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| Simulation Theory: Life is an Illusion |
Simulation Theory: Life is an Illusion. The topic of my writing this time may be a bit difficult because it is full of philosophy, controversial, and almost non-existent in its application (except in the realm of theoretical physics maybe).
Simulation Theory: Life is an Illusion
However, it is this topic that has been on my mind recently, and I think it is worth discussing this because of its enormous implications for philosophy, theoretical physics, technology and futurology. And hopefully my writing this time can be useful for all.
Simulation Hypothesis, That The World Is Just A Simulation
Do you still remember the phenomenal movie in the late 90s, The Matrix? In the movie, it is told that almost everyone on earth turns out to be living their daily lives in a world simulation on a large computer, while the real body only sleeps in a tube which is all controlled by government machines.
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| Simulation Theory: Life is an Illusion |
Very imaginary, right? There is no way we just live in the world of computers, we can see, hear, touch and feel, even smell foul odors from afar, and everything is reality, because we experience it.
However, what is that reality?
All feelings that enter our five senses are actually just the work of our brains to translate electrical signals and display all our feelings.
We don't need to see the original. As long as the brain says we are seeing, then we will see, when we see a handsome man or a beautiful girl, smell his perfume or body, and follow the music to dance with him or her, in a dream.
Do our eyes open when we dream? Of course not, but we can still see, hear and feel it all. Yes, they are real as long as we think they are real. The fact is that it is only the process of electrical propagation in the nerves of our brain, nothing less, nothing more.
The chances of us being in a simulated world like The Matrix do exist, and surprisingly, this possibility is very high.
Starting with a scientific paper entitled "Simulation Argument" which was journalized in 2003 by Nick Bostrom, a professor of philosophy from the University of Oxford. Nick Bostrom proposes a trilema on the premise that:
1. The number of humans who have reached the stage of evolution to become post-human is close to zero.
2. The number of post-human civilizations that imitated their ancestors (humans) is close to zero.
3. The number of humans (who live like us) and the simulation results are close to one.
If (1) is true, then there will be no higher evolution than humans, aka we will be extinct before becoming post-human beings.
If (2) is true, then there is a convergence (possibly meaning an agreement between them) that causes post-humans unable or unwilling to simulate us, whether it is because they are material deficient, incapacitated, ethical problems, or for other reasons.
If (3) is true, then it is almost certain that we are now living in a simulation, in the dense jungle of our ignorance of living this life.
What Does Simulation Mean Here?
Simulation is an imitation of how the real world works which is executed in real time I want to tell you about simulations here, analogies to video games, whatever they are.
Indeed, video games are not imitations of the real world, but represent game programmers so that we players can feel what is happening in the world they create.
So, the simulation here is easily a very large video game, created by programmers, with ten billion players active on it without even knowing that they are living in a game.
What is post-human?
Post-human beings are us, or our descendants who are one step ahead of the evolutionary ladder of the universe, so that they can no longer be called humans (Homo sapiens).
This, regardless of time, we can (in theory) do it ourselves with the help of technology. What about these post-human beings? Previously we took a half step back to discuss the transition from human to post-human, that is, the transhuman stage.
Humans today cannot be separated from technology, be it biotechnology, nanotechnology, digital and information technology, and of course robotics.
Long ago, later humans would have developed sophisticated technology in all fields. Human life is very dependent on technology.
From dependence on vehicles which caused our muscles to be weaker than humans before the industrial revolution, to our dependence on information technology to remembering friends' home addresses or phone numbers, we have to ask our smartphones for help, even visit Google to ask them. .
Because of the dependence and efficiency of the technology we use, humans continue to develop this technology so that machines and technology can think independently (Artificial Intelligence).
The gist of Artificial Intelligence here is that we can't think of jumping straight into the terminator hunting the Connor family, but we can think of machines that help us look up information (eg google), help us find our way to good restaurants, or any other Artificial Intelligence in the field related.
Even this Artificial Intelligence will gradually get smarter, in the end it will approach and even pass the level of human intelligence.
It is in this phase that the transhuman begins to form, which is called the Technological Singularity phase. In this phase, humans will try to combine their intelligence with Artificial Intelligence at a biological level.
Imagine a nano machine in blood circulation that can regulate the body's oxygen levels during exercise, bones made of nano materials that heal quickly when broken, or nano chips in the brain, so that we can browse google directly from the mind, and can telepathically without having to have computer and look at the monitor.
Now, futurologists agree that human life will not be able to predict where it will go if we have reached this phase. Even this phase will continue so that we humans will gradually become other living things, both humans and computers, new species that have the opportunity to live in the digital world (imagine uploading brains to the internet, like Transcendence movies), leaving the world, flesh and bones.
This is a form of post-human, because it is possible that postman can have various forms, ranging from fully digital (only in the form of electron and photon jumps in the form of data information floating in the cloud, or maybe half digital like cyborgs.
Ancestral Simulation
Post-human beings will live on a level so much higher than us that it is inconceivable what their life will be like.
However, if we assume that post-humans have characteristics similar to humans, with the existence of reason and passion, then they will most likely imitate their ancestors, whether for the sake of science, school work (if there is a school term in their life), or just for having fun.
Actually, humans themselves have started to make simulations about our ancestors, for example, there are many Artificial Life computer programs such as (A-Life) to simulate the course of the evolution of life.
There is a possibility, we are post-human A-Life simulations without us noticing. In fact, it's possible that we are not A-life based on the evolution of their personal lives, we may just be video game characters made for fun, just for entertainment (if anyone has ever played Star Ocean Till The End Of Time seems to know roughly what that means.)
Now back to topic. Actually, how likely are we to be in a simulated world? Professor Nick Bostrom in his paper has a formula for calculating probability:
P = [fNH] / [H (fN + 1)] x100%P = Percentage of our probability in the simulation.f = the number of civilizations that have succeeded in turning into transhuman-posthuman (post technology singularity).N = average number of simulations run by post humans.H = average number of people living in the pre-post-human era (number of people today).Let's put those assumptions into numbers:f = approx. 1 (1 civilization is sufficient)N = 764 (only the number of games is listed here, so it is likely that this number is actually very small compared to reality)H = 7,000,000,000 (Current world population)P = 99.87%
That's the probability we are in the simulated world.
How Can This Information Benefit Us?
Yes, I admit that there is really no implication whatsoever if life is only simulations and illusions, those who work keep working, those who go to school, those who write also keep writing, maybe some of you will experience a change in the way you see the world.
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| Simulation Theory: Life is an Illusion |
However, there are actually many things that can be answered if this world is a simulation, including:
- The Copenhagen interpretation is correct, the cat in the box is indeed 50% alive and 50% dead, why?
If we consider all of these to be game simulations, then we can also assume that the principles that exist in video games also apply to our real world.
For example, regarding the image distance, which is the distance at which the rendering engine draws the view, if it is further than the image distance, the view will not be drawn, because it has not been rendered. This also applies when the cat is in the box, we as observers outside the box could argue, that the cat is not machine rendered, because it is not visible.
- Parallel worlds do exist. If we all simulate, it's likely that there are other simulations about us, that do different things.
- The answer to the Fermi Paradox, why are we alone on planet Earth, even though the universe is so vast. Since this is a simulation of us humans, why make trivial things like aliens?
For example, if we make a video game about fairies, fairies, dwarves, and dragons, of course we don't have to get bored of making other characters like ordinary people with suits, ties, carrying briefcases, and just typing Microsoft Excel, right? Very unattractive. And, this also explains why there are no star fruit in the Harvest Moon game.
- Nature is limited. If indeed we are in a simulation, it means that we are in a super large and sophisticated computer, and the boundaries of nature are the limitations of the specifications of the computers that run us all.
Actually there are many more that can be explained by the existence of this hypothesis, it remains only to change the perspective and combine intelligence between physicists and computer programmers, then the answers to many things (almost all things that are still a mystery), hopefully will be answered.
Proof of Hypotheses
After all, the simulation world is still a hypothesis that needs to be tested in order to move up to the theoretical stage, it is possible that this hypothesis will never deviate from its status, and this hypothesis will fail to become one more scientific, level (as a scientific theory).
But it turns out, some scientists from the University of Washington claim to have a way to test this hypothesis. One of the methods scientists use in quantum physics is the chromodynamic quantum lattice, which is a simulation of the universe to test the theory of quantum chromodynamics.
In testing using a quantum chromodynamic lattice, even though scientists have used supercomputers, it turns out that only a few parts of nature (only those important for experiments) can be simulated due to limited computer capabilities.
Now, if with the same calculation as the Lattice QCD we can count the cosmic rays hitting the earth (part of the universe), and find the exact same calculation as the Lattice QCD calculation (which is a man-made simulation), then we have found that a large computer . Post-human creation also has limited capabilities, and proves that we do live in simulations.
Has this cosmic ray counting experiment been carried out? It seems that it hasn't, and maybe it hasn't been done because it's not a priority or because of limited funds, who knows how long we have to wait for this evidence (or don't need to wait, because it's not useful either).
Closing
Hopefully my article this time is useful for all article readers, and hopefully there is an interesting discussion about this. That's the beginning of my short and imperfect writing, if there are criticisms, suggestions, or just questions, I will try to answer them according to my understanding, Thank you for your attention. By: Ochie
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