Put down the Pokemon Go for a minute. I want to talk to you about the idea that the simulation you find yourself so enthralled with is merely an inferior attempt to imitate the simulation you're already embedded in.

So, I've been seeing a lot of stuff lately about how Elon Musk and other bright people insist that we must be living in a simulation. Yeah, maybe. Let's think about it.

So, if we are in a simulation, there are a few different possibilities. Either:

A. All conscious experience is generated within our simulation, and the consciousness that created our simulation is outside of it and only observes it from the outside, never participating directly within the simulation.

B. We have conscious bodies in the universe "one level up," - the universe that contains our simulation. All consciousness within our simulation is generated solely from the outside, either by multiple entities or a single entity that "plays" the roles of many "actors" in our simulation.

C. Our simulation is a combination of A and B, so consciousness is generated from within and consciousness from one level up participates in our simulation as well.

I think scenario A can be ruled out, because we already know that consciousness from a higher level can and does participate in simulations at a lower level, because we already have people doing that with VR in our current reality.

Scenario C seems mere speculation. Science hasn't figured out exactly what consciousness is yet. Sure, AI is getting better and better, but there is not one shred of evidence that any machine created by humans has any conscious experience. For all we know, consciousness could be something that only arises from biological systems. Or it could be something that arises from systems that tap into the quantum world, as has been shown to be a possibility with recent discoveries concerning microtubules in the brain.

Also, consider that in quantum theory, consciousness is a prerequisite to collapsing the wave function and determining the state of a given object of consciousness. Consciousness itself CANNOT be generated by the the system. ## Otherwise, we run into a paradox in which consciousness is required to determine if consciousness is present or not.

All simulations we know of, within our simulation, require pre-existing consciousness. They require conscious entities to program them into existence, and they require conscious entities to experience them, either from the inside, as in VR, or from the outside, as in Sim games.

So, if this is indeed a simulation, scenario B seems like the only possibility.

It follows, then, that some, or all, apparently conscious human beings in our simulation are either:

1. Actually having conscious experience from outside the simulation, via some interface with this simulation, and their "real" body is outside, above, and beyond this simulation.

Or

1. They are philosophical zombies, acting just like humans but having no conscious experience.

I'm gonna skip over category 2, because if you fall into that category, I don't really have much to say to you. Have a nice day.

So, each actor in this simulation is either being controlled by the same consciousness from the beginning of their life to the end, or by multiple different "players" who take turns controlling the actor.

But if that is the case, why do I never feel like a completely different conscious entity in a new body? Why do I experience continuity, always feeling like the same person who gradually changes through time?

And if I'm being controlled by the same entity throughout my life, why does my consciousness never "jump" to the next level out of the simulation, as would happen to anyone wearing VR gear when they took it off?

Why is there no crossover of experience between the simulation and the base reality?

Maybe my consciousness does jump up a level, but the simulation doesn't allow that information in. It somehow erases all trace of the base reality for every player while in the simulation.

Or maybe it's that the base reality is so strange in comparison to the simulation that information about it cannot be comprehended within the simulation. Maybe our understanding of the quantum world, reached from within the simulation, is just scratching the surface of a completely bizarre and incomprehensible reality, where strange, super-intelligent beings exist, and spend their time creating simulations that are much easier to comprehend, more comfortable to live in. Maybe they're eternal, can move forward and backward in time, exist in multiple states at once, and they're just totally fed up with the whole deal. So they create simulations, places where things make sense, follow rules, have beginnings and ends, and where they can have some certainty about what did or didn't happen.

And maybe it's not multiple beings, but one. Or maybe it's not clear to the entity / entities whether it / they are one or many.

Maybe it / they don't really dig the ambiguity. I don't think I would either. Maybe I'm here because I don't dig the uncertainty. Or, maybe it's that everything is too certain and predictable.

But here we are, discussing the possibility that there is a higher reality that contains our reality. Obviously, they (we?) haven't plugged up every hole. Maybe it's not possible. Maybe any system that contains information must by definition allow for the possibility of any informational pattern coming into being.

I mean, it's possible to hide facts, but it doesn't seem possible to stop a mind from considering possibilities. If you can understand the concept of one, it may in fact be impossible to prevent you from understanding the concept of two. If there's a here, there must be a there. And a where.

And maybe this drive we have to create these alternate realities is nothing new at all. Maybe this is what the universe does. It creates worlds within worlds within worlds for the sole purpose of playing hide and seek with itself forever and ever, eternally avoiding the cold, hard truth that nothing actually exists.

Now, let's all get back to Pokemon Go. Sorry for the interruption.