What are the chances that we're living in a computer simulation?

Question

Think about it, one day with our technology we will probably be able to simulate emotions and day to day activities for artificial intelligence in a video simulation (ie. "The Sims" but much more advanced). So what are the chances that this has already happened and we are the product of that simulation by another intelligence.

Yes... I know this is like the matrix.... and yes I've read and heard what Nick Bostrom has said about this, hence my interest. Let's hear your answer.

Answer 1

How about the fact that on the end of your eyelashes are billions upon billions of little critters living there, building there, dying and mating - and you are their....well for a lose of another word, you are their god; their being etc.

So could we be a computer matrix, why not, saw a twilight zone TV show once were all the people had been created by a computer because all life as humans was dying and those last humans made us all computers with computers able to remake and improve upon us. So why not. Its a big board out there!

Answer 2

Believe it or not I have actually had this exact same thought. We are probably five hundred years away (tops) of being able to put a person into a matrix-like world (possibly to extend the human lifespan) and so if humans live for another billion years and you are conscious then it seems likely that you would be part of the 99.9999% of humanity that was born after this technology became available and are therefore living in a computer simulation.
The big problem I see is that you can do this kind of thinking with anything; if you consider that humans will be around for a billion years the chances of a lot of things happening increase greatly. There is a greater chance that the white race will kill the black race. There is a greater chance that the black race will kill the white race. Obviously both cannot be true (assuming one race lives on). So that is method that I use to release myself from the “we are in a matrix” type of thinking. There a an infinite number of possibilities so it doesn’t make sense to focus on one.

Answer 3

I have no idea or desire to I say the chances are not that good. Do you realize the cost of keeping a person totally emerged in a simulated environment for 24/7???!
For what profit would this be done? Energy is one of your possible answers. The math just doesn't seem to add up on this Hollywood Matrix situation.

Things only happen for reason, what is the reason for someone doing this to another?

Therefore I say the chances are not good.

If you want to get all semantic about it then you could suggest that physical life is just a virtual "reality" for the spiritual energy in us that may possibly go on after our physical interface dies. But that is way too religious for me.


This is an old question going back to "the allegory of the cave".

Answer 4

I try not to think about it because if I did I'm afraid I'd have to fight my way out of this simulation and find some way to kill the sadistic...um..."person" who controls this place and thinks its funny to give other people every opportunity in the world while taking those opportunities from me.

If it is a simulation though, what difference would it really make as long as it's real to us?

I've often thought that maybe I exist only in another persons dream. My job is only to hang out so that someone else can have people to interact with on occasion, that's why I don't have anything special. I don't need it for the three or four times I'm going to run into the person having this dream. For all I know, my entire existance takes place in the normal 8 hour sleep of someone else.

Answer 5

Yea! thats what i was thinking aswell...

Humans on another planets... left "adam and eve" here alone on earth to see how they would go about starting their own civilization in this world.

Or

Our minds are a network of computers... the body is the hardware while the mind is the software. Or like how my analogy goes... God is to Human... as Human is to Computer/Robots. One has already created intelligence while the other is yet to create artificial intellience.

I mean anything is possible outside of the "physical world" that we know of.

Thanks for the Q.


Peace.

Answer 6

The chances are the same as the chances for a number of other things, like the fact that intelligent life is out there in the universe. BUT it can't be proven. We have no base to crunch number off of.

It is one of those things where the chances are at once really good, and really small.

Answer 7

Pre-modern cultures worried about Fate; the West, influenced by Calvin, bemoaned a freedom lost to divine predestination; modernity obsessesed about the loss of freedom and the reality of determinism in the face of the conflictual nature of finitude and evolutionary biology-- the post-modern version of all this is now that we are programs in some giant, cosmic, computer simulation.

Answer 8

However unlikely it is possible. I like To use Occam's Razor on this... and define it as absurdly unlikely!!!
It would take much time and lots of energy to create something like that. Plus, things like "the sims" provide participation/entertainment... The only possibility in your version is within a simulated study. However that seams very unethical to create a consciousness and keep it unaware of reality for our own pleasures or anything else!!!

Answer 9

nick bostrom provides an answer to his question. i donot quite remeber what were the percentages he said but it was more than 50%.
his argument is that once any race becomes sufficienly advanced he will create such a universe just to have fun or play god or for whatever he chooses to. but he will do it because its such a tempting thing to do. and he reasons that we humans too will eventually reach that stage. so the chances that we are actually living ina simulation is great. i know i donot sound that convincing but just read his essay on his home page and you will find out.

Answer 10

In a two dimensional world, Sunrise and sunset are each a blip, once a day. In a fishbowl god is the one who changes the water.

In the world you describe, or in the universe we are in, there are probably more dimensions of reality than our human brains can grasp.

So we cannot know; but it is to our glory that we try.