Are we living in a simulation? Some people, namely Nick Bostrom of the University of Oxford, who wrote a seminal paper about simulation theory in 2003, seem to think so. The odds that we are living in a simulated reality are "pretty much even," according to a new analysis recently reported by Scientific American.
The simulation theory has become a rather popular reference over the years; let's face it––sometimes life doesn't make any damn sense. And while the responses here were sometimes humorous, there was plenty of food for thought after Redditor kalyners asked the online community,
"What's the biggest plot hole in reality?"
"We go to sleep..."
"Consciousness. We go to sleep or pass out and it's just suddenly daytime? No, where's the wait!? I want 8 hours of lucid dreaming, damn it, I don't wanna wake up immediately!
It's like hitting the "skip cutscene" button or spamming A to jump through dialogue, it feels like someone's skipping something important."
Try reading some Derek Parfit and examine the Ego Theory vs. the Bundle Theory. Your mind will explode.
"I can hear it..."
"Inner voice and sight? I can hear it but not with my ears. I can see it but not with my eyes? I don't understand how this works."
Yeah, what's up with that? I can have conversations with myself all day if I feel like it.
"The thought of this..."
"Death. The thought of it, the unsureness of what happens next, for most people that's where life's plot armour dies."
Life's plot armor, huh?
If we have plot armor to a certain degree, then maybe we are in a simulation of some kind.
"What was before..."
"What was before the big bang? Before that? And that? And that? And so on. What's beyond nothing?"
"Am I a figment..."
"What is reality? Am I a figment of your imagination, or a figment of mine?"
Don't ask me that. We'll be here all day.
"We know that the principles..."
"Quantum physics. We know that the principles work, but no one actually understands why they work."
"You know..."
"What happens when we get as fast as we are going to get?
You know... the current world record for the men's 100m sprint is 9.58 seconds (Usain Bolt) ... but you would imagine that there will come a day when a man beats that... then another and another... but eventually we will be as fast as we can get (because you can't go backward), so then what?"
"Why did we create..."
""Everything that humans like, either kills them or it's a sin."
Just think about it. Why can't we find healthy food as tasty as a street hot dog? Why did we create a god that condemns things that we like to do? Why it seems that we evolved specifically to suffer? Something is wrong here."
Okay, okay.
You're reaching, dude.
"The double-slit experiment..."
"The double-slit experiment that proves our perception of reality changes it. this fact alone shows us there may be no spoon."
"It's like the creator..."
"Quantum mechanics. It's like the creator of the universe got tired of controlling particles at the quantum level and took some serious shortcuts."
Is the thought that we might be living in a simulation comforting to you? For some people, it might mean the exact thought. Many thinkers have suggested that validating this theory could have deleterious effects on our sense of purpose.
On the other hand, it might be liberating for some. If none of this matters, maybe people can chill out to a degree.
Have some thoughts of your own? Feel free to tell us about them in the comments below!
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Jane Rosenberg
Jane Rosenberg
@arianagrande/Instagram
@arianagrande/Instagram