Are we living in a Simulation?

[Love Zhaoying]

41 minutes ago, Arduenn Schwartzman said:

 

"No no no, blow ME!"

[Pixie Kobichenko]

“Pulvis et umbra sumus. (We are but dust and shadow.)”  -Horace

 

[Rat Luv]

6 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

I am always messing with the youtube algorithm, otherwise it will close me into only certain content rather than throwing more random things at me..

No matter what I try, it keeps recommending me Thomas Sowell and Japanese 80s New Age albums. 

[Conifer Dada]

In the real world there's actual reality and then there's each person's own interpretation of reality that varies by different degrees from actual reality. But if I drop a brick on my toe in the real world, it's definitely going to hurt, even if I'm wearing shoes.  If I drop a brick on my toe in SL it doesn't hurt and it doesn't do any damage and the brick might even bounce several times.

[Ceka Cianci]

2 hours ago, Rat Luv said:

No matter what I try, it keeps recommending me Thomas Sowell and Japanese 80s New Age albums. 

Just go to those three dots at the bottom of each video  on the home page and choose either not interested or don't recommend channel. then just keep refreshing and doing it until they are gone.

If i watch one political video, my page floods with those, so I do that to them all..Now I have none..

Edited January 24, 2021 by Ceka Cianci

[Profaitchikenz Haiku]

If we are living in a simulation, what's going to happen when the hardware the simulations run on moves to the Magellan Cloud?

[ChinRey]

Here's what one of the orgifinal Lindens had to say about it.

 

[Theresa Tennyson]

15 hours ago, BelindaN said:

During lockdown,  You Tube is my companion.

It seems that there is a growing mindset that reality is likely to be a simulation. If you haven't come across this theory, just search for "Are we living in a Simulation". The basic theory is that before long, VR will be indistinguishable from reality. So a super advanced civilisation would have the ability to create what we see as a recreational VR. There's a lot more to this, and a lot of academic speak, but since we are using SL as a recreational VR, it's an interesting conundrum to discuss?

Stay on topic please if thats possible.😜

For something to be a simulation, there needs to be another something that the simulation is simulating. What would that be?

[Arielle Popstar]

10 minutes ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

For something to be a simulation, there needs to be another something that the simulation is simulating. What would that be?

Short answer would be Heaven as there are quite a few scriptural references that mention the physical realm is a copy and shadow of it. Probably not quite the way we might envision it though.

[Rolig Loon]

19 minutes ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

For something to be a simulation, there needs to be another something that the simulation is simulating. What would that be?

Infinite regression

[Arielle Popstar]

3 hours ago, Conifer Dada said:

In the real world there's actual reality and then there's each person's own interpretation of reality that varies by different degrees from actual reality. But if I drop a brick on my toe in the real world, it's definitely going to hurt, even if I'm wearing shoes.  If I drop a brick on my toe in SL it doesn't hurt and it doesn't do any damage and the brick might even bounce several times.

Would that not depend on the degree of immersion though? Even in the real it is my belief and some limited experience that the pain of a brick falling on my toe is more of a construct of a faith that this should be painful and therefore I feel that but when I instead have a faith that I don't need to feel this particular pain, it goes away. I have burnt myself on a few occasions and decided I didn't need to feel that pain and therefore did not experience it or even the typical blister.

In the same way I have to wonder if someone who really identifies with their avatar would feel such a pain as you mention. I have certainly seen enough people both inworld  and on the forums who have shared about the emotional pain their avatar and r/l self suffered as a result of some incident that happened to their avatar. Might that extend to a physical pain or its after effects like a limp for their real life self for someone who strongly identifies with their avatar?

[Lindal Kidd]

Turtles. Definitely turtles, all the way down.

[Rolig Loon]

37 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

Even in the real it is my belief and some limited experience that the pain of a brick falling on my toe is more of a construct of a faith that this should be painful and therefore I feel that but when I instead have a faith that I don't need to feel this particular pain, it goes away. I have burnt myself on a few occasions and decided I didn't need to feel that pain and therefore did not experience it or even the typical blister.

Thank you.  I will remember that if I ever get shot.

[Cecilia Dallas]

11 hours ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

That theory has been around since I was a teen. It's our generation's promise of flying cars, or fusion power.

Evidence please?

The burden of evidence to falsify what we observe (that is, we are not in a simulation) is on the one suggesting a different reality. I don't need to provide evidence, for example, to assume some form of deity doesn't exist, a religious person needs to provide evidence to falsify what we observe (no deities).

My main criticism though is this ... It strikes me that this idea that we are in a simulation is not very much different than a deep human need to believe in gods or an afterlife ... a comforting thought to those who can not accept that we, as living creatures, are simply blessed with the knowledge that at one point we will cease to exist and return, as Nabikov noted so eloquently, to the blackness at the end of our brief flash of life. That is to say, as individuals, we did not exist for billions of years without the universe caring, and we will return to that state again (of course, you don't know you don't exist, so don't be alarmed about being in that state). The fact that "you" were born at all is pure chance. ("You" being defined as the largely blank shell that becomes more formed as a  collective sum of your experiences, memories, knowledge etc ... a simple product of the brain in your body [crappily designed organ, btw] firing off chemical reactions along pathways.)

That knowledge, of course, is a gift because it means we can then put our efforts into giving life a meaning, and making this place just a bit better for the generations that will come after us.

If we are in some sort of simulation, I want a refund, btw.

[Vivienne Schell]

"Real Life" must be a simulation because I cannot fly there. Proof enough.

[BelindaN]

I certainly see the parallel with the religious interpretation because both ideas theorise that a "Higher Being" or "Spirit" inhabits a corporeal body, in the case of a simulation, by choice. 

The simulation theory also suggests that your RL (simulation) lifetime may pass in the blink of an eye in the "reality" elsewhere.

Having been unconscious a few times, I also know that in that state, time stands still, so in that sense, absolute death stops the clock.

As an aside, check out Time Slip stories. Most are not recent, but there are some interesting experiences out there, whether true or not.

[Theresa Tennyson]

25 minutes ago, BastetsDaughter said:

The burden of evidence to falsify what we observe (that is, we are not in a simulation) is on the one suggesting a different reality. I don't need to provide evidence, for example, to assume some form of deity doesn't exist, a religious person needs to provide evidence to falsify what we observe (no deities).

How are those thing in red things we observe, or can observe? Aren't they really inferences from what we observe?

[Conifer Dada]

I'm not religious myself but I've often thought that SL has many similarities to a religion. Most residents buy into the basic idea of 'your world, your imagination' which requires a temporary belief that what's on your screen is real. 

[Ardy Lay]

I still doubt it.

[Akane Nacht]

A friend once told me if you fly to the farthest edge of the SL map, you can see whales. I'm not sure if they speak. 

[Ceka Cianci]

11 hours ago, Arielle Popstar said:

Would that not depend on the degree of immersion though? Even in the real it is my belief and some limited experience that the pain of a brick falling on my toe is more of a construct of a faith that this should be painful and therefore I feel that but when I instead have a faith that I don't need to feel this particular pain, it goes away. I have burnt myself on a few occasions and decided I didn't need to feel that pain and therefore did not experience it or even the typical blister.

In the same way I have to wonder if someone who really identifies with their avatar would feel such a pain as you mention. I have certainly seen enough people both inworld  and on the forums who have shared about the emotional pain their avatar and r/l self suffered as a result of some incident that happened to their avatar. Might that extend to a physical pain or its after effects like a limp for their real life self for someone who strongly identifies with their avatar?

I think typical pain can be ignored..

Try ignoring an 11 pound 8 oz  24 inch long, baby boy coming out your woohoo..

If a simulation is less pain and we actually are in a simulation.. Then I sure am glad not to get realities version of it.. Even still, there was no way of just ignoring that pain..

In fact, it's one hell of a reality check..hehehe

[Wulfie Reanimator]

13 hours ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

For something to be a simulation, there needs to be another something that the simulation is simulating.

Maybe I'm unpacking this sentence wrong, but what exactly do you mean?

If we are in a simulation, that does not necessarily mean that the reality that contains ours is also a simulation.

We could be just one level deep, the first experiment in the original reality.

Bit of a tangent, but the same thing applies to the "are we alone in the universe" question. While mathematically unlikely, there has to be a "first species" to leave their planet. We could be that first, or among the firsts before exponential expansion has happened.

[Nova Convair]

We can't find out.

It's not necessary to simulate every atom in the universe. A simulation controls the whole input and output of everybody. So we could be just brains in jars - if you think conservative. Or a bunch of AI's - that sounds way more effective. Or I'm the only one and the rest of you are all AI's. 😁

Once the experiment is through someone pulls the plug and prepares things for a new run. 😆

Soooo it's time for panic - isn't it? 😎

[Theresa Tennyson]

6 hours ago, Wulfie Reanimator said:

Maybe I'm unpacking this sentence wrong, but what exactly do you mean?

If we are in a simulation, that does not necessarily mean that the reality that contains ours is also a simulation.

We could be just one level deep, the first experiment in the original reality.

Bit of a tangent, but the same thing applies to the "are we alone in the universe" question. While mathematically unlikely, there has to be a "first species" to leave their planet. We could be that first, or among the firsts before exponential expansion has happened.

It was the "original reality" I was referring to.

A "simulation" is a designed entity meant to replicate part of a pre-existing system, generally for a purpose.

I also don't believe that our existence was created by an outside entity that it can be separated from (i.e. the common street definition of "God".)

People who believe in this type of God often say that "the universe is too complex not to have a designer," but the problem with this is that the designer would have to be even more complex, either raising the question of what "designed" the designer or demonstrating that something at least as complex as the universe can exist without being designed - if that's true, why couldn't the universe have "designed" itself?

There is also the question of purpose. A simulation only needs to be as complex as it has to be to meet its purpose. Some religious people believe that humanity is the ultimate "purpose" of creation. If this is the case, then why are there, say, frogs? Frogs aren't necessary to humans; if the universe was created specifically for the benefit of humans every scintilla of creation necessary for creating frogs would seem to be wasted effort.

As a side note - if there is a "design" to creation I very much hope it works this way:

https://www.crunchyroll.com/en-gb/heavens-design-team

Edited January 25, 2021 by Theresa Tennyson

[archangel969]

This is scary and immensely interesting at the same time. A friend of mine, both in RL and SL, wrote a short story years ago (unfortunately only in Dutch) that reminds me of this. It's about someone who lies in bed and gets a call in the middle of the night from an old school friend. He has a fantastic experiment and wanted to show it to him. He arrives at this school friend's house and it turns out that he has a laboratory in his house. He is shocked to see the head (whitout a body) of another school friend connected to all kinds of cables and wires.  His school friend assures him that that friend has a very nice life that he has completely programmed for him. On a screen they see the designed life play out. They see him lying asleep in bed. The punch line of the story comes when the schoolfriend/mad professor suggests calling that friend. When he calls that friend it turns out that he asks the same question as to the main character and that that friend responds in the same way. This makes it clear that the main character probably also has his head connected to wires and only thinks he is living a complete life.

Edited January 25, 2021 by archangel969