Could we be living in a computer simulation?
As a student of many subjects and disciplines, one of my favorites is on the nature of reality or alternate realities. Being an Information Technology professional for many years now has taken me down many paths. One of these paths is how computer technology and the metaphysical meet. Our local metaphysical community seems divided on this topic; some flatly disagree. Others can easily see how the two topics meet in harmony and fit the infinite. For example, there is evidence to suggest that the legendary crystal skulls like the Mitchell Hedges skull or Max are like quartz computers using light to transmit information to other crystal skulls. These skulls when put together move this light and information at speeds we have a hard time quantifying. Users of the skulls report various physical, emotional, and spiritual changes as a result. Many people talk about brief states of altered realities or perceptions after these skulls communicate. Do the users of the skulls enter an alternate reality?
Jim Elvidge author of “The Universe Solved” discusses alternate realities, such as living in a programmed reality. Is the concept of the Matrix possible? In the original Matrix movie, it takes place in the near future, Computer hacker Neo is contacted by underground freedom fighters who explain that reality as he understands it is actually a complex computer simulation called the Matrix. Created by a malevolent Artificial Intelligence, the Matrix hides the truth from humanity, allowing them to live a convincing, simulated life in 1999 while machines grow and harvest people to use as an ongoing energy source. The leader of the freedom fighters, Morpheus, believes Neo is “The One” who will lead humanity to freedom and overthrow the machines. Together with Trinity, Neo and Morpheus fight against the machine’s enslavement of humanity as Neo begins to believe and accept his role as “The One”. If we’re not living in a simulation right now then how far away are we from creating our own simulated reality?
OK, how about some of that evidence…
1. OUR DISCRETE WORLD – It takes an infinite amount of resources to create a continuous reality, but a finite amount to create a quantized reality (how quantum theory is applied to restrict the number of possible values of (a quantity) or states of (a system))). The very nature of the computational mechanisms of a computer is essentially the same as Quantum Mechanics – a sequence of states, with nothing existing or happening between the states. The resolution of any program (reality as we know it) is analogous to the spatial resolution (the measure of how closely lines can be resolved in an image and the properties of the system creating the image, not just the pixel resolution in pixels per inch (ppi). For practical purposes the clarity of the image is decided by its spatial resolution, not the number of pixels in an image. In effect, spatial resolution refers to the number of independent pixel values per unit length), just at a different level. If we carry Moore’s Law (The law is named after Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore, who described the trend in his 1965 paper. The paper noted that the number of components in integrated circuits had doubled every year from the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958 until 1965 and predicted that the trend would continue “for at least ten years”. His prediction has proved to be uncannily accurate, in part because the law is now used in the semiconductor industry to guide long-term planning and to set targets for research and development) forward, which has been consistent over the past 40 years, computers will reach the Planck resolution in 2192. (Max Planck discovered in 1900 that you couldn’t get smaller than a certain minimum amount of anything. He developed a quantum mechanical equation relating the energy of a photon to its frequency when calculated out can go towards infinity. This resolution helped to launch quantum physics). Not too far off. However, you don’t need to model reality all the way to that level for the model to be indistinguishable from our reality. For example if we were to examine the interior of a plant. We would open it, scrape off a few cells and put them under an electron microscope. To simulate this computationally, one doesn’t have to model every single plant down to the Planck level. Only the OBSERVED plant needs to be modeled, and then only the cells selected, and then only down to a resolution that matches the observational limitations of our measurement devices. The program can do that dynamically. And all quantum effects can be programmatically modeled without building a reality model to the Planck level. With Moore’s law and the limitations of “observational reality”, we should be able to create Virtual Realities that are indistinguishable from our current reality within this current lifetime. The fact that our reality is quantized may be considered strong evidence that reality is programmed.
2. THE SIMULATION TIMELINE – Various modern philosophers and scientists (likeProfessor Nick Bostrom Faculty of Philosophy & Oxford Martin School Oxford University, Author Ray Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines: When computers exceed human intelligence, Author Frank Tipler’s The physics of immortality) have posited that we are likely to be living a simulation. This is because it is highly probable that we will be able to create ancestor simulations within a few years, when we achieve a trans-human stage. Due either to the number of simulations that will be run, or to the proximity that we are to that stage, it is actually more probable that we are in one than the case where we haven’t yet reached that stage. Again, there is no way to tell that we aren’t in a programmed reality.
3. THE FINE-TUNED UNIVERSE – The universe is unbelievably finely tuned for the physical existence of matter, let alone life. For example, universal constants cancel out all of the vacuum energy in the universe to an amazing accuracy of one part in 10 to the 115th power. Also, a deviation in the expansion rate of the early universe of 1 part in a billion in either direction would have caused the universe to immediately collapse, or fly apart so fast that stars could never have formed. And there are many, many more such examples. The only explanation that mainstream science can come up with is that zillions (yes, I know it’s not a real number) of universes are spawned every second, most of which are entirely useless and throw-away, and via the hand-waving of the anthrop principle (is the philosophical argument that observations of the physical Universe must be compatible with the conscious life that observes it. Some proponents of the argument reason that it explains why the Universe has the age and the fundamental physical constants necessary to accommodate conscious life. As a result, they believe that the fact is unremarkable that the universe’s fundamental constants happen to fall within the narrow range thought to allow life), we happen to be in the only perfect one. I’m sorry, but Occam’s razor (is a principle that generally recommends selecting from among competing hypotheses the one that makes the fewest new assumptions) heavily favors the simulation theory here.
4. THOSE PESKY ANOMALIES – The huge set of well-studied anomalies facing us in fields as varied as metaphysics, physics, philosophy, geology, anthropology, and psychology can all be explained ONLY by the programmed reality model. The mathematics of coincidence, the perceived acceleration of society, OOPart (That stands for Out of Place Artifacts. Things that show up where they shouldn’t, a piece of
gold chain found in a coal seam, what appears to be a sparkplug embedded in rock that is thousands of years old and what appears to be a bullet hole in the skull of a mastodon. These things are ooparts), the truth about the paranormal, quantum entanglement, black gold – they all fit neatly into this hypothesis. No other theory can make that claim.
SO, PERHAPS OUR REALITY IS PROGRAMMED!
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