You don't exist, says Musk. He doesn't think he exists either. It's not in the normal sense. We are immaterial software constructs that run on a computer simulation. The odds of us actually living in base reality are billions to one. 49 years later, games are photo- realistic 3D worlds, he wrote at the end of last year. What does that mean about our reality? Philosophers and some scientists like this idea. The 2003 paper is called Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? He says that in the future, civilisations that are more technically advanced than ours will be interested in running simulations of sentient beings. There will be many more simulations than actual minds if that is the case. If you are one of the few real minds in existence, you should be quite surprised.
The idea of not knowing anything for sure about the external world has been around for a while. A Taoist named Zhuangzi wrote a fable about a man who couldn't be sure if he was a man or a butterfly. Hilary Putnam used the term "brain in a vat" to describe a similar idea that René Descartes had. The simulation hypothesis says that you don't have a physical body in the Wachowski's 1999 film The Matrix. The result of mathematical calculations is called "You"
There might may be clues to the fact that our universe is a simulation hidden in the very fabric of ‘reality’
According to Bostrom, there are many possible objections to this idea. Maybe it's not possible for computer-simulated beings to become aware of how we are. According to which minds are not dependent on biological matter, this would defeat the Assumption of Subsidiary Independence. It's possible that all civilisations destroy themselves before they get to the simulation stage. If not comforting, it's plausible. Even though they seem to be very bad ideas, advanced civilisations are not interested in running such simulations. The simulation hypothesis is attractive to a wider culture because of its nature as a conspiracy theory as well as a scientific version of creationism. The alien simulation of our universe is very similar to the idea of God, which is an all-powerful being who designed everything. Is this god the god of deism or a more interventionist figure? It might be a good idea to try and get their favour.
We should please a god. It's not necessarily by being good, but by being at least entertaining. It is one's duty to become a serial killer or to colonise Mars according to this line of reasoning. In his 2001 paper How to Live in a Simulation, Robin Hanson said, "Be funny, outrageous, violent, sexy, strange, pathetic, heroic..." He says that if you are living in a simulation then you should care less about others. The idea that we might all be mimicked renders our lives meaningless and that nothing we see or experience is real. In his book Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy, the Australian philosopher David Chalmers argues that there is more to it than meets the eye. He likes the idea of a table in virtual reality. It is not disqualified from being real by the fact that it is made up of digital ones and zeros, but by the fact that it is made up of quantum waves. Some physicists consider reality to be at base quantum-computational or mathematical in nature.
There is no reason to believe the simulation argument. Is it just a bunch of techno-religion? The fact that we now have functioning prototypes of how such a simulation might work makes it more plausible than previous versions of scepticism. There may be clues to the existence of a hidden simulation in the fabric of reality that we can investigate. Experiments that might reveal the answer have been proposed.
It's not so quick. We don't know what the goal of the simulation is. The game is not only to observe us as a soap opera, but also to see how long it takes to prove that you are in a simulation. The simulation is turned off at the end of the game. Maybe we should not find out.
Random House published a book called Rethink: The Surprising History of New ideas. You can support the guardian and Observer by ordering a copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges can be applied.
David J Chalmers wrote Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems ofPhilosophy.
A quantum computer scientist takes on the universe.
The simulation hypothesis shows why we are in a video game and why all of us agree.
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