to an amazing accuracy of one part in 10 to the 115th power. Also, a deviation in the expansion rate of the early universe of 1 part in a billion in either direction would have caused the universe to immediately collapse, or fly apart so fast that stars could never have formed. And there are many many more such examples. The only explanation that mainstream science can come up with is that zillions (yes, I know it's not a real number) of universes are spawned every second, most of which are entirely useless and throw-away, and via the hand-waving of the anthropic principle, we happen to be in the only perfect one. I'm sorry, but Occam's Razor heavily favors the simulation theory here.

4. THOSE PESKY ANOMALIES - The huge set of well-studied anomalies facing us in fields as varied as metaphysics, physics, philosophy, geology, anthropology, and psychology can all be explained ONLY by the programmed reality model. The mathematics of coincidence, the perceived acceleration of society, OOPart, the truth about the paranormal, quantum entanglement, black gold - they all fit neatly into this hypothesis. No other theory can make that claim.

SO, PERHAPS OUR REALITY IS PROGRAMMED!

[NinjaPuppy]

[Nostradamus]

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[ciscop]

hahaha i got a friend that for a while he deeply believed in the matrix and big brother conspiracy.. quite cool...

well i guess if we get philosophical
we all can be nothing but a dream of a fly

but my PSI tells me that aint so

[Nostradamus]

[Ellie]

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Check out this mind blowing video about how we could already be past the Omega Point (a singularity where the universe collapses into "one" literally) and living in an "ancestor simulation". The way Sam Harris describes it is very fascinating.

Description:
Why the Omega Point has almost certainly already occurred, and you are most likely a Sim simulated from the end of time.



Another one:



This video gives a brief summary of Nick Bostrom's "Simulation Hypothesis". On the surface, Bostrom's simulation hypothesis is an example of a skeptical hypothesis, a proposal concerning the nature of reality put forward to question beliefs, and as such, there is a long history to the underlying thesis that reality is an illusion. However, Bostrom has argued that there are empirical reasons why the 'Simulation Hypothesis' might be valid. He suggests that if it is possible to simulate entire inhabited planets or even entire universes on a computer, and that such simulated people can be fully conscious, then the sheer number of such simulations likely to be produced by any sufficiently advanced civilization (taken together with his Strong Self-Sampling Assumption) makes it extremely likely that we are in fact currently living in such a simulation.

Bostrom contends that at least one of the following statements is overwhelmingly likely to be true:

No civilization will reach a level of technological maturity capable of producing simulated realities.

No civilization reaching aforementioned technological status will produce a significant number of simulated realities, for any of a number of reasons, such as diversion of computational processing power for other tasks, ethical considerations of holding entities captive in simulated realities, etc.
Any entities with our general set of experiences are almost certainly living in a simulation.

The audio is from an episode of a "Red Ice Creations" Podcast with Jim Elvidge: an expert in complex computational systems, with over 20 years of research in cosmology, quantum mechanics, philosophy, anomalies, and futurism. He is the author of "The Universe-Solved!"

Within 30 years, we will be able to create virtual environments indistinguishable from our reality. Within a few more decades, even physical realities will be manufactured. And we are marching toward an inevitable merge with machines. What's more, it is actually impossible to tell whether or not we have already reached that point.

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Computer code discovered in superstring theory? Is this proof of a holographic or simulated universe?



http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.12/holytech.html

"An ultimate simulation needs an ultimate computer, and the new science of digitalism says that the universe itself is the ultimate computer — actually the only computer. Further, it says, all the computation of the human world, especially our puny little PCs, merely piggybacks on cycles of the great computer. Weaving together the esoteric teachings of quantum physics with the latest theories in computer science, pioneering digital thinkers are outlining a way of understanding all of physics as a form of computation."

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The Simulation Hypothesis/Argument seems to growing in popularity. See these informative links:

http://www.simulation-argument.com/

http://simulism.org/Simulism

http://simulism.org/The_Expanding_Simulation

Article about it in the NY Time. The ending part is funny.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/science/14tier.html

German scientists have found evidence that the entire universe may be a holographic projection around the Earth:

http://beforeitsnews.com/space/2012/01/ ... 58888.html

Video slide show with short explanation:

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Check out this documentary about the Holographic Universe. Apparently, mainstream physicists are now leaning toward the holographic model of the universe, because all the evidence and experiments and new discoveries are pointing in that direction. For an in-depth explanation, see part one of the film below.

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Check out this documentary by Martin Rees called "Are we real?":

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Fascinating short video that gives 10 logical reasons why we are living in a computer simulation, or "God's video game".