Are We A Simulation?

[Taylor Winters]

Are we a simulation?

As video games and virtual reality increase in technological scope and quality, we will soon reach a point in which they will be indistinguishable from real life. If this is true… how do we know it hasn’t already happened? How do we know we aren’t a simulation already?

It’s important to note that I’m not saying that the entire universe is simulated. Rather, I’m saying that it’s our experience of the world that is simulated. That is a much simpler concept to simulate (neuronal impulses vs every proton, neutron, and quark). With just enough detail in this simulation, we can easily be convinced that we are real, and our experiences are real. This type of simulation was first hypothesized by Nick Bostrom.

Bostrom states that in the future, we can simulate all the neurons of the human brain and the sensory input to the brain to fake the brain into thinking it’s real. This should be accomplishable within a generation in our lives (think advances in VR). Bostrom again argues that a civilization that has this capability will create vastly more “virtual minds” than real minds that have ever existed. Thus it is far more probable that we are a simulation than not (if there are 10000 oranges and 1 apple, we are probably an orange, and not an apple).

So why would they do this? Is this some mountain dew drinking teenager playing us all like SIMs in his basement? Well, there’s probably some simulations out there like that, but no—our simulation is much different. Our simulation is for science, for data, for reactions and emotions. We do this all the time currently in every profession out there. Instead of testing products on real people, or testing heart valves, or testing real machined parts, we run simulations. We run hundreds to thousands to millions of simulations. This saves us money, time, effort, and materials. Instead of breaking a part, we have a computer simulate the breakage. This helps us better predict all outcomes of a given sample or population.

So if the OSDM is really out to judge all the reactions, emotions, choices, and outcomes of us to be able to predict politics, stock market outcomes, elections, and so forth—they would never and could never get that data from a hundred or so people over the course of four years of experiences. No way. That is just absurd. They would need groups, samples, of all walks of life run over and over and over again. So they would need millions of sample groups across the world tested in experiences like this. Is that really feasible? No.. it’s not. Word would get out, and these experiences aren’t for everyone. How would you get everyone to sign up? You can’t. You need a simulation.

So they create one. They take simulated artists, engineers, tv producers, editors, burger cooks, stay at home moms, professors, and content producers and put them all in a single sample group. Then they run that group through the simulation, through Tension and Lust and Nefarious and Adrenaline. And then once they have all the data they need, they start a new simulation. A new group of people from different walks of life. And they run them through the simulation. They run simulations of all engineers, and all artists as well. Just to see every outcome. And at the end, they have data on every combination in every outcome. That data is powerful. And that data could allow them to predict all possible outcomes in the stock market, in elections, and in business. This would be how the OSDM should be running an experience.

Joyce even tells us we are food, and we’ll never realize how. Well I postulate that we do realize how. Our emotions are food for their program. They are the data the program needs to keep running.

So I pose the question again, are we just one of those simulations?

[Cristen]

Of course we are. Is that the worst thing in the world? We’re all here for the same reason, at the core: to see what happens next. Why not have a mutually beneficial relationship between those that cause the Experience and the effect it has on its Participants?

Focus Group never really ended.

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