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Philosophy @lemmy.ml
GuyFawkes @sh.itjust.works

If we were living in a simulation, how could we tell?

Hoping to provoke some discussion with this. If we were sentient beings created inside of an advanced computer simulation, would we ever be able to tell? What signs do you think we’d see? And…do you think we are?

18 comments
    • In the general case, I think that we would not be able to tell. Unless the programmers explicitly program into the simulation the tools for us to interact with the external world, we would not be able to collect evidence of something external to the simulation. We are limited.
    • I am agnostic to whether we live in a simulation or not, but I don't think that this hypothesis brings a lot in terms of answering existential questions. We could live in a simulation inside of a simulation inside of a simulation inside of a simulation..... meaning that there is an infinite depth of simulations when we choose to consider this possibility. In my view, being the first rung of existence or being a million simulations deep is the same. Discovering that we are in a simulation just shifts the existential question one universe higher.
    • I have been reading some texts about theories of how the brain thinks (predictive coding), and it seems like what we experience as "consciousness" might be the result of our brain simulating what our next sensory experience will be. So, in that sense, we are all experiencing our brain's predictive simulation.

  • Well I think there would be some obvious physical limits because of finite processing power like maybe a minimum distance, a maximum viewing distance, a discrete time interval and so on. Maybe some of the system would be modelled stochastically because being fast is more important than being accurate when simulating such a big system.

  • If our simulated experiences were indistinguishable from that of beings in the "real" universe, would the distinction between simulated and not even matter?

    • Yes. A simulation can be turned off. Or perhaps even crashed...

      More generally, a simulation has stuff "outside the simulation" that can effect the simulation. There is nothing "outside" of fundamental reality.

      "Magic" can occur in a simulation, things that appear to have great material costs inside the simulation cost nothing to implement outside the simulation.

    • Would you voluntarily hook yourself up to the Matrix?

      • No, I don't think I'd make that choice, probably not even under duress.
        But if such a sim was absolutely indistinguishable in every way, we'd likely never know and our experiences within it would probably not be any less valid.

        It's a big if. And I don't mean to support some BigSim dystopia, only reflect on what makes our perceived reality... real, from the human perspective.
        As in, whether one is from an actual reality or a virtual reality, things that have happened to them may feel real to them, and ultimately be their reality regardless. The Sim itself can be wrong, and the experiences of those within still be important to them.

        The thing with The Matrix analogy, is that every human in it has a physical body that awaits them on the other side of the pill.
        Whereas, if simulated realities were a thing, there would likely be several instances of it and your self would likely also be simulated or at least virtual in nature.
        If I was in the canon Matrix universe, I'd definitely want out. If I was in some other form of Sim, where existing outside of the Sim was outright impossible, that might be different.

18 comments