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!
Are we living in a simulation?
22
September
2021