I apologize to those that saw my "fake post" -- it was supposed to be a "draft", but I hit "publish".
The simulation hypothesis, first proposed in 2003 by philosopher Nick Bostrom, posits that if many sufficiently advanced civilizations exist, and if they're likely to create simulations of the universe (or a slice of it), then we are almost certainly living in a simulation.My thought since college has been that we are "running on God". What we see as "quantum effects" are side effects of us not actually being "physical", but rather spiritual. "The Apple in the Garden" converted a perfect spiritual existence into an imperfect "physical" one, where things seem material and evil, death, and Hillary exist.
If you trust Musk, the chances of us not being in a simulation are insignificantly small. "There's a one in billions chance that this is base reality," Musk said. He bases this argument on the fact that humanity has experienced amazing technological advancement in the last few decades.
Elon Musk is FAR smarter than I, but let's just consider his hypothesis here.
The odds of a universe like ours existing are now often calculated as that our universe is one out of 10 to the 400th universes. The number of atoms in the universe is less than 10 to the 100th ... like 10 to the 80th (my internet at the lake is sketchy right now).
So does it strike anyone else that "living in a simulation that was done by a more advanced civilization" is just a "modern" way of trying to avoid God? I mean, if you create a simulation, you COULD have "simulated spiritual experiences", an afterlife and even bliss and punishment in an afterlife.
Perhaps we live in the simulated universe that humans who advanced beyond the "Singularity" and became "machines / genetically engineered / cyborg super-beings" decided to create our simulation because they were bored? I'm reminded of the words from "Sapiens" relative to beings such as ourselves becoming "omnipotent" (all powerful) without being "all knowing" or perfectly moral.
Is there anything more dangerous than irresponsible and dissatisfied gods who don't know what they want?Is not the current election season in the US enough for people to realize that great power and wealth are no guarantee at all of great morality, responsibility or even grade school level truth and character?
Elon Musk is an engineer / entrepreneur / inventor -- his simulation hypothesis is a classic from that sort of brain. Programmers often say that "any problem can be "solved" by adding a level of indirection". It is wiser to say that many problems can seem simpler by adding a level of indirection or abstraction.
"We are simulated" solves precisely nothing. By whom for what purpose? is still operative, and if this is all merely a simulation by beings no more morally perfect or philosophically wise than ourselves, it is FAR from a comforting conjecture!
I fully understand that may moderns find the idea of a morally perfect God who would be willing to die a horrible death for THEIR miserable life to be about as terrifying as they can imagine. I maintain they have REALLY not thought their situation through!
As with a lot of things, consider that such advanced super-beings might have "children". There is a rather fun old Star Trek called "The Squire of Gothos" that is a worthy watch if you want to consider the Musk conjecture -- perhaps one of the "super children" kicked off the equivalent of his "Fisher Price" computing toy on "random universe creation" at 10 to the billionth and somewhere along the line, we popped up! He is looking at it right now and deciding the best way to "intervene".
Or maybe he already did -- and it is BO followed by Trump vs Hildebeast!