SIMULATED REALITY THEORY

Could We Be Living in a Simulation?

If I am thinking about simulated bodies I think it makes sense to think about scientific theories about simulation and the nature of our own reality!

The idea is that we could be living inside a simulation constructed by a "more sophisticated intelligence" with much greater computer power than we do. The theorists look at the rate that we have been developing AI and speculate that if we can create video games, and are on the route to discovering the nature of our own consciousness and how the human brain structure allows it to happen, then we could theoretically make simulations of conscious beings. Perhaps there are higher levels of intelligence that have already achieved this - and we are the product. Nick Bostrom proposed that it could be future version of our current civilisation, simulating their ancestors.

Eventually video games - our best example of simulated living that we currently have - will become indistinguishable from reality. This will lead to the fact that there will be more artificial, simulated beings than there are organic ones - and who is to say that we are among the few real minds?

"Reasons to believe that the universe is a simulation include the fact that it behaves mathematically and is broken up into pieces (subatomic particles) like a pixelated video game. “Even things that we think of as continuous – time, energy, space, volume – all have a finite limit to their size. If that’s the case, then our universe is both computable and finite. Those properties allow the universe to be simulated. Quite frankly, if we are not living in a simulation, it is an extraordinarily unlikely circumstance.""

In the article he talks more about how living in a simulation is a much simpler (read: more likely) explanation than the idea that we on Earth were somehow the first life forms to ever exist from evolutionary chance and miraculous conditions.

Sceptic arguments say that it is "hubris" to think that we are would would end up being simulated, and that there is no true evidence for it. Also, just because some things like quantum mechanics haven't been explained yet doesn't mean they can be put down to simulation and laid to rest.

"Once we go far enough down the multiverse route, all bets are off. Reality goes into the melting pot, and there is no reason to believe we are living in anything but a Matrix-style simulation. Science is then reduced to a charade, because the simulators of our world — whoever or whatever they are — can create any pseudo-laws they please, and keep changing them."

It is entertaining and appealing but not likely to be true (even scientists that entertain the concept don't truly believe we really are simulated). But it makes for very juicy ideas for creative projects. The idea of mathematical boundaries being placed on simulation is interesting. What are the aesthetics of maths? Creating digitally with software means already working within the constraints of simulation. What are the consequences and boundaries of simulation, and where can things go wrong? Clipping, glitches, data moshing - like in my last project which embraced glitch and error - could be interesting to being back in, but deliberately to explore it, rather than stumble upon by accident and then embrace. The project so far is about how virtual aesthetics allow us to transcend the limits of physical space and bodies. But if simulations have limits, would we just find new things to feel restricted by? I am most intrigued by the idea of video games becoming indistinguishable from reality because one of the benefits of virtual space is that you can be totally fantastical and illogical, so how would that work, with having to lose our memory of what the boundaries of 'real reality' look like? Is that why we might end up simulating our ancestors - to remember what we looked like and how we lived before we could customise our own reality?

I don't know exactly how I could use this theory in my project directly but it is very interesting to think about. Maybe I will develop the ideas more later on.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/11/simulated-world-elon-musk-the-matrix

https://builtin.com/hardware/simulation-theory

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