Computers and the Internet have changed the way we conceive of the universe. Complex systems, algorithms, programming, pixels, data-mining, viral propagation and virtual realities are new additions to the vocabulary of modern thought. These concepts have migrated to books, films and TV and to the single most powerful way we create models of our universe, scientific hypothesis.
Welcome to The Simulation Theory, because without computers, this theory couldn’t exist.
If you’ve seen The Matrix, you already know a lot about this theory. Neo is trapped in an extremely compelling artificial reality. He wakes up in the real world which is nowhere near as seductive or addictive as the illusory Matrix.
The theory was first proposed by the futurist Hans Moravec (Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University) and was elaborated on in a paper by Professor Nick Bostrom (Oxford University) who theorized we could all be living in a simulation. But Bostrom doesn’t stop there. He goes on to say it is likely we are already in a simulation being run by a “post human” civilization in our own future. Simulation Theory continues to ignite excitement in the scientific community, recently being championed by NASA/JPL’s Rich Terrile and turning up in scientific papers.
Could a technically advanced society simulate a reality indistinguishable from actual reality? Could the universe we perceive be such a simulacrum? What about our conscious minds? Are we simulated too?
The Simulation Argument
Here’s is an excerpt from Dr. Bostrom’s paper.
It may be possible for simulated civilizations to become posthuman. They may then run their own ancestor-simulations on powerful computers they build in their simulated universe. Such computers would be “virtual machines”, a familiar concept in computer science. (Java script web-applets, for instance, run on a virtual machine – a simulated computer – inside your desktop.) Virtual machines can be stacked: it’s possible to simulate a machine simulating another machine, and so on, in arbitrarily many steps of iteration. If we do go on to create our own ancestor-simulations, this would be strong evidence against (1) and (2), and we would therefore have to conclude that we live in a simulation. Moreover, we would have to suspect that the posthumans running our simulation are themselves simulated beings; and their creators, in turn, may also be simulated beings.
According to Bostrom, life could be a vast computer program with a complex set of rules accounting for growth, reproduction and death. Our senses could be an illusion. We could be simulacra.
The sticky little issue The Simulation Theory ultimately creates, is the idea of God. Creationists sometimes latch onto the theory as a potential way to prove there is a creator. Scientists usually propose the simulation is generated by an advanced society or our future selves. Physicists like Stephen Hawking have sold a lot of books using the God trigger. But whether the universe is an organic phenomena or a simulation, the rules of science are the ultimate tool to perceive it.
Rich Terrile, of the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena appeared on Morgan Freeman’s Through the Wormhole and discussed this very point. “What are the requirements for God? He’s an inter-dimensional being, connected with everything in the Universe, a creator, responsible for everything in the Universe, and in some way can change the law of physics, if he wanted to. I think those are good requirements for what God ought to be.” The definition is awfully close to what computer programmers do, when building simulated environments. Terrile offers a thought equation as proof, “Look at the way the Universe behaves, it’s quantized, it’s made of pixels. Space is quantized, matter is quantized, energy is quantized, everything is made of individual pixels. Which means the Universe has a finite number of components. Which means a finite number of states. Which means it’s computer.” And Rich Terrile estimates that we will be able to create a “photo real simulation of all that we see around us” in ten years. Ten year may sound astoundingly quick, but according to Moore’s law, the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years. Although Terrile believes that’s a slow estimation and that in a decade computational power will increase by 500.
Anyone who has played The Sims knows that creator Will Wright, somehow codified the ordinary rules of life into an artificial reality. Just like a Phillip K. Dick’s novel, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, where Martian colonists project themselves into avatars to play Perky Pat. The Sims allows players to operate a community of humans. The Sims even has a form of simulated karma. I once played an early version of The Sims where if you neglected the game the house caught on fire!
Even though virtual reality is only a crude shadow of a simulated reality, programmers like Will Wright are still able to create physics for their world. Will Wright’s game Spore, takes the idea further, allowing the player to act as a god and play with the virtual world’s physics, creating lifeforms that evolve from microscopic organisms into complex animals, then intelligent beings. Once a species reaches planetary mastery, it ascends into space to interact with alien species across the galaxy.
Some scientists are proposing ways to prove the Simulation theory. Rich Terrile points out that the famous double slit experiment involving interference and diffraction of particles is evidence that the universe may be assembling itself only when we observe it, and disassembling when we aren’t paying attention… sort of like a computer game. “The experiment shows something really rather extraordinary, that matter, even though it behaves when you are looking at it, measuring it, as individual particles, when you are not looking at it, matter is diffuse. It spreads out, it doesn’t have a finite form in the Universe… The Universe gives you what you are looking at when you look at it,” Terrile says.“When you are not looking at it, it’s not necessarily there.”
How can we prove we are in a simulation? Researchers Silas R. Beane, Zohreh Davoudi, Martin J. Savage propose we look for signs of “constraint” in the Universe. “The numerical simulation scenario could reveal itself in the distributions of the highest energy cosmic rays exhibiting a degree of rotational symmetry breaking that reflects the structure of the underlying lattice.” So if we measure the highest-energy cosmic rays known in the universe and find out those cosmic rays are constrained in some way, we may be living inside a bubble.
Anybody got a million dollars?
The Simulation Theory as time travel:
Nick Bostrom talks about The Simulation Argument:
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(Please read until the end of my comment)
I agree the most with CJ the first person to comment. I personally believe that the soul is eternal. The flesh is just where the soul lays. I think we are in a “game” and that the red quotes of Jesus in the New Testament can be related to a modern super computer. His instructions are how to enter into Heaven, a real physical place. That is the point of the game. Perhaps you wake up in a perfect body in Heaven after your last breaths on Earth. Perhaps some people reincarnate into animals as he says the meek inherit the Earth. I think God is outside of space and is an immortal being. I believe it’s much more advanced and respectable than just a “computer programmer”. It’s the almighty God. Maybe space is real estate that Gods can purchase planets for their creation. He found Earth and planted human beings here. How is irrelevant.
Anyways, The Heavens are the reward for all those that do good on Earth. I believe the Heavens will be much better than the Earth. No corruption or sickness ever. It’s all perfection.
You know how I know all of this? A man with divine power, named Jesus did walk the Earth. He taught of believing in God , not of man. I’m not a very religious person at all. I don’t follow people, I follow Jesus’s teachings.
To get back to “computery”, look at this. If A is 1 , B is 2, C is 3 and so on until Z is 26.
G + O + D = 26. How many letters are there?
E+A+R+T+H = 52. How many weeks are in an orbit around the Sun? Also 5+2=7 How many days are in a week? G is the 7th letter....G 🌍 D.
Most people laugh and say I’m bizarre, but I’m smart enough to know that these calculations are no coincidence. There’s no way I’m just full of it on this.
The year is 2021 because it’s been 2021 years since Jesus. There has to be truth to the New Testament.
God is real. Earth is real. Heaven is real. No offense, but God is much more than a computer programmer.
You have a fascinating mind...
So, not to complicate this discussion... but I have also been researching near death experiences (NDE's). Well, not to spoil it for anyone, but NDE's may give some answers as to life outside the simulation. A Christian and non-Christian alike may both find solace in the connection between NDE's and Sim Theory. As a Christian, you all know what I believe, but I want all faiths and athiests alike to know that, in my research, I have come to believe that there is life beyond this Simulation for all. So, not to give unwanted advice, but... just do your best to make sure you prepare yourself for life after the Sim and not put all your efforts into life within the Sim. As a Christian I realize that my life is but a vapor, and I am always a breath away from departing the Sim. I won't preach to anyone out there, but please just realize this is a Sim. And if you care to, research NDE's and see what people of different faiths report when they leave their Earthly bodies. It personally strengthened my belief that it's not just a Creator that made us, but one that also loved us. I know science amd faith are always seemingly at odds with one another, but we are two brothers with the same Father. We are just looking at the world with a different magnification setting on our microscope.
I watch NDE's all the time. They are quite profound.
One more comment if you will indulge me... I can't conceive that the greatest intellectuals with the highest education, the Einstein's of the world let's call them, could come up with two different answers on whether there is a God in Heaven, a true Sim author. One is surely correct, one is surely lying. The two questions we must ask ourselves are: which answer is correct? and why is the other one lying?
Before last night, when I saw the Glitch in the Matrix, I didn't know about the Simulation Theory. Actually, though, I came up with an almost identical theory on my own. I actually published a book about 5 years ago, Life Is But A Dream on Amazon based on my belief that we are living in a simulation. One specific chapter actually is about a person in Heaven who can create any Heaven he wants. He ends up making rain and storms and cloudy days. When pressed by a visitor as to why he just didn't make it sunny all the time, the person basically says, "All that perfection just gets a little boring sometimes." My belief is that the Christian God and not a humanoid computer programmer(s) are behind it. Regardless, the point I will make here is that Christianity has Jesus himself coming down from Heaven and telling us basically that we are living in a simulation of eternal consequence. So it's not just a game to me. One last point, Bill Nye the Science Guy points to the strata (layers) of the earth as proof that the Earth in very old and evolved over time. Basically, he says, the deeper you go down, the simpler the living organisms become, pointing to evolution. However, couldn't the master programmer have designed it that way? It seems like the vast majority of Simulation Theory believers believe that some being, humanoid or super human, like God, designed the simulation. However, what is amazing is that Simulation theory, God or otherwise, is the only theory that allows an explanation for how Bill Nye and Genesis can both be correct. In other words, the "world" may actually only be thousands or so years old, but the designer made it look like it had been around millions of years. If I had a motto it would be, "There is no reality other than that which we perceive to be reality" Thus, try as we may, we never find the truth as long as we are peering out from our own eyes. We just don't have the perspective. But it's fun and intriguing to try!!! I personally am banking on the belief that when Jesus came down, died, and rose, that He definitely knew who the "programmer" was. Maybe it's not an old man on a throne like paintings of God are usually drawn, but I have never seen such evidence as I have with Jesus that... Yes, there is a programmer, and Yes, it does matter how we behave in this simulation, and Yes, it does matter what we believe. The only real question for me left is "Why did the programmer feel the need to create this simulation?" Was it simply a test of our faith? Was is some kind of sick winless game of meaningless delusions and hallucinations of perceived reality? Or is it, once again, beyond our comprehension. As a Christian, I need not worry about all that, but as a Scientist, it would be really cool to know why. To me, God is the coolest "gamer" ever, but again I repeat, it's a game with eternal consequence. So, in the end, be kind, love your neighbor and love the God that created you. I won't put down any athiests or non-Christians if you don't attack me. We have too much common ground in that we both believe that this is a simulation, a test, or some non-reality, reality. Someday soon, we shall all perish and find truth. Until then, love this beautiful world on all its wonderfully designed beauty. Hopefully, the next world will be just as beautiful or more. God promises us that. Whatever you believe, we pretty much all believe that our life is temporary. Even if you believe in reincarnation, it won't be the same life you live over again. So, we are all one offs, one of a kind, never to be duplicated, one in a gazillion. You're special. Love yourself. Smile. Enjoy the wonderful possibilities this world has to offer. And whem things don't go so well. The heck with it! It's just a simulation any way. LOL
Great points, and treading that line between spirituality and science too. Nice.
Want MORE Reasons?
2016 Isaac Asimov's Memorial Debate, Particle Vs Wave Duality, Zeno's Paradoxes, We NEVER "Touch" anything, Atoms are 99.999999999999% Empty Space, We are Stardust, We SEE everything UPSIDE DOWN, REG's and Global Consciousness. Placebo Effect, Psychokinesis, Remote Viewing, Quantum Gravity, Plato's "The Cave", IT from Bit, Black Hole Thermodynamics, AdS/CFT Correspondence!!, Claude Shannon 1948 "Information Theory", Dr Sylvester James Gates found "Error Correcting Codes" in Supersymmetry Universal equations, Rene Descartes 1641 "Meditations on 1st Philosophy, Hindu belief of MAYA and ALL is Illusion...
And even Our DNA is 100% Programmable and "Completely Compatible with the Digital World!"
SO... what ELSE can explain ALL of these??
Just the Placebo Effect or possibly Reincarnation would lead me to Question Everything. "The Unexamined Life is NOT worth Living!"
God bless the Golden Ratio.
Always attempting to DISPROVE First got me this far. "Row row row Your boat...
Because life is... what WE make it! ENJOY!
Dude, you are a machine! I mean that in a nice way :)
Wow, Richard... thanks! What a list!
Other reasons for living in a Sim include: Quantum Entanglement, Black Hole Info Paradox, Cellular Memory Transfer, Dual Slit, World Grid where ALL Pyramids are found, Mandela Effect, the book "The Secret", Water has Memory, Fractal Universe and my Favorite that Proves not Only GOD is a Programmer but that this IS a Simulation is the GOLDEN RATIO. It is found Everywhere including between the planets AND their orbits, ALL divisible by this Magical "Programmers PROOF"
These are just a FEW reasons linking Quantum and its newest discoveries to ancient beliefs worldwide. There are Many more. Remember, "Reality IS an Illusion, albeit a very Persistent one." Stated by - Albert Einstein
I have a challenge for Dr Bostrum. What if there are four postulations available to us?
1. We humans will become extinct before we can develop into a 'posthuman' stage of civilisation
2. Any posthuman civilisation will have access to computer power so vast that time travel will be routine using computer-generated simulations of the past.
3. That we are all living in one of these ancestor simulations.
4. We are all living in a self perpetuating simulation, AND the original creator has become extinct?
Indeed by the same premise of postulations, no ancestor simulation exists without the simulator, because the simulating program is a perpetual one unto eternity in, of, through, by and for the original Creator.
Indeed! What if the original creator is extinct? Nice.
Even if the "so" real crator is extinct, the algorythm of its mine might be eternal to our perveption of space and time.
True, the creator may have made a self perpetuating program that learns and evolves. Great point!
The most awesome thing in the entire universe is neither the plasma outbursts of the sun, DNA configuration nor the awesome power of the brain nor the singularity of several materials (like water & cosmic shield, etc) that make our existence on earth mysterious - IT IS the fact that all these (all created material matter) had the POTENTIAL to be, before they were! That's called "Void" in Genesis 1:2, in the Bible!
God is Omnipotent and inhabits eternity (Isaiah 57:15 & Revelation 19:6). In the beginning, the only thing that could've sustained (and prevented) that infinitesimal (near-zero) quantum potential (which always exits for any potential or material or immaterial matter) from extinction & therefore cataclysmic disorder of the universe, is an opposite and equal, super-duper energy (into eternity)!
You know what? That is what my God is - the Alpha and Omega, Omnipotent God, the Beginning & the Ending (Revelation 1:8)!
He is all-wise, all-powerful; the Beginning & the Ending; and therefore easily the Master SIMULATOR who from the beginning simulated the ending - even into eternity by His Holy Spirit (Genesis 1:2-4) - having used His wisdom and power (Jesus - 1 Corinthians 1:24) so to do,
Need I say any more? Our human program is surely a sub-program designed to interface with His"Absolute Qualified Domain" by the power of the Holy Spirit in the domain of the wisdom and power of God - Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:24)!
The whole Bible is replete with evidence of simulation - if nothing, prophetically telling things before they happen! Ours remain the re-alignment of our individual selves to the true simulation that is primarily about eternal life and the perpetual, unlimited potentio-kinetic manifestation of material matter to make life more glorious into eternity - both through Jesus Christ in the interface of the Holy Spirit..
Need I say more? The illumination on "The African Secret" of the end-times says it all. Contact: E.M. Braide; embraide@gmail.com; +2348033105251. Book coming out soon! Enjoy the simulation while you have the time now; but please do your re-alignment now through Jesus Christ! Simulation is not a joke; its about your life into eternity of regrets or glory!
Science and God are not incompatible, as long as you don't try to conform the Universe to the bible.
Simulation Theory: Is God a Computer Programmer?
What do you Think?
Ha ha , This is typical of trying to make existing belief fit into the GAPS. Why just one programer?? A program of this magnitude could have Dozens. hundreds/ Millions of programmers. So to all you people trying to slot the OMNIPOTENT god in. I propose that we insert at least 1000+ gods. each having responsibility for different aspects of the code ( Subroutines ). Sure there is a Head programer but he is probably just a Manager and he would report to the GM and then onto the CEO. You would have many programmers with their own speciality ( like thunder and lightning, Water, Love etc etc ) Oh wait, thats Greek God philosophy. In fact The greek system fits better into the analogy. Name any modern day program written by one god,, I mean Man.
Programmers whose specialty is lightning and thunder? Love that idea!!!!
I don't think we are living in simulation that some outside power created. I think we are in a simulation that we created controlled by some Global Operations Device (GOD) that we also built. It's a natural progression from current BMIs to replacing our brains and living in an electronic computer. Our brains are just fancy biological computers and can be duplicated with proper software and hardware. (I should say almost duplicated - I have discovered on flaw with the idea, but I think there's a work-around.) I think we have left our original earth because it's too dangerous and are somewhere in superconducting intergalactic (inter universe) space. We pass the time living in these simulations - we're all in a gamer's trance. I did write a short story describing the path taken from cochlear implants to neural enhancements to the death of our biological brain and from there to eternity.
Great theory, you should write Sci Fi!
Simulation Theory: Is God a Computer Programmer? I don't know it depends on what you believe p.s interesting
Thanks!
There seems to me to be no substitute for synchronisity. I came to an understanding yesterday that I am a program, living out my program within a program.
Call it a simulation, a VR or simply a program ... it's all the same.
To my way of thinking. our future selves have the computing power (Morse's Law) to create this wonderful VR of which we are all a part.
There are rule sets (Tom Campbell) within this program. So that we have a fundamentally stable system. But we, for the most part, are unaware of those rule sets.
Inherently, I think we all exist in a maze - pick your poison. From Buda to Christ, and anything in-between, you can choose (or inherit) your baseline philosophical framework; but regardless, its simply a maze that takes you 'round and 'round until this disposable, biologically-based, genetically engineered machine (which we are) ceases to function.
Jump from maze to maze, throughout your life if you choose - its of no consequence ... the designers have designed in an intellectual ceiling within the system that keeps us twirling 'round and 'round like dancing bears in a circus ring. Programmed as we are to do the dance - but never knowing the reason behind it all.
To my way of thinking - it is a program, simulation or VR that we are within. And at the hands of our future selves who created all of this by way of their computers.
I am not saying I'm right here. Just that this is my way of thinking with regard to all of this, at this particular point in time.
Cheers,
John
That is very close to how I feel. We're in some kind of maze.
Hi Amy,
We have this illusion of being on some sort of journey – some sort of an individual growth process. It’s all so real – so tangible, you can taste it. But it’s just an illusion. Our program is to seek out – but there is (ultimately) nothing 'to' seek out.
It’s our program, which continually runs its course within us, until we cease to exist.
New biologically based machines come along running their programs, seeking out their individual life-journey – but it’s all for naught. A personalized illusion. Brought about by a program, just for us. A program that is not only ‘for’ us, personally, but also integrates and interacts with countless other programs – a giant clockwork if you will, with cogs interacting with other cogs in a vast unimaginably complex machine (or program).
We are even duped into believing that we are more than these biologically based machines (these bodies) to somehow give us an operating set (or program) that keeps us moving forward.
You see, the key is to keep us moving forward until we realized that there’s nothing more to move forward into. Like lemmings over cliffs.
It’s wonderfully diverse actually, and for me, of late, that in itself is the enjoyment… the complexity, the diversity of it all.
What form of intelligence it must take to spin it all ‘round and ‘round.
Tom Campbell (with all due respect) has his maze, which he is more than happy to propagate. David Ike, Dr. Steven Greer, etc., etc., etc. – ad infinite. And certainly new mazes will come ‘on line’. And of course we have the old standby’s …Jesus, Buddha and countess prophets of old, all just waiting there for us to jump into their maze.
Certainly – they are all wonderful mazes. Rich in what they can deliver to the individual. And certainly the individual program, which we each operate under, interfaces with the larger, grander scheme or program, of which we are all a part.
Occam's (Ockham's) razor tells us that the simplest, or fewer assumptions that are made, the better.
It that case, a VR, or computer program seems to have an edge. No folding universes, multi-dimensions, one upon another – no ‘strings’… no theoretical mathematical calisthenics.
But simulation (as an often-used term) is a misnomer – there is no simulation – there is no reality other that the program (or program reality) of which we are a part.
Proof? How about he double slit experiment.
The singularity (Ray Kurzweil) has come and gone. It’d old history … if such a thing as history even exists
We are on tract towards our own ‘singularity’, which may simply repeat those of our predecessors. At which point we will create our own program to replicate ourselves, so on and so forth.
We will emulate our creator gods.
Layer upon layer.
Simulation – this program isn’t simulating anything – it’s all there is.
The physical reality, which we all so readily buy into, is an illusion.
Simply part of the program.
So you see, it doesn’t matter what maze you’re in – whether it was chosen by you or chosen for you; handed down from your parents or those intrinsic societal norms which seems to latch on to us so easily.
See the maze?
Cheers,
John
…
An answer worthy of Phillip K. Dick :)
One final thought here, if I may.
Gravity has always been of keen interest to me.
But I don't think gravity exists as we have come to know or understand it.
Within this simulation thought process, as one many rule sets or program parameters, I would suggest that dark energy is the fabric of the universe - it is the underlying energy grid for all matter that exists within the universe. It is the energy grid with which all matter connects. And that what we have come to know of and understand as gravity, is the result of mass interacting with dark energy.
Gravity is the energy stream which all matter produces as it consumes dark energy.
Presently, the most common view of the universe is that ordinary matter, biological life forms like us, as well as stars, planets and galaxies make up only a few percent of the universe. An additional quarter or so is made up of matter that’s invisible, called dark matter. Dark matter does not interact with the electromagnetic spectrum, nor does it release any detectable energy - although it does exert gravitational pull on the visible matter within the universe. The rest, nearly three quarters of the universe, is made up of what is termed dark energy.
So why is there is so much dark energy present within the universe?
Dark energy is the fabric of the universe. The underlying matrix, lattice or substrate with which all matter connects. It is the underlying form, which facilitates the existence of all matter. Dark energy is the universal grid into which all things connect. Matter, in order to exist, consumes dark energy, and in the process creates the effect we have come to know of as gravity. Which is in actuality is the effect of this energy consumption.
Gravity has never been recognized for what it is – the consumption stream of matter as it consumes dark energy.
There is a flow of dark energy into all matter – the larger (denser) the mass, the greater the flow. This flow or stream of dark energy as it flows into mass is what we witness as gravity.
Dark energy and mass are locked into an endless dance, whereby mass is continually consuming energy, dark energy, in order to exist.
Gravity is the effect witnessed, as energy is being consumed by mass. All mass, as part of its existence, is kept in a continual loop with dark energy. In order to exist within the universe, mass is locked into a cycle in which it feeds upon dark energy.
How can matter exist without energy? Matter is energy.
Nothing can exist within a completely sterile environment, a system devoid of everything. There needs to be an underlying structure, a framework or grid within all of existence. In our universe, dark energy is that underlying grid. Dark energy is the energy grid for all matter. It is the system by which matter is able to exist. It allows matter to plug into or connect with it, thereby solidifying its existence.
This energy flow or consumption stream of dark energy, which we have come to know as gravity, both allows for and stabilizes mass’s existence. There is a flow of dark energy into all matter. All mass consumes dark energy – gravity is the effect, or the result, of this consumption.
Dark energy is the underlying energy grid of the universe, an energy grid which all matter uses to exist. And as dark energy is being consumed by mass, it creates an energy stream that manifests as gravity.
To my way of thinking, gravity is the energy stream created by matter interacting with dark energy.
Cheers,
John
Thanks, John, fascinating thoughts.