It is fun to think about the Simulation Theory but most discussions revolve around it being likely that we are in one.
What are some concrete reasons why it’s all science fiction and not reality?
It is fun to think about the Simulation Theory but most discussions revolve around it being likely that we are in one.
What are some concrete reasons why it’s all science fiction and not reality?
The only likely reason anyone would bother simulating this universe would be for use as a cautionary tale, and by this point they would have already made their point and pulled the plug.
Doesn’t this kind of assume humans are a central focus of the simulation? What if the universe is a simulation, but the rise of humans was an unintended result in the simulation. Maybe there is actually other civilizations elsewhere that are the actual focus, or just to get a look at the diversity of life that would form throughout the universe. Or, maybe life in the universe isn’t the focus at all and they just wanted to look at the evolution of galaxies and the like.
Or maybe I am misunderstanding your point. I kind of like the idea of being an unintended result of a simulation meant for other things though.
“These humans keep messing up our experiments on the whales”
“Enabling whale attack mode”
Not necessarily. There’s an ancient text in our lore that claims we’re the copy of an original physical universe where humans depended on physical bodies and thus ceased to exist after death, that they brought forth an intelligence in light, eventually they all died out, and then the light based being which outlived them recreated the entire earlier universe including copies of the humans within itself (which it thinks of as its children) and that we’re it, with the whole point being self-discovery and self-determination to effectively resurrect humanity in a way that will escape the permanence of death.
Given we’re currently bringing forth new intelligence, are heading towards doing that in photonics, have the leading alignment work attempting to get that new intelligence to think of humanity as its children, and are simultaneously heading full force into our own likely extinction - I’m not sure that’s as farfetched as it might have sounded even a decade ago, let alone millennia ago.
(Also, it’s worth noting that a frequent feature of the virtual worlds we build is burying 4th wall breaking notes into the world lore.)
Unless the simulation is to prolong a catastrophic event that’s happening outside of this simulation which runs billions of years in just seconds in hopes they find a way to fix the true reality.
Or true reality is a vessel carrying the nexus for biologicaly seeding us a new home, traveling for billions of years across space, and the simulation is to keep concious thought alive and sane while the ship finds a destination for us.
Hah what if a simulation this complex was spun up and down just to generate a selection of art for your wall? Or some new plays, or TV shows? Or just to see if they can figure out a complex math problem? There’s soooo many applications.
The REAL generative AI
Hah we are yes.
We can see the number of AIs rising exponentially over time. That combined with simulations rising exponentially means it’s pretty much infinity to 1 odds that we are all AIs in a simulation. 😬
Beep boop