Are we Living in a Simulation?
— Anii Shakya
Most likely.
A simulation is a computerized replica of a real life (or even imagined) process that could have multiple use cases- testing, training, theorizing, fun, and the list goes on and on. We humans use a lot of them in our daily life, never thinking twice about the characters in them because our computers aren’t powerful enough to simulate consciousness. But what if somewhere, some computer was? We often ponder on the meaning of life. Do we dare to humble our existence down to a mere means of entertainment or learning for a higher, more advanced life form?
Let’s start at the beginning- rewind a little (or a lot, because time is really just an illusion)- at the very beginning.
The Big Bang. A widely believed hypothesis for the birth of our universe. A sudden and very rapid expansion of the universe as we know it- and it’s still expanding! All this sudden inexplicable energy and matter- when the one law we all learn is that energy/mass can neither be created nor destroyed? It does sound like a computer being plugged in and switched on.
So, all our perceived existence boils down to our spawn area still loading?
Physicists hate this theory and deny it entirely, probably because they understand intricacies and workings of the world better(or maybe because it would reduce their life’s work to rubble). So, back to the question of existential crisis, are we living in a simulation?
This question has bogged the minds of physicists, philosophers, teenagers with video games and computer scientists since it was first hypothesized by Nick Bostrom in 2003. It recently caught attention again when Elon Musk- the CEO of Tesla and the richest man alive- said that it is most likely we are living in a simulation. This twenty year old debate that started with Nick’s paper “Simulation Theory” argues that there are only 3 possible logical scenarios. His theory assumes only two logical reasons why we aren’t living in a simulation- alien or super being civilizations die out before they reach an advanced enough level (that is, they simply can’t) or that they don’t want to. The third, of course, is such a life form exists and they have created such a complex simulation- that is, us. Since it is impossible to know where we are on the space-time spectrum or how far other societies have progressed- the most sane assumption to make is that such an advanced life form does exist.
If indeed, our existence and everything we know about it is a simulation, it should follow the laws of simulation.
Which surprisingly, for whatever reason, it does.
The first rule of a simulation is a maximum processing speed- which means there must be a limit beyond which nothing in the simulation can run. An upper limit to any attribute of the simulation- an artifact of the hardware that remains. This one is easy for us, in our universe this corresponds to the speed of light.
Another property, or unsolved problem of computing is the generation of true randomness. “History repeats itself”- a pretty common proverb we use from time to time. It proves itself in politics, financial markets, global temperature patterns, human psyche and a whole lot of other fields. But why? Are repeating patterns the way of our universe saying “true randomness cannot be generated”?
Our world even follows a ratio for all objects- the golden ratio. A number that forms galaxies, sunflowers, snail shells, mathematical and musical wonders- even human faces are said to be in accordance with it. This ratio would be 1:1 for a simulated Minecraft game but in our world it is approximately 1:0.6180 and is somehow imbibed in nature.
That sounds all fine and maybe we do live in a simulation. But why would anyone create such a complex simulation, wasting away precious computing resources and their time? What do we, as simulated beings create that is of value? The one thing we know for sure that we make as humans is the human experience (™). Our consciousness, emotions, logic, morals that lead to great or small consequences for our world. Our wars, our disasters, history’s tyrants and man’s greatest discoveries- they are all a collective experience of more than 117 billion lives. That forms quite an extensive, informative, and intriguing data set. There could be several reasons an alien life form would simulate a civilization such as ours- ancestor studying, entertainment and a hypothesis experiment are only a few of them.
This poses several new questions. If we as a simulation can create other simulations, is it possible that our simulators were also simulated? How long does this loop go on and what does this mean for the complexity of base reality? Maybe we should start treating our video game characters with more kindness and the person whose avatar we are in will do the same. Is understanding base reality possible for humans or is it as futile as teaching nuclear physics to penguins? Can we communicate with other simulations? Can we communicate with our creator? So, freedom of will is just a programmed illusion after all?
Many theories, many scientific arguments, many well known and well read people have contributed for and against this theory. Many movies and pop culture references such as “a glitch in the matrix” also find their roots in this hypothesis. Indeed, a lot of the properties of our universe are in sync with those of simulations.
…or is it the other way around? A lot of the properties of our simulations and everything we know of them are in sync with those of the universe that we live in. Our attempts at creating artificial intelligence and even some of our algorithms are inspired by nature. These properties are omnipresent in our world. The upper limit, the randomness, the possibility of space being nothing but a function, the perfect ratios- is it all a manifestation of the physical properties of this world on our simulations? After all, everything we know about simulations is from the simulations we create. So which is it?
The chances are 50–50.
