this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023
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[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

"there are squillions of simulated universe."

Huge assumption there lol, but I guess I see your point. If you assume simulations of this scope and quality are possible (again HUGE assumption), then your odds of being in one go up a lot, obviously.

Again though, at some point you have to hit actual, non simulated reality, and when everything seems to point towards that being the case for us, and absolutely nothing hints at a simulation, I don't see why we couldn't just be in that actual reality. I can't help but see that thought experiment as just an attempt to answer "the big question" in some way, even though in actuality it just moves it out of view.

It's Russell's teapot, impossible to disprove and theorically possible, but there's nothing backing it up besides fantastical assumptions. In that regard yeah, I think the comparison with God is warranted. The creators of our simulation, and especially the ones up above that are actually real would need such absurd levels of technology so far beyond our comprehension that it would be magic to us, and they would absolutely be our Gods.

I don't see much of a difference, it's kind of just a tech themed spin on it, with the same fallacies plaguing the whole concept, IMO. It's cool to think and write scifi about, but that's about it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Yeah I don't like simulation theory because it assumes that technologically advanced societes would run simulations. It's not guaranteed at all, it's a weird assumption to make in the first place given that the best thing we have, which is VR, is not a simulation of any universe, it just tricks us (not the simulation itself) into thinking there is one.

I've always thought that reality is something that just is, because if this were a simulation then there must be a true reality outside this one, which begs the question why ours wouldn't be the one true reality.

We, or at least I, don't know why there is a reality in the first place and why we get to experience it. I think that reality is either 1. something that just is and life is just a random coincidence, which will later end and will never recover, 2. an almighty god just exists and created us for some purpose, or 3. there is a circle of life, people living out lives and being reborn, the universe living a life and being reborn, for reasons nobody can explain.

In conclusion, reality is weird because we are conditioned to always expect there to be something (how can there be literally nothing?), but also that something to be somewhere. We are on Earth, Earth is in our galaxy, our galaxy in a cluster and so on. Therefore we expect the universe to also be somewhere, created by something, and that brings out interesting theories.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Huge assumption there lol, but I guess I see your point.

It's not an assumption, it's a conclusion based on the premises laid out in the previous sentences.

Everything seems to point towards that being the case for us, and absolutely nothing hints at a simulation

Maximum speed, minimum length, light is only a particle when we're looking at it....

Like there are other things that definitely point away from it being a simulation (eg gravity waves). But there's not nothing pointing towards simulation.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Lmao why would gravity waves point away from the universe being a simulation? Also you put a comic strip as your source, you have less than zero credibility in anything.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago

Lmao why would gravity waves point away from the universe being a simulation?

Sorry what I meant is miniscule gravitational forces across billions of light years.

Because of the ridiculous cost of calculating the force of gravity between every water molecule on neptune and carbon atom on exoplanet xjwhatever. Gravity waves suggest this is actually happening.

Also you put a comic strip as your source, you have less than zero credibility in anything.

What community are we in? I don't actually believe simulation theory... it's a concise explanation.