I have a theory about the why this universe may be simulated

You and your cousin sound like you're definitely headed in the right direction.


But yeah...


It's a possibility for sure.


What I'd ask you to do at this point would be to imagine that on a micro/macro scale...


The entire universe is on a chip...


And there are others and obviously, and entire existence beyond even them.

What's the inventive for the living to keep the digital people alive?

I just can't imagine what purpose there would be to simulate soo many different universes. Observation perhaps? To test results?

This universe is a simulation and it is God doing the simulating IMO.

Money. You pay a company perhaps many thousands of dollars before you die to place you into this simulation. And it could either be shared by everyone or there could be an entire universal simulation for each person.

For all you know, I may just be a construct in your own simulation.

It's turtles all the way down...

But seriously, what difference does it make?

I'm very wary of the whole mind uploading shtick because we don't really understand what the mind is... how can you be sure that the "you" stored on the chip is actually "you" and not just a copy?

The copy would have all your memories and personality traits and swear blind it is you but still... how could you be sure?

I mean, the copy wouldn't care, it gets to live on... but the you that sits in front of the computer reading this now, is that really transferred?

It's like that episode of Star Trek where some dude reckons the transporter actually kills you and just spits out a perfect copy with all memories intact at the other end.

Heck there's a convincing argument that every time you enter deep fully unconscious sleep this happens.

When you wake up your brain assembles another "you" from all the stored memories and programmed habits physically held in neurons and whatnot but it's not the same "you" that went to sleep the night before... That "consciousness" was obliterated when you became "unconscious".

You're nothing but an endless series of copies created every morning and the very first original you "died" the first time you ever went to sleep after gaining consciousness... you never even made it out of the womb lol.

Last Edited by Lucky Charms on 12/22/2012 10:26 PM

Certainly plausible.

Actually, this has been discussed, postulated, and written about many, many, many, many times before over the past decade or more -- in everything from sci fi to academic science journals.

Here you go OP. One of the best short stories ever written. Will only take 10 minutes to read and ties into your theory well.

[link to filer.case.edu]

Interesting. I was telling the hubby the other day that some of us could be clones. That maybe something happened in the eighties onward and we just don't know it. I've had 4 c-sections. All of my sisters had c-sections. My mother delivered me and one of my sister's vaginally but not my second sis who was born in the 80's. Maybe there's a reason a lot of peeps have c-sections now and not just for the money, or the baby's sake, or the mother's sake. Just wondering cause I don't know too many peeps who had them natural for one reason or another and men...well maybe they are clones too but they don't have invasive surgery for this...yet.

If this is a simulation did God hide the reboot switch?

Excellent story. I love Asimov.

Thanks for posting that.

You're gay.

A better question I started to ask myself: Why not create your own reality that fits you better than this crap?

What if we could concentrate enough to create experiences in our inner created worlds?

Nobody talks about this, just bashing the meaningless outside world.

There is an absolute guaranteed way of knowing if we are in a computer simulation, but it requires waiting.

Basically If we ever manage to create our own procedurally generated universe inside a computer system then there is a 99.999999999% chance that we are ourselves inside a simulation.

Do I think that will happen? no, because I think computer systems will actually begin to get slower after 2020 or so as they become more efficient to deal with less energy supply and the slow collapse of industrial civilisation.