Simulation Theory Data Exploration
Not too long ago an idea was proposed that aimed to fundamentally cause us to question our view of the universe, the relationships around us, and even ourselves. This idea was the argument of simulation theory that explains there is a high probability that our reality is a simulation. The ideas of simulation theory were first proposed by Nick Bostrom in his paper Are You Living in a Computer Simulation? published in the late 90s.
Simulation Theory Vs. Personality and Media
This project aims to answer two questions. Does belief in simulation theory directly correlate to a person’s personality? As well as, of the people who do believe in simulation theory what kinds of media or pop-cultural entertainment are they interested in?
Generating Data
To answer these questions several personality traits are measured such as knowledge of simulation theory, confidence levels, happiness, and sociability. Questions are also asked about media and pop-culture references such as virtual reality, the movie The Matrix, Nick Bostrom, Elon Musk, aliens, and the fermi paradox. These questions were formatted into a survey to gain insights into people’s personalities and their interactions with media/pop-culture. The form was unleashed onto the popular site Reddit where it was free to be attacked, criticized, and by some admired as we slowly collected data. A sufficient amount of data was collected at about 200 responses. The data was then cleaned and analyzed. Here is a link to the raw data.
The Survey Was Powered by Google Forms
Personality and Simulation Theory
A point system was created that assigns points to the given categories based on how certain survey questions were answered. Questions were asked that gave insight into people’s knowledge of simulation theory, depression levels, sociability, and a person’s confidence levels. The graph below (fig2) compares categories of people who believe in simulation theory vs. the people who do not.
Media and Simulation Theory?
A goal of this research was to identify the media/pop-cultural influences that might be having an impact on the people who believe in simulation theory.
Weed
About 60% of simulation theory believers are fans of weed. The idea was when people smoke weed they tend to get into deep conversations about uncommon ideas and tend to share bizarre thoughts. We were curious to see if believers might have found out about simulation theory through these kinds of interactions.
Virtual Reality
Less than 20% of believers owned a virtual reality headset. We wondered about this since virtual reality is an example of our computational abilities and a measure of our current progress in the field of simulation.
The Matrix
About 80% of believers have seen The Matrix. This movie was the first major motion picture to propose simulation theory-related topics.
Nick Bostrom
Less than 50% of people knew of Nick Bostrom. Nick Bostrom was the founder of simulation theory and has contributed many ideas.
Elon Musk
80% are fans of Elon Musk. Elon Musk is a well know controversial icon who has stated a variety of times that he is a strong believer in simulation theory
Aliens
90% of simulation theory believers also believe in aliens. Aliens have been extremely present in media and pop-culture and exist in a similar way to the ideas of simulation theory.
The Fermi Paradox
60% of believers are familiar with the Fermi paradox which is another popular topic of discussion on the internet. Often “creators”(such as YouTubers) that make content on simulation theory will also have content on the fermi paradox.
The Conclusion
This was a learning-based project designed to demonstrate the visualization of data. Little energy was put into collecting high-quality data and as a consequence, several factors during the data collection process generate biased data that can not be used to draw any insights regarding simulation theory. If the data had not been biased a conclusion could have been drawn that simulation theory believers are more commonly influenced by pop-culture and spreading ideas through word of mouth, the belief in simulation theory has little to do with academic research or exploration into current computational capabilities such as virtual reality.
