Why is the ''living in a simulation'' theory becoming so mainstream these days?

Why is the ''living in a simulation'' theory becoming so mainstream these days?

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Because people are tired of the modern lifestyle, and believing in cyber overlords removes the burden, somewhat like religion used to do.

Sounds reasonable

because they don't believe in god but need something supernatural to believe in

i always get confused what they mean by (theres a bigger chance that were already living in a simulation than were not) i mean it's all a theory but why do people think it's so high likely?

you'd have to ask whoever says such a thing, but they obviously don't have a good handle on probability, either we live in a simulation or we don't, it's 50/50

Because faggot millennials want to believe in a higher power but are too autistic to form a relationship with God

See all the studies of inducing brain damage to make people into liberal, refugee living, atheist toting morons

if we live in a simulation what happens when we die?

I will only believe the simulation meme when we can successfully simulate a universe as complex as ours.

Once that happens, the chances of us living in a non-simulation become infinitely less possible.

It feels like it more and more as synchronicity increases on an exponential curve until timewave ZERO

Because liberals can't handle living in the shitty mess they've created.

They're evading the issues by inventing some new bogus philosophy like they always do.

>JESUS TAP-DANCING CHRIST, CAPTCHA, HOW MANY FUCKING THIRD WORLD 7-11s DO I HAVE TO GAWK AT BEFORE YOU LET ME POST. FUCK!

makes sense

What happends when an npc dies in game?

youtube.com/watch?v=2KK_kzrJPS8

20 years ago it was aliens, now it's simulation for the fedora set

Someone popular tweeted about it probably.

it's an extremely comforting idea in a world that lacks purpose or meaning

just like the existence of god

Because it's logically possible and it triggers empiricucks who are the most annoying people on the planet.

P R O B L E M
O F
I N D U C T I O N

IS =/= OUGHT

NECESSARY CONEXIONS

Could be aliens that made a simulation or we in the past

no

It's an argument of probability that follows from a few basic axioms.

If you accept the possibility of there having existed before us, whether in this universe or any number of possibly infinite previous universes, a species that reached the capability of simulating a universe, then it is more likely we live in a simulation than in a real universe.

If such a species has ever existed, they will have run an unimaginable number of simulations, such that the number of simulations might exceed the number of universes that have ever existed.

I'm onboard with simulation theory. I think its compatible with our notions of God. Philip K Dick thought so too. He held a fucking press conference to announce it

that's depressing

>Logically possible

It is literally Creationism.

The guys that wrote the bible probably would have written the exact same thing if they had knowledge of today's technology.

It activates autistic almonds

You have the Stage, and you have the Backstage. Maybe 10% of people are involved in the latter, and manipulate the former (the masses). Our whole civilization is built on lies. No computer simulation required. Some people are just greedy, lying rats. And they work together.

Normies think they're deeply wise and this appeals to that facet of their superficiality

A technologically mature "posthuman" civilization would have enormous computing power. If even a tiny percentage of them were to run "ancestor simulations" (that is, "high-fidelity" simulations of ancestral life that would be indistinguishable from reality to the simulated ancestor), the total number of simulated ancestors, or "Sims", in the universe (or multiverse, if it exists) would greatly exceed the total number of actual ancestors. Therefore, at least one of the following three propositions is almost certainly true:

>The fraction of human-level civilizations that reach a posthuman stage (that is, one capable of running high-fidelity ancestor simulations) is very close to zero
>The fraction of posthuman civilizations that are interested in running ancestor-simulations is very close to zero
>The fraction of all people with our kind of experiences that are living in a simulation is very close to one

If the third proposition is the one of those three that is true, and almost all people with our kind of experiences live in simulations, then we are almost certainly living in a simulation.

Now you can reason weather the third is the most likely.
The first seems unlikely, because of how fast we are getting there in the last few decades.
The second seems unlikely, because of who we are. I'd love to run an ancestor simulation if I could. People paid thousands of dollars to get DNA tested so they can talk about WE WUZ.
Thus the third seems most likely.

that's a lot of IF's

because no one cares bout the opinions of others and everyone only cares what they think.

It's been a popular theory even before the Matrix.

It doesn't imply anything. If you can believe life could arise without a creator, you can believe a super computer system can.

It has been a """theory""" before Matrix.
It became an actual theory in 2003 whenNick Bostrom defined it.
It became popular in 2016, when Elon Musk talked about it.

because of anime infecting the brains of all of you losers.you knew this too but you had to ask. fagg!!

quite plausible
gg no re
interesting, but why is it being given it's day in the light now?
I think we're being prepped for the matrix, or a shitty facsimile thereof.

its not a Scientific simulation its just a game some kid has sorry to burst your god bubble

you go back to data storage until your DNA program is used again

>Why is the ''living in a simulation'' theory becoming so mainstream these days?

Because once a single civilization hits the point where they can create simulations at this level the odds for YOU NOT BEING in one of the simulations drops to about the same as winning in the lottery.

whats that pic from

It's YET ANOTHER degenerate leftist "I can do whatever I want because morality isn't real" excuse.

blebbit is around the corner

We're getting close to being able to create such a simulation, and if the subjects in our simulation reach the same conclusion, it is highly unlikely that we are the top layer.

The theory is much older actually

Because, like everything that has to do with science or philosophy, once a new idea is submitted it takes a few years before that idea is transmuted to the general populace. The amount of time it takes though is being sped up massively due to the inter-connectivity of information that we currently enjoy.

For instance, the first EEG was performed in 1924 but it wasn't until 1953 that Asimov wrote Caves of Steel. Further, Asimov wrote Caves of Steel in '53, but it wasn't until fucking '94 that the concept of a GeoFront was once again used by way of Evangelion.

>were close

not really, how would you create an simulation practically?

no idea

roots back in ancient time i believe

>if we live in a simulation what happens when we die?

What makes you think were the objects of the simulation?

Nick Bostrom's definition was the earliest sensible one, the previous were science fiction or just variations of Descartes's mind-body distinction.

What do you mean

This whole argument is bullshit and follows from the incorrectly defined probability space and the incorrectly defined measure on it.

Because computers are the shit right now. They are widespread enough so that everyone understands the theory and yet mystic enough so that you can easily project the unknown into it.
It's the same with other unknown creatures: First the scary novels were about creatures living in the deep sea then somewhere in uncharted plces of the earth and then they were in space - from Mars or something like that.

These simulation theories are just a modern version of religion/supernatural being.

1977

youtube.com/watch?v=jXeVgEs4sOo

The theory of reality being an illusion is literally thousands of years old, but the trilemma has only been around since 2003. Previous instances where it was broached had no real argumentative basis. It was either, "What if, like, we're all dreams on the back of a Turtle, man?" Or "Brain-in-a-Jar" tier Solipsism. Bostrom's argument avoids these pitfalls.

Simulations have a purpose

>not really, how would you create an simulation practically?

Simulate all living objects at physics level interaction

>but they obviously don't have a good handle on probability, either we live in a simulation or we don't, it's 50/50
Why is it 50/50? Just because it's either/or doesn't mean it's 50/50.

Because choices and responsibilites don't matter if it's not reeeeaaaal maaaaaan.

Quantum physics is telling us that in essence, the world works in probabilities, not in absolutes. That is counterintuitive and could imply that it is being computed from outside of reality.

its like having god in your life but without the judgement

Precisely.

Well if you run a simulation you're observing how variables interact in a given framework. For all we know were just a product of these observable variables. There could be many different possible products.

It makes the elites feel better about dehumanizing the goy.

That's absolutely incorrect.

>You're chilling in Maya one day and this guy slaps your Atman's ass and says he can show you the way out

How do you respond?

I theorized my own explanation for simulation theory and I call it "Perfect Totalitarianism". Consider how dangerous technologies can be as they get ever more complex. For instance, see biological warfare, if someone wanted to they could create a microbe that has the potential to kill all human life on this planet. However, at the same time people can use the same technology to cure diseases and illnesses.

A totalitarian system always seeks to preserve it's own existence by any means. If it is not perfect it will eventually succumb to some sort of threat. This may be an internal problem, or an external physical problem (such as an asteroid).

This means a perfect totalitarian state must have technological growth so it can prepare for any external threat and survive (intercept an asteroid, stop a superbug, space colonization, et cetera). As I mentioned earlier you need a specific culture to deal with new technologies and some cultures are not as compatible with some technologies as others. For instance, you wouldn't want Muslims to be driving ships going half the speed of light because they could destroy a planet if they decided to purposely crash.

So what this state does is create simulations. These simulations provide two benefits: genetic and memetic evolutionary simulations. What I mean by this is through a simulation we can figure out which genes are optimal and which genes are suboptimal for what we want to accomplish. The same goes for memetics. We can figure out which cultural values are superior and which are inferior for accomplishing certain goals.

The perfect totalitarian state can then take this information and make the optimal decisions necessary for it's own survival. It can change both the genes and memes of the sentient beings under it's rule to adapt to any threat.

The purpose of our existence is to be useful to our creators. The problem is that we do not know what exactly would be useful to them. For that reason, what I want is space colonial particularism. There are many cultures throughout this Earth. Competition allows superior cultures to appear, however, some cultures try to exterminate all others and end this competition.

Consider the idea that there are possible points at which sentient life can go at which it is no longer considered useful to the creators. If we decide to adhere to a single culture, it could be possible our simulation would be shut down. Humanity must be in a position where there is always competition with other cultures. Humanity must never be united, but it must also progress technologically at the same time.

What I want is a space race in a multipolar world, where America, Russia, China, India et cetera all colonize the rest of the galaxies and create their own separate independent cultures. All of these colonies then evolve into their own respective cultures and compete with the rest of mankind for dominance over the galaxy. Ideally, through this much competition the optimal memes and genes can be deciphered and this simulation could provide use to the creators.

probably so people can feel alright murdering each other since we're already used to games and the shallow comparisons make it easy

it's too bad really, if people realized our "masters" don't have our best interests in mind and all abrahamic faiths are cults that are going to destroy the world then we wouldn't all be fucked

To run a galactic size simulation with good enough physics to allow for living creatures you need dedicated computer hardware size of entire solar systems

When I get high/drunk I become convinced that I am already in hell. This may be a higher level of hell where I am not tortured, but I am thwarted and alienated forever. A slow burn of madness. Or perhaps I did something in a former life that was terrible and this is a punishment. Perhaps that's why the good always die young? Their sentence is shorter. Despite being a generally good person (no criminal record, never assaulted someone, don't steal, etc) I have some deep seated character flaws and I think maybe that's why I'm here. Maybe death leads to another chance or perhaps it just restarts the whole thing again.

If this is a simulation, I don't think they would need to actually CREATE conscious beings for it to predict how conscious beings will react to something. We can predict a storms path without creating a duplicate storm. It would just be math and shit. So I don't think this is a simulation. But I do suspect that something sinister is going on.

Congratulations, you've come up with a worse version of the theory(s) outlined in Bostrom's 2014 book: Superintelligence - Paths, Dangers, and Strategies.

That isn't how probability works.

If I create 9 simulations it doesn't mean 90% of realities are simulated, nor does it mean reality has a 90% chance of being a simulation.

This is bad middle school interpretation of math.

The thing is: You, and many of us, basically are already living (though "living" might be an exaggeration) in a simulation, irrefutably.

No, I'm not talking about something like the Matrix.

What I mean is this: Look at what you're doing right now. You're essentially using Sup Forums to simulate a conversation you could be having with people if you got up and walked away from your computer.

The whole "living" in a simulation is a far cry away. Until people can manage spending days/months/years, not hours, in front of computers without having to leave to eat, use a bathroom, etc, you doubtably have any way to prove we are "living in a simulation".

That isn't a problem.

For an entity (or group of entities) that merely touch the marker of a Type-II civilization on the Kardashev scale, this would be easily doable.

You ever read The Foundation series? Yeah, they don't even qualify as Type-II. In fact, most of the massive civilizations you read about in Sci-Fi don't, simply because at those scales it is extremely difficult to comprehend.

This

Someone described it once as religion for nerds.

Its like its almost hardwired in humans to believe in something like this, every fucking culture on this Earth has had a religion, religious belief in higher beings, in spiritually. Yet atheism has come along and become dominant and so has technological development so these atheists use that excuse to explain their theory because the impetus for faith of this kind is so strong even when they don't realize it, so they took Descartes' old thought experiment and modified its premise to be technological in origin, reflecting current modern society and trends yet still no different from religious belief as its not provable, doesn't stop prominent intellectually minded people from believing in it though like black science man and Elon Musk, despite science being about evidence, observation and experiment whkch the simulation meme theory is not capable of, placing it therefore in the realm of philosophy and even theology as its no different from religion, just religion for nerds.

Humans all seem eager to believe in a higher power no matter what kind, really makes you think.

i enjoy life and other people, i just find the state of things sad

I am against artificial intelligence, an artificial superintelligence could mean an end to the simulation.

>Consider the idea that there are possible points at which sentient life can go at which it is no longer considered useful to the creators. If we decide to adhere to a single culture, it could be possible our simulation would be shut down. Humanity must be in a position where there is always competition with other cultures. Humanity must never be united, but it must also progress technologically at the same time.

So, we could be useful to our masters if we don't allow change!? That makes no sense. What would be the point of running a simulation? Remember, they would want to see all possible outcomes. The information would be incomplete if the sim didn't run to completion more than once.

I really like cooking and cheeky brits so i know who that guy is.
Idc if he only cooks/eats veggie meals, shit is delicious

Creating the simulation doesn't mean shit, read the rest of the post.

>Yet atheism has come along and become dominant

WEW.

Dominant among first world countries I mean, its not like I'm saying its replaced the major religions.

However those few militant atheists though may as well be their own religion.

Dyson spheres are dumb. It would be better to harvest the star for its mass than to build a pointless shell around it.

Kys for worshiping crappy autistic classifications.

Need to make normies not to cling to their lives
>a muzzi is raping and murdering your wife and kids in front of you, before ending you
>oh well, it's just a simulation anyway, maybe I will respawn less privileged

I've only been saying it as a joke with my mates

That's a bit more mundane, but much more realistic than what I had in mind.
I was going for the Overton window shift, making it more acceptable for people to indulge in fantasy simulations while allowing their real lives to turn to shit. Like vidya. Or since you're a sci fi buff, Layouts and Can D, re the three stigmata of palmer eldritch.

considering that abrahamic faiths are destroying the world and based in fiction atheism is at least a better option

All propositions are either true or not-true.
Any claim about future states of affairs is either true or not-true.
Probability claims necessarily reference future states of affairs in conventional causal frameworks.
Probability claims are either true or not-true, but they can only be true insofar as they make a true statement about what will be a true state of affairs.
A true state of affairs is only true and cannot be partially untrue or uncertain.
All probability claims that aren't certainties (100% or 0%) cannot correspond to a truth value in regard to future states of affairs.

There is no real probability, because claims about realized states of affairs can only be true or not-true.

It isn't a perfect classification system, sure, but it does imply a certain level of technology. If you needed to do a star lift to get mass, then you'd do a star lift. But if you needed energy to kick start your global empire, you'd start with a Dyson Swarm in order to power your Fusion devices. Really it boils down to the number of suns you can bring under your domain, and if you can actually gather up the majority of those that exist within a galaxy then you can quite literally make anything described in even the most nebulous pieces of sci-fi seem probable.

It doesn't change anything. Whether we're living in a simulation or not the rules are still the same. religion is about gratitude for the experience and a guidebook for behavior

>The information would be incomplete if the sim didn't run to completion more than once.

The key question being here, what is completion? Extinction of humanity? Heat death of universe? If all humans gradually become more cybernetic and eventually become machines, would our simulation still be useful? If a artificial superintelligence assumes control of humanity, is that completion?

We have no idea what completion is, so I rather we colonize the galaxy and have so many different cultures and people develop, this way we don't put all our eggs in one basket so to speak.

To excuse for doing evil shit.

It's like the religion of evil:

Nothing matters, nothing is real, so be apathetic so we can fuck you hard for our own benefit.

So you think NPCs have consciousness?

The bible is not much different than simulation theory, God is just plays a more active role in telling people what he wants. In fact, everything Christians believe in possible in a simulation run by God. This way, hell can in fact be eternal because you weren't ever alive in the first place.

Because people don't want to believe in God.

>cybernetic feedback loop of information
Aannnd I'm gone

what makes you think consciousness is something special?

I keep saying this every chance i have. Religion is engrained in us. We buried our dead long before we developed speach and a human shunning the belief in a high power will soon recreate this belief out of a primal need for it, every single time.

But people don't buy Jewish fairytales in the first world anymore, so they need to replace it with a more (((progreiive))) theory that essentially has the same content under a different pretext

Do you think NPCs have consciousness?

I like how whenever someone brings up the simulation meme argument they always cite some theoretical future technological advancements as proof, arguing from technology yet there is another factor they fail to consider which is the nature of consciousness, a key point they ignore because it's inconvenient for them due to how consciousness is currently a mystery and its origins (if it does originate solely in the brain) are elusive.

Furthermore nothing simulated is self aware, meanwhile we are self aware beings, "I think therefore I am" this whole fucking sim meme is just a new technological take on Descartes old thought experiment. If consciousness is immaterial and does not arise in the brain and duality is actually a thing then the technological simulation theory is false.

Sim theorists consider things from one point of view but ignore consciousness entirely, same with those who believe in muh singularity meme, and one day being able to live digitally or whatnot. Consciousness and its implications and its currently elusive origins are the thorn in their side for all their technofantasy wankery so they rather not mention it.

In any case there is nothing scentific about this theory either, it's in the realm of philosophy, theology and metaphysics perhaps, just like consciousness and its origins may be - apart from the neuroscientific study of it. It only became somewhat mainstream because the clickbait "pop sci" media cant get of Musks dick and keep making new articles abput the theory and Musks belief in it because it gives them a lot of clicks and causes arguments in the comments section and they realized this, theres articles practically every month on these sites that basically amount to "hey remember that crazy kooky simulation theory Elon Musk talks about, well heres an article about it that says nothing new but reminds you of it so we get more clicks".

>Furthermore nothing simulated is self aware
how would you know?

Does living in a simulation mean that someone somewhere love us because we only exist in the 3d plane while him rejects the disgusting 4d filthy pigs?

Is a simulation of rain wet?

where is OP's pic from?