Are we in a Simulation?
Are we in a Simulation?
Three Point Essay #30 | "The matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now in this very room"
Here’s a three-pointer to open your mind.
Exponential
I always had 1 thing on my mind coming home from football practice in high school: NBA2k. The new generation of Xbox that came out in 2016 was incredible. It made the game look so realistic.
It almost started to get creepy. In the 'mycareer' game mode, you’re basically living another life. You walk around a neighborhood, workout at the gym, get haircuts, and even text your teammates to come over and hang out.
The more playing 2k started to look and feel like real life, the more I thought about the first basketball game I ever played—NBA Live 2005 on the GameCube. The players looked like goofy stick figures. In current NBA video games, the players look exactly like they do in real life.
It’s amazing the technological progress made in 18 years. It makes you think, what will the game look like in the year 2100?
A Strange Possibility
About 2 years ago, I was surfing YouTube when I saw a video of Elon Musk and Joe Rogan titled 'Are we in a simulated reality?' I remember clicking on it thinking it would be a joke. Until I heard Elon say:
The argument for the simulation I think is quite strong, because if you assume any rate improvement at all over time, 1%, .01%, just extend the time frame, 1,000 years, 1,000,000 years…games will be indistinguishable from reality. Therefore we are most likely in a simulation.
Oh my God I thought, what would NBA2K look like in 1,000 years? Would it be so immersive and realistic that you’d forget you’re in a game? Or will we be able to make the video game characters themselves conscious, and have them still not realize they’re in a game?
Wait…Is that us right now already?
Considering this idea sent me down the simulation theory rabbit hole, which took me to the work of Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom. Here’s how he explains it:
Many works of science fiction as well as some forecasts by serious technologists and futurologists predict that enormous amounts of computing power will be available in the future. Let us suppose for a moment that these predictions are correct. One thing that later generations might do with their super-powerful computers is run detailed simulations of their forebears or of people like their forebears. Because their computers would be so powerful, they could run a great many such simulations. Suppose that these simulated people are conscious. Then it could be the case that the vast majority of minds like ours do not belong to the original race but rather to people simulated by the advanced descendants of an original race.
This all feels so real. Our conscious experiences. Our emotions. But what if it's all computer code beyond our comprehension?
It is just a matter of time before we build computers capable of running virtual worlds populated by virtual people. Our descendants will likely do this, the way we create video games like The Sims…it seems tempting to conclude that simulated people will eventually outnumber all the real people who have ever lived. Statistically, therefore, it is more likely that we are simulated ancestors, living in a simulated world…
Sam Harris
Of course, we could be in base reality, and this theory is nonsense. I don’t know. I hope we’re not in a simulation, I hope we’re the OG humans.
Levels
Biggest takeaway from simulation theory: if we might be in a video game, and we are going to die (or whoever made our character logs off) what do you have to fear? Go big. Enjoy the ride.
And make sure you earn enough XP every day to level up your character!