Simulation Hypothesis

.

It has been seriously proposed, by apparently educated scientists, that the reality which we experience through our senses, is the product of a simulation.  While this hypothesis seems absurd on the face of it, it does bear some examination and testing, to the extent possible.

Before we can examine this hypothesis, we must first specify exactly what a simulation is, and what specific kind of simulation we might be in.

Let’s begin with a related hypothesis, called, the Boltzmann Brain.  While this was an idea seriously proposed by Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann (1844–1906), it now serves as an interesting thought experiment.  In short, the Boltzmann Brain is a theorized human brain that is isolated in its own universe.  It is formed at random from quantum uncertainty, along with any and all support mechanisms needed for it to be self-aware.

The Boltzmann Brain (I shall abbreviate it as BB)  does not sense any external reality, but rather, it makes up its own thoughts, its own imaginary reality, which can simulate any level of complexity that the brain can devise. 

Let us digress to my own extension of the BB.  In my theory, the BB(s) [there could be any number of them] could be a microbe, a lizard, a human, or something vastly more complex—even a super-computer.  All it needs is to be conscious, aware, and self-interactive.

That, then, would fit one definition of a simulated universe.  The problem with the BB is that, if it comes into being by random forces, it might also dissolve by random forces.

Now, on to another idea, and this one already exists in primitive form.  Even with an old computer, one could program a virtual reality, albeit very simple, but nevertheless, it can be considered a valid simulation.  It could not be experienced from within, but it is a beginning.

Moving along, we arrive at a more conventional theory of a simulated universe in which we live.  In this simulation, a complex, ultra-computer, was built by an alien civilization.  Our universe was programmed into it in detail, and this simulated universe then produced everything we perceive, including us.

Finally, we finish with a simulated universe, or reality, in which we ourselves fashion the simulation through some kind of collective consciousness, of which we are all a part.

In all the examples we have mentioned so far, the simulation is self-contained.  But that is not possible.  A simulation is a representation of something other than the simulation itself.  Therefore, there must be something external to the simulation.  The ship in the bottle is not the ship itself.  If it were, then there could be an endless series of models within the model within the model, to infinity.

I have mentioned in other posts that JBS Haldane, the premier biologist, pointed out that we can never be sure that our theories have any bearing on reality, since our thoughts might be neurologically correct, but otherwise completely off the mark.  We cannot step outside of our consciousness to measure it.  We cannot become the measuring rod of the measuring rod.

If we are simulated creatures, then is our consciousness only simulated, and we are instead mindless robots?

The only reality for which any of us has direct experience is experience itself.  Everything else might be an interpretation of our perceptions, and that interpretation could be thoroughly flawed without our ever knowing it.

 

Life, consciousness and free will are fundamental realities.  They cannot be simulated, at least not within a simulation.

Are we simulating ourselves?

-