We're living in a Simulation.

(Okay not really...honest?)

Yes that’s right, we’re living in a Simulation…

…and you’re asleep to that fact…

Yes, I know…you’re rolling your eyes. It just felt right to get a reference in about The Matrix (1999) immediately, because let’s not pretend one wasn’t inevitably coming.

Now I’m not an expert on Simulation Theory, a Computational Mathematician, renowned Philosopher, the character ‘Elon Musk’ or the like; however I would suggest I have a rough understanding of these things due to previous studies and having a mega-brain, which is only in the Top 5 of things that make me amazing; my incredible modesty being at No. 2. So, I’m going to mention a few reasons why we are actually living in a Simulation and I should be able to bridge the gap between a CERN employee type and your mate Dave from the Pub. Obviously we aren’t really in a Simulation (but also, well, maybe we are?), but it’s just interesting to discuss in my opinion; so much so there is too much to talk about in one article so I may have to re-visit this again in the future. But for now, you’re reading this one…so, first of all, let’s quickly discuss the premise:

Humans have always pondered the nature of the Universe and our place within. Where did it come from? Why? During the Dawn of Man (I use the term to mean all humans; be offended not) we had to find meaning for all the things around us, from the Sun rising and setting, to other creatures that do not look like us running around, you name it, it confused and intrigued us and it led to worshipping beings known or unknown to us.

These beliefs, in something other responsible for us and everything around us, were just natural and logical conclusions to try to bring some sense to it all (and in my opinion just likely true). Thousands of years later, the majority of the world still believes in some kind of Creator, as do I.

But we still don’t *know* as such. No Creator has revealed themselves properly, you could argue. Searching for evidence of said Creator is always fruitless; at least in whatever terms said evidence would need to be for everyone to then accept it as fact. Other of course from the beauty of the World around us and the magnificent design therein. I suppose much in the way a character in the videogame The Sims would never find evidence of who built their World and the person controlling their life (and removing the steps from the swimming pool to kill the neighbours for a laugh).

So as succinctly as possible, the Simulation Theory posits that we are living in a computer generated environment, potentially one of many, and everything we (whatever we are) experience is the result of code, input signals, visual stimuli and the like - I’m sure you all remember the part where Morpheus debunks Neo’s assertion that he knows what is real because he can see it, touch it…these of course are merely electrical signals to our brains, so why can’t those signals be generated from a computer? But it goes further in that it posits it’s possible we aren’t even ‘Copper Tops’ (Duracell Batteries for a super intelligent robot race that has enslaved mankind for energy supplies), but that our consciousness could just be clever AI itself.

The fact is all we can be fairly sure of is we ourselves exist in some way. I can’t know if this is the “real world”. I can’t know if you exist. The only thing I can be fairly sure of is I exist (whether as sophisticated AI, or an actual organism), because I’m here generating thoughts within my mind and then depressing keys to populate a screen with pixels, that represent letters, that make up words, to communicate said thoughts.

“Cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am)” - René Descartes

Okay but why are we living in a Simulation, you ask. Well the math and probability is pretty strong to suggest we are. Essentially we are either A. Living in a Simulation, or B. Not Living in a Simulation. Nobody could really refute that. So a 50% chance is pretty high already! Technically right now it’s slightly less than 50% chance though, because for a Simulation to exist there needs to be a base reality, which could be ours, so it’s slightly less than 50% chance in that respect.

However, if one of a few things are ever achieved, the probability of being in a Simulation jumps from this slightly less than 50% chance to an overwhelming likelihood - it would literally be so incredibly unlikely we are the base reality in a complete instant. Let me explain:

If, and it’s a big if, we ever see an NPC (Non-Player Character, or within our reality think those people you see walking around in two masks alone outside) within a Simulation (so let’s just say The Sims 2050), of their own accord due to sophisticated AI create the game Pong in their world

or

we harness such immense computational power and advance to the point we can create a simulated world that is so immersive we cannot distinguish it from reality, save for the part where we “plug-in” (and if you think about it we got from Pong to the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 pretty quick) and thus have evidence that a world at least like our own can be synthetically re-created. Just like how dreams can feel as real as our waking existence. Zhuangzi once wrote about how he, a man, dreamt he was a butterfly…but then, was he perhaps a butterfly dreaming he was a man?

The above philosophical quandary you may remember (if you’ve seen it) explored in more detail in the movie Inception (2010) whereby dream-worlds can be created within themselves, to the point the main character Dom Cobb loses his wife Mal to suicide as she’s convinced that after initially awakening from a deep dream with him, that they are actually still in another dream and can never snap out of it…but who is to say she wasn’t correct? After all, the spinning top Dom uses to test reality (if it topples, it “proves” he’s awake), is never seen to fall at the end…though it does wobble, so we’re pretty sure all is well - but how can any of us be sure we’re not dreaming, right now?

Anyway, once either of these, or something else along the same lines, occurs, the probability of being within a Simulation becomes the most likely truth. The reason being is that we now have evidence that a Virtual World for all intents and purposes like our own, can be created. So if it can happen, it inevitably has already.

There could be one Master Creator running multiple Simulations on different systems, or there could be Simulations within Simulations with no way of knowing where the one true reality starts and where we sit within.

Big Tech are already hard at work trying to make their own realities, as highlighted by ‘Simulation Control’ on Twitter:

Even if we say there’s a limit of computational power for how many Simulations can exist, we would know for a fact there are at least two, and so there could be more, so we cannot know for sure ours is the base reality. Much like the ‘Cosmological Stack Theory’, we do not know where ‘Our Universe’ exists, only that ours is now one of many.

And/or once our pixelated friend within The Sims 2050 creates a game like Pong, it’s only a matter of time before the Simulations they are creating progress to having their own version of The Sims within (just more pixelated), with another AI character eventually creating Pong there too, and so on. This is of course, as mentioned, limited by computational power though. Within video games a neat trick to help deal with this is, at least in terms of graphics, achieved with ‘Levels of Detail’ (LOD) and rendering in crisp full resolution images only when they are within focal range, thus only using a certain amount of processing power, memory and energy at one time.

It stands to reason then, if we are in a simulated reality now, there should be a point where far enough in the distance things look ‘blocky’. Well, I shit you not, but we have evidence this might be occurring in our Universe. There’s something known as the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin, or GZK, cut-off. This is what seems to be a boundary of the energy that cosmic ray particles can have and there’s a paper that argues this is what one could expect from a Computer Simulation.

And once you can ponder such a possibility, it actually makes things happening all around seem all that more understandable. Who is to say there isn’t a Simulation Control Admin, or group of Admins, adding new parameters into our reality to experiment with us? It could certainly explain why it really does seem like the world has gone mad because every day something proves we are living in Clown World™️.

The political poles and what they are traditionally known for, have all but swapped.

Things are now other things, that we *know* are not those things, but more and more people every day are saying the thing, that is not that thing, is now that thing, much to our confusion.

There can be overwhelming evidence elsewhere that what we’re being told, nay fed, by those in power is not the case; but nobody can seem to convince the masses that The Emperor has no clothes, 2 plus 2 still equals 4 and the like.

It’s almost as if we (those who can *see*, those who are awake) are surrounded by NPC’s, or at least other PC’s that have had some of their base programming tinkered with by a higher power at differing rates.

I mean things predicted long ago seem to keep coming true, and whilst it is in our nature to only notice such events and disregard the rest, with a subconscious confirmation bias, the accuracy seems to be debunking pure coincidence. I know that if I’m about to call someone and then my phone rings and it’s that person, that despite that feeling odd, it isn’t when you consider all the other times that didn’t happen…but when things keep unfolding precisely, step-by-step, as predicted 10, 20, 100 years ago, it does feel that perhaps it’s all destined as part of some basic script or loop, which for all we know is the gazzilionth time it has already gone that way and this is just the latest cycle of the experiment with just some minor tweaks.

Now, please don’t have an existential crisis. I don’t believe we’re living in a Simulation, and I know you don’t either.

…so what are we to do with this information? Well, none of us will really do anything with it, will we? But that in itself is only more evidence we actually ARE in one!

If I were to create a Simulation, for experimental reasons or other, I wouldn’t want to risk the populace realising this. It would produce a failed result and cause a cataclysmic shutdown. I would create rules to prevent this being easily found out, a boundary as far away as possible given the calculations of how long it would likely take them to reach the intelligence and technological advancement within to discover that boundary. Above all, I would give them a sense of purpose, be that a higher calling or just a sense of being alive. I would write their code to make the very notion that they are synthetic something they will always reject…computer says no. Reading this, I know you just *feel* that this is real life, you are real, you could never possibly ever be in a Simulation. You can literally barely bring yourself to entertain the idea…and you see, that could just be your programming working as intended.

Most people, understandably so, would rather take the blue pill, every time. The red pill is my preference. I want to know. Warts and all. But for many, a quiet life, the illusion of freedom etc is preferred to the potentially ugly truth that the red pill might deliver, even if ultimately it is liberating.

The character Cypher in The Matrix (1999) is a prime example of this - he makes a deal with the totalitarian ruling class (the malevolent robots) via one of their ‘Agents’ to be plugged back in, his mind wiped of the truth…and of course wants some perks to go along with it such as fame and fortune and more juicy steaks, expensive wine and rare cigars. He thought the battle was one that could not be won so he joined Them.

Much in the same way someone’s favourite influencer, actor, politician, scientist, could be making shady deals to make their lives better; even if it means a few deaths and the misery of others along the way…but I digress 😉

So even if we aren’t in a Simulation, human evolution (I use that word extremely loosely) seems to be in its own kind of loop and with clear and defined rules and limits. With winners and losers, anomalies, irregularities, errors and glitches. A construct and prison of our own making.

And perhaps, that’s a scarier thought.

But I suppose at least if we want we can go for a walk, see friends or even sign up to some Kung-Fu classes; Digital ID ‘Green’ status permitting…

I find this theory fascinating, but personally reject it and recommend the same. It’s a Gateway Drug to New Age Religion (which isn’t all bad or wrong, not at all; I have interest in lots of things…but is itself a Gateway Drug to what They want you to embrace and believe and what else to reject; so just be wary is my advice) or it supplants all else with general nihilism. Instead I use talk of ‘The Matrix’ in the allegorical sense of ‘Plato’s Cave’. A metaphor for the faked nature of things we are shown, what we eat, how we *feel* and the rest. But it’s all still in a very real World.

“Nothing, and everything, is real.” - Nonstopdramus

Anyway, that’s enough wrangling of your brains for now. Time for us to unplug.

Creator bless us all.