(Had to plug my homeland)
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INTRO
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Hi. Welcome to
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Simulation Theory
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Moore's Law states that the number of transistors in a computer doubles about every two years. Common misconception being that, like the name suggests, this is a law. It's not. More appropriately, it's "Moore's Observation". This observation is currently seeing a bit of a plateau which straight away boots it from the "Law" category. But regardless of its less-certain nature, it is still mostly true. As is the case in any aspect of technological growth, our computers are growing. Transistors are the things that do the 1 and 0. And computing power is fundamentally dictated by how many 1's and 0's a computer can mess with at any given time. So the more transistors, the more 1's and 0's, the more power. Our computers are steadily becoming more powerful.
As you may have noticed, Simulation Theory has become trendy. It's one of the many explanations we apes have come up with regarding the nature of our reality. To boil it down to its simplest level, imagine playing Sims. Now give the Sims you loom over full consciousness and an entire universe to live in. Simulation Theory says that that is our reality. We are conscious A.I in a Universe sized Simulation. Sounds bizarre, but it has integrity. For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to use the Computer argument to support it. Although there are a few other aspects of science and whatnot that hold up this theory a bit, I won't mention them because they are L O N G. One of them is called Emergence Theory. Hehehe.
So let's say Moore's Law continues for hundreds of years. Humanity avoids self-destruction and we expand into the infinite reaches of space, faced with no hindrance to our progress besides ourselves. Great. Our technology and grasp of science continues to compound on itself. We grow. Evolve. Develop. Shout mean things at eachother a bit less than when we did when we still fiddled with flags and smashed rocks. Our computers grow with us, quantum computing becomes the household feature of human electronics. Our mastery over A.I and computation continues to elude a peak.
One day, someone thinks "Wowie. I can simulate the precise growth of the Universe, from its birth to its end. I do so wonder what happens if I do that.. but with NPC's!"
Smart guy. He's just done something absolutely wack though.
See, by this time, we could have computers the size of planets. Imagine. Right now, we're trying to be as small as possible. Fitting terrabytes of data into the palm of our hands. The sheer capacity of something larger than a house, would be enormous, much less a Planet.
So Humans in the far future create a computer the size of a planet (Or smaller if we are so technologically inclined). This computer has the ability to reliably run an entire universe complete with all the bits and bobs of physics and sticks. And we just sit back and let er rip. In this scenario, it's an Ancestor Simulation. Humans that are beyond anything we could recognise today were feeling a bit nostalgic and wanted to see what we got up to in our hay day, down to the smallest detail. So they create a Sims Universe, and watch us unfold. Apparently, somebody managed to code some semblance of life itself into that Sim, and now they just watch as A.I learns and develops identical to consciousness.. or what we know of it.
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The Philosophy Part
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I don't have a problem with this theory. It's interesting. But
For me. This is complex.
No matter how you look at it, I think to derive meaning from what you previously felt was "True", is silly.
Let's say this is an Ancestor Simulation. This means we are simply the NPC's of Humanities past, living in the Universe our future-human creators once did. This means that whether we are in a Sim or not, our reality is exactly the same, albeit one is virtual, and thus meaning remains the same.
What if our simulation is not directed at us? Could easily be the case. Maybe we are part of a simulated Universe created by a different species for another purpose entirely.
So. Now we're even less significant than we would be in a real universe. But that changes nothing. There is a varying degree of purpose. One is your purpose in life. What you chose to do as you live. And then there is your purpose in existence. For what purpose your life exists at all. The first is a jumper you have to knit yourself. You discover purpose every day. Some want to fix cars, other want to build rockets. This is their purpose, and it is fulfilled until death. The second degree of purpose is simply your existence in general. "I wonder why we're alive". For me this question is easily answered. If you avoid spiritual/religious context, the Why boils down to how things are. Our planet is in the habitable zone, thus liquid water can exist on its surface, thus life can form, thus evolution can occur, thus you can beat your annoying neighbour to death and live the pitiful existence you are confined to. There is no Why. You just are.
And so when you discover that you live in a simulation, don't dread the fact that you are without meaning. You aren't. You exist simply because. Because you evolved. Because the alien coded you in. Whatever. There is meaning (Paradoxically, it's the lack thereof) no matter where you are. Real universe or not, you exist. And thus, you are. And that's your sense of meaning. Don't abandon it because you're actually just the future's equivalent of binary.
Footnote:
This entry was more of an experiment. I went off on tangents and basically chatted raw bollocks. 99% of this has depth and is a genuine contemplation of mine. But if you struggle to read because of its poor framework or whatever, expect it lol. Feedback is welcomed. Basically, I wrote this with the same idea as a feedback thread, but decided to just write it anyway.
As with all Philosophy and contemplations, this is a point of view. If you derive meaning from some religious or other background I didn't mention, I'm not challenging that, do carry on.
