Beyond Life & Death
Simulation Theory
Elon thinks we’re living in a computer simulation. His argument goes something like this: The first video game (Pong) was released 45 years ago, today we have 3D, augmented and virtual worlds that are indistinguishable from our world. It’s now impossible to tell the difference between a real photograph and a computer generated one:
If we went from 2 rectangles and a dot to nearing real-world pixel to pixel resolution in just 45 years, where will we be in another 45 years? If I may ask, to take your eyes off this screen, and just look around.
Are we in a video game? Does Super Mario know he’s in a video game? Elon thinks the odds are, “1 in billions that we’re in base reality,” and if he could ask A.I. one question, it would be, “What’s outside the simulation?” But, even if we could go outside this simulation, who’s to say we’re not just inside another simulation? The simulation theory is just not deep enough.
Eternal Recurrence
Friedrich Nietzsche gives us a much deeper description of the nature of reality. In his book, The Gay Science, he writes:
What if, some day or night, a demon were to steal after you in your loneliest loneliness and say to you: “This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence — even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again — and you with it, speck of dust!”
Nietzsche called this theory The Eternal Recurrence. Everything will return to you exactly as they did, and in the exact same sequence. Your entire life has already occurred an infinite amount of times in the past and will continue to reoccur an infinite amount of times in the future.
Poincaré Recurrence Theorem
This isn’t mere philosophy. In physics, The Poincaré Recurrence Theorem states that all systems will, after a sufficiently long, but finite time, return to the exact same state as the initial state.
To borrow Max Tegmark’s worked example in the May 2003 edition of Scientific American, based on the number of different ways a volume of space can be filled with fundamental particles, Tegmark assumes that our observable universe has a diameter of 8x10^26m, and a nucleon measures 2x10^-13m. This gives the universe a capacity of around 10^118 nucleons and allows for 2^10^118 possible ways of filling a universe-sized space with nucleons (ours being one of those ways).
This reasoning leads him to suggest that identical copies of human beings are separated by 10^10^28m and within a distance of 10^10^92m there is a volume of space 100 light-years in diameter which is identical to our own local space. Therefore, if you traveled far enough in any given direction, you will inevitably meet a replica of yourself.
In summary, chance has rolled the dice of life and landed on the right configuration of particles to produce you and me, because just look around, here we are. And rolling the dice enough times will eventually give you the same numbers twice.
Utopia
If we accepted this theory to be true then shouldn’t we aim for utopia? For the greatest good of the human race? Not necessarily. Fyodor Dostoevsky, in his book, Notes from the Underground, makes a different case:
“Shower upon him every earthly blessing, drown him in a sea of happiness, so that nothing but bubbles of bliss can be seen on the surface; give him economic prosperity, such that he should have nothing else to do but sleep, eat cakes and busy himself with the continuation of his species, and even then out of sheer ingratitude, sheer spite, man would play you some nasty trick. He would even risk his cakes and would deliberately desire the most fatal rubbish, the most uneconomical absurdity, simply to introduce into all this positive good sense his fatal fantastic element.”
In summary; even if we could achieve utopia, the first thing we would do is find something to smash out of sheer boredom and ingratitude. I can’t see how it could be any other way. If it’s not the greatest good that we should be aiming for, then what’s the point of it all? I propose to you: What if things are the way they are, because there is nothing else— what if we live in the best of all possible worlds?
The Best of all Possible Worlds
Imagine you can lucid dream every single night. You’d be able to travel through time, fly with the birds, run and laugh with loved ones through open sunny fields of pure happiness. Every night you would enter this place, for months, years, decades,… until you’ve experienced everything your heart desired.
Then what’s left to experience?
You would then dabble in the deepest and darkest regions of your imagination and live in this state until there is nothing left. This would go on for many more years until you’ve become a shell of your former self. Without purpose, without meaning, and without any desire to move forward.
After experiencing all there is to experience, all the highs and all the lows, then what’s left to experience?
The answer is uncertainty.
And that’s the world we live in today, not knowing what tomorrow may bring. What if things are the way they are, because there is nothing else. This is where we ended up, because it couldn’t have been any other way.
Meaning of Life
So, “What does it all mean?” Which is the same question as, “What is the meaning of life?”
Some questions can’t be answered linguistically, they cannot be reduced to words. They stick around, because they’re still trying to tell us something. We haven’t fully grasped its meaning. These are never-ending questions, because they’re trying to answer questions to never-ending games, such as the game of life.
However, intimations can be found in stories or myths, because they evoke feelings and emotions that words alone cannot. I don’t think you can talk about the story of life without at least mentioning the story of death.
The Story of Life
You wake up in a field in the middle of nowhere. Not knowing who you are, where you came from, or where you’re going. You take a look around, there’s no landmark in sight. So you get up, dust yourself off and just start walking.
As you’re walking, your fairy godmother appears before you. With a grin on her face she asks, “Your final wish, what shall it be?”
You think to yourself, “Final wish? I don’t even remember my own name.”
“What is your final wish?!” she persisted.
Without any more hesitation you blurt out, “I wish to remember everything!”
With a cackle in her laughter, she leans in and whispers, “That’s funny, because your last wish was to forget everything.”
And that’s the story of life. We were all thrown into this world, not knowing who we are, where we came from, or where we’re going. We never had a choice. We never picked our parents, or ethnicity or religion. Yet here we are, expected to navigate this life and find our own way.
The Story of Death
Your eyes begin to open to the rays of sunlight pouring through the window curtains — 2 minutes before the alarm.
You hop out of bed, shower, then head downstairs where breakfast is made.
As you leave the front-door; you take in the deep blue sky, sounds of birds chirping, and a gust of cool summer breeze.
You arrive at work early, fulfill all of your duties, and stay a bit late to prepare things for tomorrow.
The commute home is tiring, but peaceful.
After dinner, everyone gathers around the TV contemplating on the day.
And when your eyes start feeling heavy, you kiss everyone goodbye then head upstairs.
And as you’re lying there, you take in one final breath… and with a deep exhale… you fall asleep…
And that’s the story of death.
The moral of the story is, If you fulfill your obligations every single day, then you need not worry about tomorrow.
Final Thoughts
Nietzsche wanted to suggest that a well-lived life was one you wouldn’t mind living over and over again, for all of eternity. Because, how can it be any other way?
With every iteration of this life, however improbable it may be, try and shift one atom towards the good. And you may not know what the good is, but you absolutely know what the bad things are, that you need to stop doing. So stop doing it. And see what happens.
Love you guys. — Van
Sources
Elon Musk: Simulation Theory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBKRuI2zHp0
Elon Musk: What’s outside the simulation?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQjrDmKtNIY
Poincare theorem
https://forum.cosmoquest.org/showthread.php?75397-IF-the-universe-is-infinite-how-far-do-you-have-to-travel-to-meet-a-copy-of-yourself
Josh Barnett: Best of all possible worlds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk1cQEBEWLg
Story of Life
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planescape:_Torment
Jordan Peterson Inspiration
https://www.youtube.com/user/JordanPetersonVideos
