Simulation Theory

The new Matrix movie comes out soon, and I honestly can’t wait. As a senior in high school when the first Matrix came out, it likely had something to do with my mild interest in philosophy and contemplating big thoughts. Of course the question of reality is really as big as they come, and it was something I had thought about occasionally growing up.

Computer rendering had really just started to get interesting early on when I was in high school, and I had started doing some (unimpressive) work with it as I taught myself autoCAD in my school’s drafting lab. Sometime around then I remember sitting next to a lake, looking at the complexity of light bouncing off the small waves and ripples, and wondering how long it would be before such complexity and realism could be rendered in real-time, and could it be immersive enough to become seemingly real.

And then the Matrix came out.

Of course there was Plato’s cave, but while the concept was interesting, the true alternate reality provided by the Matrix was definitely far more interesting. Stepping aside from a forced simulated reality as present in the Matrix, the entire concept as a place to explore and build was very intriguing.

Several years later, I care across an actual argument for why we are most likely in a
simulation by Nick Bostrom. The arguments seemed pretty solid to me and went something like:

• If beings like us don’t get killed off before
• having the ability to create concious simulated beings.
• If we decide that we dont want to create create simulated concious beings.
• Then chances are we’re simulated beings.

The argument comes down to the ability for simulated beings to construct their own conscious simulated beings. Once that happens, you could have an incredibly large number of simulated beings, at which point just purely from a statistical standpoint, the odds aren’t good that you’re one of the original, non-simulated beings.

I think the interesting thing about the way the argument is structured, is that as soon as we create simulated beings, it means that we are almost certainly simulated beings as well since points one and two will have been proven wrong.
Honestly, I strongly believe that we’ll someday create artificial intelligences that are concious, which makes me think that there is a pretty good chance we’re simulated.

The only ways out of this that I can see is that perhaps it isn’t possible to create concious beings in non-bioligal ways, and if are there any other options besides the three given in the original argument that we’re just not seeing.
Usually when this topic gets discussed, our ability to create “real” looking environments is part of the discussion. That however isn’t really important. The reality that the simulated beings reside in could be far different and simpler than our reality – it just has to be internally consistent and not give away its true nature no matter how deeply its inhabitants examine it.

At first, It would seem as though with each level of the simulation, things would be simpler than the upper level, However, I don’t really think that has to be the case. An interesting thought is if base reality is relatively simple, and the creators of nested realities choose to make some of their simulations more complex, more rich, or more beautiful. It would be interesting to see how those choices evolve through subsequent simulations into even more interesting or beautiful simulations.

As an atheist, I find the simulation theory interesting, since it is in some ways a direct challenge to that. There would be a creator the simulated universe that I inhabit, perhaps even an afterlife. As an atheist, I’ve always actually acknowledged that the could be a creator, it’s just that the odds of that are extremely low (especially the gods who have characteristics like those described in the world’s popular religions).

However, I actually think that there is a decent probability that the simulation theory could be true, so I guess my the chances that we have a creator has drastically risen. Still, at the top of the stack of simulated universes is a natural world, most likely with beings and a universe that has arisen naturally and without a god.

Either way, whether we’re in a simulation or not, I think I’m ok with it. In some ways, it doesn’t really matter all to much – there is still much to learn and explore regardless.