Soon the scientists will announce that the universe is simulated. It is inevitable, because Simulation Theory is the best explanation of the existent data.
“We live in illusion and the appearance of things. There is a reality. We are that reality." - Gautama Buddha
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This conclusion is not new. It has been present in Eastern Philosophy for thousands of years. It has also been concluded throughout the history of Western Philosophy.
Today, we exist within a paradigm in which the philosophical position of Materialism is assumed to be unquestionably true. Materialism is the belief that we live in an Objectively Real Material Universe. This assumption, however, gives rise to many unresolvable problems, which we call Hard Problems.
The Hard Problem of Consciousness is perhaps the most notable of these, but there are others such as the questions about the initial conditions of the universe. What is the cause of time? What is the cause of spin? What is the cause of charge? Why is light a constant? Not to mention the "weirdness" of Quantum Physics and Relativity Theory.
Simulation Theory provides the best answers to all of these problems, yet it is resisted vehemently because it is so counter-intuitive and challenges our cherished belief that the world is Objectively Real and Material.
The Copernican Shift
The world was reluctant to admit that the earth was not the center of the universe not long ago. Is it any surprise that the world is today reluctant to admit that our Universe is not Base Reality?
Richard Dawkins has criticized the theory as being non-falsifiable, but this critique falls flat. To refute Simulation Theory one would need only to find one incomputable thing in the universe, and we could conclude that the universe could not be the result of a computer simulation.
If it were the case, for instance, that space and time were continuous rather than discrete (as in consisting of discrete chunks like pixels and time increments), then we could conclude that we are not in a simulation, because a computer could never compute the infinity implied in continuous space/time.
But as it turns out, both space and time are discrete. Plank length, and plank time, are the smallest chunks of space and time possible (a very counter-intuitive finding for Materialists who believe the world is Objective) meaning that time clicks by in tiny increments, and space does to, from pixel to pixel of reality.
Nick Bostrom and Elon Musk have popularized a logical argument that leads to the conclusion that we are likely living in a simulation, but they have neglected the ramifications of such a theory.
If Simulation Theory is true, then the current paradigm of Materialism is false. If Materialism is true, then determinism is true, moral relativism is true, consciousness is an illusion, god does not exist, death is a return to eternal nothingness, and the most reasonable philosophical conclusion is Atheistic Nihilism.
Simulation Theory Is True
Therefore, Materialism is false. Now we must revisit the god debate, the freewill/determinism debate, the ethics debate, the consciousness debate, the what happens after death debate, etc.
For starters, our universe being a simulation implies the existence at least of a computer that is processing it, that exists outside of the reality our universe exists in. God, while not necessarily the entity imagined by any specific religion of our past, is perhaps an apt description of that computer or it's programmers.
Second, just as you and the computer both must be outside of the simulation when you're playing a video game, else you could not communicate with the computer to play in it, it logically follows that you as consciousness must be in the same reality as the computer, and not in the simulation itself.
Your body that you identify with, is no more than an avatar in a simulation. When that avatar dies, it is no more traumatic than when your character dies in a video game you are playing. You persist to play as another character, in the same game, or in another.
If all of these things are true, then consciousness is more fundamental then the universe itself, and thus, free will seems to be on much better footing, at least free will with regard to our simulated universe. Do you have free will in a video game? Or does the video game determine all of your choices for you?
With freewill comes moral choice. This means our choices carry moral weight, and our actions in the world have meaning. So there goes moral relativism and nihilism. Suddenly the world is looking much different, and perhaps our political and social conflicts look different too from this new perspective.
This change is coming. We should start preparing for it now. We don't want to get into a bunch of religious wars over, "My God is a better programmer than your God." We need to formulate rational conclusions to draw now, before we are blindsided by a big announcement by scientists that they have come to the inescapable conclusion that we are indeed living in a simulation.
- KG
Photo by Glenn Carsten-Peters on Unsplash