Today I may make you happy or sad. Some of
you may already have thought about the idea which I will put forward in the
following article. “the Simulation Argument” is a thought experiment, in which
we may imagine ourselves; that is, our life, our experiences, our friends; to
be a computer
simulation.
What?
Imagine playing PUBG, except you aren’t
really playing it, you are in it. You don’t have a character, you are the
character. So basically, try imagining everything around you as programmed. The
chair you are sitting in is programmed to be there, to look how it looks, your
job is a series of tasks you are assigned which you must complete (or not),
food is essentially a bunch of code.
Catching my drift? No? Then try this. Imagine that the world you are is a program
and just like how you are glued to your phone screen, your “creator” is glued
to his screen watching you, maybe controlling you.
This is absurd right? Maybe. I’ll make
another attempt at convincing you.
Physics has come to a standstill, because
we haven’t come up with a theory which explains everything irrespective of
size. The theory we have for planets and stars doesn’t apply to atoms and
molecules. “String theory” which you may have heard quite a number of times
courtesy of the TV show- the Big Bang Theory, is just an attempt at this
unification, but it hasn’t been verified.
But if we are in a simulation, then we can
easily explain the discrepancies. We could say, that the “creator” or in this
case the “programmer” didn’t make the perfect universe. Rather- didn’t code the perfect universe. This could
also explain why things start becoming fuzzy as we dive deeper and deeper into
physics.
And finally, you have someone to put the
blame on. Not just physics. But all your personal problems too, maybe they are
simply syntactical errors. Also you got a way of fixing your stage fright.
Think of it as a command from your programmer which you must execute. You are
not going up on the stage, because you have to; you are doing so because you
were instructed to.
There is an interesting after thought. What
about death? If we are in a simulation, then perhaps death is “Quit without
saving”. Or death could be waking up in a lab full of scientists, with wires
and cables connected to your head which transferred all of your consciousness
into the simulator.
Obviously, this is just a theory and we
have no way of knowing whether or not we are simulated. But here’s the bizarre
thing. If simulations as complex as our universe (we’re talking about
everything guys. Right from atoms to black holes) are possible, then this will
require a CRAZY amount of computing power. And if that kind of power is
achievable, then we must not have only one simulation, but many of these made
up worlds with billions of simulated people.
And if that’s true, then there is a very
high probability, that you are in one right now.
By Arjun Kulshrestha (Guest Author)
(based on the thought experiment done by
Nick Bostrom)
