Have you ever wondered if what you perceive as reality is real life? Who decides what is classified as real and what is not? The majority of the population probably classifies the thought of living in a simulation as rather surreal. Nevertheless, there are several reasons why this might be true and not such an absurd thought at all. Currently, Elon Musk is one of the most famous public figures advocating the pro simulation stance. His explanation is simple; several years ago video games were as simple as two rectangles and a dot advertised as a game called pong. Today, we have virtual reality, augmented reality and photorealistic 3D simulations amongst others. Those technologies bring video games so close to reality that it becomes difficult to tell the difference. It enables several players to play real-life games simultaneously and collectively. With the speed technology has advanced over the last years, we will soon have video games indistinguishable from reality. Even if the speed of advancement decreases significantly, humanity will reach the state of creating such games at some point. This advancement could take thousands of years while still counting as revolutionary due to that length being rather insignificant on an evolution scale. Elon Musk believes this argument to be the primary reason for us living in a simulation. We cannot know if this advancement has already been made in the past. If yes, we already live in a game so close to reality that we cannot tell the difference anymore. Due to artificial intelligence, we advance throughout the game and will eventually reach the point where we create further simulations within the simulation we already live in. Musk rates our chance of not living in a simulation to be one in billions. Not only Elon Musk but also several other professionals in the field support this theory. Another famous advocate, Nick Bostrom a philosopher at the University of Oxford, believes the simulation hypothesis to be as follows. Our experiences and lives are a result of an advanced civilization setting up millions of computers where several simulations are running, with our reality being one of them. Below you can find the link to the full two-hour interview of him explaining this theory further. In addition, you can find the link to a website collecting all information that could hint to us living in a simulation. Even though there is no hands-on evidence, several arguments do sound very convincing. What do you believe? Is this world ‘real’? Leave a comment below and let me know how you feel about this!
Sources and additional information
Why Elon Musk says we’re living in a simulation
Amazing, I really like it! This is an interesting topic because it is evolving in many different directions. I’m surprised how advanced the augmented reality and 3D world is becoming. For instance, there is the metaverse. Its a shared virtual 3D world(s) and can be a place where people can escape to and create a new version of their lives. Moreover, the fact that Elon Musk (a person with great influence) is opening up about this can direct people to such alternatives and train of thoughts. Do you think this issue is only going to grow as more industries are embedding new virtual realities?
Very interesting view. As of this moment we cannot know if the reality we live in is a simulation. If it is, we can’t even say if it’s a good simulation, cause we would only know this world and have no comparisons. For me, the more interesting thing relates to video games. I also believe that over time video games will move more and more towards reality, and some might find that more tempting than to actually live in reality (that is if we can call this the real world). If we continue along the path of destroying our world, there might be even more of us wanting to escape into a fairytale reality. Imagine warehouses stacked with pods where people are hooked up with IV’s for nutrition and chose exactly which world they want to live in through the wires connected to their brains. Yes, it might sound a bit farfetched as of this moment. Video game developers still need to figure out how to replicate senses like smell and touch in order to take a step closer to that reality. However, we are slowly starting to see that more and more people use gaming as a way of escaping reality. So, is it actually that farfetched? As you say Sheila, the game developers just need time to create innovations that make that an alternative. Will it happen in our time? Difficult to say, especially with the massive strides technology has taken in the past 10 years. I would not exclude it as an option.