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Are We Living in a Simulation, like in the Matrix Movies? The Simulation Hypothesis

Posted: August 15th, 2008, 2:41 pm
by Winston
Check out this documentary video which explains why it is a very real possibility that we may be living in a virtual computer simulation. It's a chilling thought.



PS - I love Oxford Professor David Deutsch's voice. It is so perfectly logical, brilliant and captivating.

Posted: August 16th, 2008, 10:17 pm
by Winston
Here's a short but interesting inteview on MSNBC with an author who estimates that there is a twenty percent chance that we are living in a computer simulated virtual reality. It's very interesting.


Posted: January 17th, 2009, 4:53 pm
by BeneGesseritBrother
Universe as computer simulation has alot of validity to it.

What I would say is that our universe is actually a fractal pattern emanating from an infinite dreaming mind.

Re: Could we be living in a computer simulation? Watch this!

Posted: March 17th, 2009, 12:55 pm
by ladislav
WWu777 wrote:Check out this documentary video which explains why it is a very real possibility that we may be living in a virtual computer simulation. It's a chilling thought.



PS - I love Oxford Professor David Deutsch's voice. It is so perfectly logical, brilliant and captivating.
That theory is quite old. Also, it is agreed that the world is hologram of sorts and not very solid ( but still solid enough). You can shift the hologram somewhat if you concentrate enough.

However, I doubt we are in a computer simulation because lives are just too dull. Nothing really goes on for most people,

Could we be living in a computer simulation?

Posted: December 27th, 2009, 10:29 am
by Winston
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!

Posted: December 28th, 2009, 11:38 am
by momopi

Posted: December 29th, 2009, 2:48 am
by Master
lol. second life. I despise second lifers.

Posted: April 11th, 2012, 8:28 am
by Winston
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.

Posted: April 12th, 2012, 4:41 am
by Winston
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."

Posted: October 31st, 2012, 2:22 am
by Winston
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:


Posted: October 31st, 2012, 2:48 am
by Winston
BeneGesseritBrother wrote:Universe as computer simulation has alot of validity to it.

What I would say is that our universe is actually a fractal pattern emanating from an infinite dreaming mind.
You will love this documentary then. It explains how the universe is an infinitely repeating fractal, beginning with the stock market.

Zero Point, Volume 2


Posted: October 31st, 2012, 7:26 am
by ladislav
This may be just another theory to confuse people and pollute their minds. I have a theory that a lot of such false teachings ( or at least distorted teachings) along with many conspiracies are let into society to mess with people's brains and distract them. Also, who would be rebelling and /or fighting for change in society if it is all a hologram anyway?And the powers that be will just get more power and more control.

Either that, or I think some spoiled pampered and healthy people from rich countries have come up with this computer simulation thing while you never hear anything to that effect from anyone who has to work to survive ( like I have a friend in the Philippines who only makes some $7 a day and who works 12 hours on her feet) and those in war zones or people who are actually starving somewhere.

Also, some mystics in India et al came up with that " reality is illusion" theory. Well, it is just a theory and in most people's lives, reality is not an illusion at all. It is very very real and hard as nails. And bullets that fly are not holographic. They hurt and kill.

Maybe it was/has been just a way to control masses. Same with blaming one's karma for everything. This way, you will not fight the oppressor or the exploiter but just sit there and meditate and blame yourself while the oppressors and the exploiters will just continue with their business.

When someone beats you up or a bludgeon of a cop hits you, or someone comes with an army and kills your family and maims you, you will not be ruminating if it is a simulation or not. Or will you?

Oh yeah, the Sandy was a simulation too. Must have felt really good knowing that with all those trees falling on people and actually killing them.

On some micro level of reality matter is energy just like say water is just hydrogen and oxygen. Now, let someone take a piece of ice and hit you over the head with it and after it hurts, he/she can just say- Oh, it is just a bunch of hydrogen and oxygen atoms and these are also empty inside and you cannot see the location of the electron- hey dude, you gave me a bump on the head! screw your atoms!

And matter might be holographic on some micro level but so what? In 99.9999% of cases and in most daily macro situations, this matter does not behave as an illusion, is not holographic at all, is not subjected to mind's power, is hard and heavy and real as a mother---er and not an illusion at all.

Next time you are in a dark alley and a stranger faces you with a knife, remember it is just a hologram- "Oh, no, he just stabbed me and it hurts like hell and I am bleeding...but it is all a hologram, an illusion"..yeah, right.

Sometimes I want to take those theorists, leave them without food for a week, and without water, have their houses destroyed, and then take a belt and whoop their a##es. Then, I would like to hear them lecture about simulations and holograms and dreams from an infinite mind.

Posted: October 31st, 2012, 11:34 pm
by Cornfed
^ That entire post constitutes a fallacy of begging the question.

Posted: November 1st, 2012, 1:31 am
by Teal Lantern
ladislav wrote: Sometimes I want to take those theorists, leave them without food for a week, and without water, have their houses destroyed, and then take a belt and whoop their a##es. Then, I would like to hear them lecture about simulations and holograms and dreams from an infinite mind.
Alrighty then. :lol:

Posted: November 6th, 2012, 7:12 am
by Winston
LOL great rant Ladislav. But you are missing the big picture. Yes bullets are real and will hurt you, because they and you are both in the same hologram. If you were a character in a video game, the bullets in the video game would hurt your character as well. But outside the video game, the bullets inside the game cannot hurt you. Likewise, if you were outside of the hologram of this universe, then bullets in it could not hurt you either. That's the point.

For a step by step detailed explanation, see 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 the film below.