Do you think it is possible that the entire universe is just one big SIMS-like computer app and we are all SIMS-like bots? for Questionland Seattle

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Do you think it is possible that the entire universe is just one big SIMS-like computer app and we are all SIMS-like bots?

I was watching the science channel and they had this guy on who conjectured that possibly everything is one giant computer simulation...albeit with highly sophisticated "computers" from the future. Part of his evidence was that the world is made up of particles/quantums just like a pixelated computer game. Is the matrix real, people?

Kristin Bell asked in Science & Technology about 1 year ago | Report

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Lilting Missive

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Theories like that are the struggle of a reductionist ideologue who feels abandoned in the endless mystery, complexity, and emergence of the world. To say that everything is the result of some rational, man-made fundamental is a failed attempt to doom wonder to deterministic machinations.

Plus it's pointless. It's not even a good philosophical question to ask because it quickly leads to a dead-end. A transcendent reality is irrelevant as long as it stays transcendent, and by definition of being transcendent it is unprovable within our lived illusion. If we were all brains in a jar, or only you or I existed as a brain in a jar in a big simulation, then it doesn't matter as long we remain brains in a jar in a big simulation.

Furthermore, the theory is completely recursive. What if the future reality in which the big computer exists is itself a simulation of an even greater reality? Etc, etc...

The pixels = particles thing is utterly absurd. Particles are not objective nuggets of Truth, they're models, abstractions, that we currently use for understanding the world at certain scales and energy levels. Pixels are composed of those particles, along with everything else that makes up matter and energy, of which there will always be an infinite amount that we don't understand.

Really, Kant talked about this subject, indirectly, in the 18th century. So this guy is 230 years late.

Lilting Missive answered in Science & Technology about 1 year ago | Report

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This guy is about 30 years late.

Douglas Adams introduced this plotline in 1978 with "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Not only is the Earth actually a giant computer simulation designed by Deep Thought, the second-most-powerful computer ever, it was designed for the purpose of determining the question to the answer of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Mice commissioned it.

I didn't see the program, but that "evidence" sounds like hooey. If everything is made of particles (the basis of particle physics) then the universe has an equal chance of being a cow or a grassy field. When the theory depends on time travel... are you sure he wasn't trying to pimp his own sf book?

CleverScreenName answered in Science & Technology about 1 year ago | Report

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bluewolfe

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No way. This is coming from a guy who loved the Matrix movies and bought the box set with the philosophical extras. I'm no quantum physicist, but I have a theory: The Universe IS a "matrix" of energy that consciousness shapes into particles and matter. Whether that consciousness is human or not, everything that exists is created from its intention and thought. Quantum physics has proven that waves become particles as soon as the observer's consciousness interacts with them. Physical reality is literally created, shaped, and changed as a constant response to what's going on in the mind of individuals, groups, societies, nations, and species. There are also creative forces at work that aren't seen in the physical realm. Though we are part of a greater consciousness responsible for the creation of the physical universe around us and the non-physical universe within us, we are limited by our human senses to understand it fully. However, we'll still continue to try with science, philosophy, and theology.

bluewolfe answered in Science & Technology about 1 year ago | Report

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