It’s a Simulation But Not What You Think
The popular idea we are living in a simulation proposes there is some massive computer and sysop which programs us and our environment for some unknown purpose. The hypothesis goes: we are merely subroutines running in a cyber world. Each of us only experiences what we are thereby programmed to see, hear, feel, smell and think.
One variation of the hypothesis is we are humanoid biological units kept suspended in life support pods and are being fed our experiences directly into our brains. We are like comatose patients being maintained and dreaming our lives. Of course this would also be true if we were some other species instead. Zhuangzi, Chinese philosopher, wrote about dreaming he was a butterfly. Upon awakening he was not sure he was not indeed a butterfly dreaming he was human.
The other hypothetical variation is we are only the machinations of a computer code and there is no other realm for us to escape to. This variation of the simulation asserts there is no objective reality but only what the computer programmers code into our memory segment. This is not unlike the atheist belief of the “bricks and mortar” flesh and blood version most people accept.
The comatose human version is more palatable in that there is a possible escape and possibility of a better world outside the simulation. Religions preach of such sanctuary with a perfect transfiguration of our bodies in a heavenly realm.
The comatose human version posits there is someone somewhere outside of the simulation who has a purpose for our existence and the resources to maintain our bodies while we are fed our experiences. But then we may only be disembodied brains sitting in bell jars of nutrient-rich oxygenated synth-blood. For that scenario there would be no reprieve.
Both of these variations suggest there is a super computer with the IO ports to connect to each of us. We do not know how many of us there are. The sysop programs the statistic of 8 billion humans at this time stamp: 1697042266. There might only be as many simulated humans as YOU interact face to face with in your entire life or this day only. All the others are merely variables coded in your program. Even a nonexistent yesterday could be merely an encoded memory.
Now as I suggested in the title of this essay, it’s a simulation but not what you think.
Every molecule, atom and subatomic particle is like a data bit in a computer. The Cosmos is a massive database. The data is churned and changed constantly according to a few rules. Newton’s laws of motion, Lord Kelvin’s laws of thermodynamics, Einstein’s Relativity and a host of other Natural Laws govern how mass moves and where particles will be at some time later.
Along with the Universe shifting masses on a cosmic scale we humans dig holes and shovel dirt and rock around to suit our own purposes. Collectively all this action makes the world we see.
Then there is us. Each of us is a CPU which accesses the database. For the universe to be, there is no need for computation. Only the initial conditions need to be and the natural laws take care of the rest.
Our conscious connection with this universe is accomplished via our self replicating brains. Those brains contains short and long term memory with which we can navigate our minuscule speck of the grand cosmic database. For most intents and purposes we have no use for anything off planet or outside our slice of time in which we are alive and in connection with the Universe.
Our eyes, ears, nose and skin cells receive stimulation by electromagnetic energy and our bio-electric bodies conduct signals to our brains. There they are processed and projected out into the void around us. Some how those processed signals are perceived by our consciousnesses.
The world around us we experience is not the same as what we see and hear. It is a reproduction. You never see the apple on the table. What you experience is the light which reflects off of the apple. While there is an actual apple to touch and eat everything about it is a reproduction to our senses.
Sounds are different. You cannot experience a person’s voice without intermediary mass to conduct the larynx vibration to your ears. The sound starts out as an intent by the person talking. It becomes a mechanical vibration which moves from one medium to another until it vibrates little tiny hairs in the cochlea of your ears. It’s all energy, waves moving in a medium. Our brains receive the ears’ EM stimulation and project its source out to a place where it appears to originate.
The perception of the external world is quite detailed and complex. We don’t see the graininess in the optics. We don’t see the edges of our field of view. We don’t perceive world behind our heads or inside it for that matter. Our vision is not like being inside a room looking out through a window.
Even as our experiences are a reproduction of the objective world, we ourselves do run simulations. In a dream state (simulation) we are able to see light where there is no photons. We can hear sounds where there are no vibrations. We can feel sensations where there is no touch. We can place ourselves in settings which have no analog in the objective world.
The curious fact is we have a ChatGPT-like function built into our brains or minds. In a hypnotic state a hypnotist can talk to this function and conjure experiences, images, sounds, actions and emotions. They make the suggestion and we do the manifesting. In the end they can cause us to delete the memories or save them. A current craze is to practice lucid dreaming, a mental state where we are essentially asleep but keep active a part of our brains where intent can manifest. We seek to control what we see, hear and do in the dream state. Now there is where a simulation can exist.
For our conscious existence to be a simulation doesn’t require a micro-managing programmer. There doesn’t need to be a physical central “mainframe” type processor on which algorithms and subroutines are run. There doesn’t need to be a place where a different body resides. There doesn’t need to be anywhere else but here in which to exist.
But on the other hand, if programmers have written computer code which manifests you as a conscious being they only need to code one day which runs endlessly as a loop. It would start when you open your eyes, contain all the memories you have of past days and restart when you open your eyes again. No need for there to be any massive infrastructure because there is only you and enough bytes to hold one day. You would never know there was no previous days or a next one. At some Unix Timestamp the sim will terminate and you will cease to exist. Fin.
