Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? Let’s Not Find Out

Re:Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? Let’s Not Find Out by ako on Sunday August 11, 2019 @03:01AM (#20666785)

So what would it mean if there are gods of simulation? Most religions and gods purely exist as a way to implement law and order: define what is good and bad, and to manipulate people to behave accordingly (otherwise you will be punished in hell).

Would simulation gods really be interested in us following good and bad rules, or more interested to see what happens if people do as they want?

If this is a simulation, my assumption is that it is to test if any highly intelligent and successful species is destined to destroy itself...

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Re:Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? Let’s Not Find Out by hansjorg on Sunday August 11, 2019 @03:13AM (#20666824)

What if it's just a really detailed astrophysics simulation and any life is just coincidental and without interest to the ones running the simulation.

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Re:Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? Let’s Not Find Out by mikestew on Sunday August 11, 2019 @10:03AM (#20668219)

“What’s that?”

“What?”

“Over there, third planet out.”

“Oh, those. Yeah, some kind of bug. It usually fixes itself, often in quite the fireworks at the end! Anyway, supposed to be fixed next version.”

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Re:Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? Let’s Not Find Out by lordnacho on Sunday August 11, 2019 @09:32AM (#20668106)

It means they would be able to pause the sim and intervene in ways that are not consistent with having "laws of physics".

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Re:Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? Let’s Not Find Out by orisho on Sunday August 11, 2019 @05:39PM (#20670704)

Well why wouldn't they be consistent? Just as you would add another column to an existing database table and run a data migration so that the new column makes sense in the context of the old and no one is the wiser, so can our simulators adjust the simulation as well as our understanding of the laws of physics in a manner that we could not discern. That is, if they are indeed able to pause and change anything.

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Re:Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? Let’s Not Find Out by lordnacho on Monday August 12, 2019 @05:28AM (#20673812)

Yes but there's nobody enforcing the consistency. If the experimenter wanted to teleport some people, they could just do that.

You're assuming they care that the humans don't see any inconsistencies.

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Re:Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? Let’s Not Find Out by mikestew on Sunday August 11, 2019 @10:00AM (#20668200)

highly intelligent

Why would you assume that humans be considered highly intelligent? The experiment might not be as flattering as you’d like to think.

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Re:Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? Let’s Not Find Out by ASalazarMX on Sunday August 11, 2019 @06:19PM (#20670911)

I'd wager we're highly intelligent matter compared to the average matter known so far.

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Re:Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? Let’s Not Find Out by jongomez on Sunday August 11, 2019 @09:06AM (#20667996)

"So what would it mean if there are gods of simulation?"

Well, I for one would be curious to find out more about these gods.

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Re:Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? Let’s Not Find Out by justinclift on Sunday August 11, 2019 @09:22AM (#20668053)

Also, sandbox escapes. :)

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Re:Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? Let’s Not Find Out by cryptonector on Sunday August 11, 2019 @02:16PM (#20669558)

Probably involves a red pill.

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Re:Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? Let’s Not Find Out by Yetanfou on Sunday August 11, 2019 @08:24AM (#20667829)

Simulation gods would most likely be gods of chaos as that is what simulations are generally used for: to test the behaviour of a system in diverse and often adverse conditions.

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Re:Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? Let’s Not Find Out by Igelau on Sunday August 11, 2019 @09:08AM (#20667999)

It's a component in an AGI that wants to see how many paperclips it can get from a particular strategy.

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