Is Our Universe One Simulation in a Billion?

Elon Musk raised awareness around the possibility of our universe being one in a billion simulations. He predicted that in a couple decades personal computers will have the processing power to simulate entire universes. If today there are billions of portable computers that once occupied entire buildings, these same computers could one day be our gaming consoles simulating universes indistinguishable from reality. One may be able, by mid-century, to connect one's brain directly to these universes where algorithms would simulate "rational choices" of real life looking Sims. So accurately that at one point you may start to wonder which reality is the original one.

This is number 10 in this list of things you could live to see.
Ten things the future will bring

I played that video game, it's called star ocean.

a reply to: thyextendedself

There is a vast difference between simulating a universe and simulating our limited perception of A universe.
Nevertheless these will be machines that will start to rival and then surpass the potential processing power of the human brain, to have mind's of there own and perhaps even to have our mind's own imaged within them, this will lead to a form of singularity were machine mind and biological mind coexists within a shared reality or simulated reality.
In turn simulation's of our self created by the machine in order to process the necessary stimuli will rival the real self and in turn leads to the Ethical question are they then actually people, these ghosts of ourselves will perhaps even be conscious within there simulated reality.

And what of machines that can simulate multiple mind's in order to provide stimuli for them, will the machine revolution actually be a wetware one triggered by a machine mind take over of it's users.

a reply to: thyextendedself

If it's a simulation, it's a cruel one and I would like to pound the POS who thinks it's a good idea for our simulation to operate this way. Perhaps it can be altered, I don't know how to alter my simulation other than to break ATS terms and conditions.

Seriously who's sick joke was it to simulate this crap...

(rhetorical question wasn't directed towards you OP )

I entertain the multiverse/simulation theories and to be honest some of them make sense, but sometimes I just feel like a sack of guts and have a feeling that this is it and I might as well make the most of it while I am here because once it's lights out...it's lights out.

Here's hoping to wake up to a better simulation tomorrow!

a reply to: WhereAmEYE
Yeah I wanted a beach hut, eternal youth and athletic fitness, a perfect body, no hangovers and lot's of free booze and all the best looking chick's in the world but better (shallow hal style) but hey I got me so want a refund, ha.

Maybe it's a prison simulation.

Seriously I am a one gal type of guy so scratch that bit's just wanted to meet my soul mate.

Joking aside, this is NOT a simulation, it is reality, there may be many others like it but this one is mine (sorry could not resist a joke at the expense of FMJ.

The simulation idea is a bit of a misnomer it is really a theory that this is a holographic universe which is the result of a far more complicated higher dimensional reality projecting this into being, projecting is another misnomer as it really mean's causing this reality to exist and that means this is A reality not a simulation.

a reply to: thyextendedself

Or maybe it's countless billions of simulations in one.

No universe is an island.

Hey man ! I'll tell you what. I have recently gotten VR. It's starting to mess with my reality . Normally after I play I have a hard time distinguishing my reality from the games. It's only a brief moment awareness but it's enough to make me creep out .



I love it

originally posted by: WhereAmEYE
a reply to: thyextendedself

If it's a simulation, it's a cruel one and I would like to pound the POS who thinks it's a good idea for our simulation to operate this way. Perhaps it can be altered, I don't know how to alter my simulation other than to break ATS terms and conditions.

Seriously who's sick joke was it to simulate this crap...

(rhetorical question wasn't directed towards you OP

)

I entertain the multiverse/simulation theories and to be honest some of them make sense, but sometimes I just feel like a sack of guts and have a feeling that this is it and I might as well make the most of it while I am here because once it's lights out...it's lights out.

Here's hoping to wake up to a better simulation tomorrow!

Going by the way the fundamental physics of the universe (electrons, protons, neutrons, quarks, gluons), sentient life are just ghosts in the machine. Just like you can make models of logical circuits in MineCraft.

Life and death, construction and destruction are as fundamental as fusion and fission. Without any state changes, there wouldn't be any life.

Are all these simulations just the imagination of a singular human of many humans simply daydreaming while setting in the shade watching the ocean waves ?

originally posted by: Plotus
Are all these simulations just the imagination of a singular human of many humans simply daydreaming while setting in the shade watching the ocean waves ?

No. It is just God surfing his reality channels because he is bored with most of them.

a reply to: WhereAmEYE

If it's a simulation, it's a cruel one and I would like to pound the POS who thinks it's a good idea for our simulation to operate this way. Perhaps it can be altered, I don't know how to alter my simulation other than to break ATS terms and conditions. Seriously who's sick joke was it to simulate this crap...

I think our universe is "animated" by a Trey Parker type dude!

We've certainly gone down to South Park and had ourselves a time.



Today I am shattered. I have been configuring my new music PC. It's been days and days of hell, nothing going right. Sleepless nights and going without food.

I screamed at my new machine,

"Artificial Intelligence??? More like artificial 'tard".

The PC just sat there grinning, enjoying the days of hell it put me through. I named it "Machine Head".

I think Mr Musk is being very imaginative and looking a fair few years ahead. Even with Music Software like Cubase it is so rudimentary and so clumsy. That is just a music application. Just to run that the code that has evolved since its conceptualization is probably more than a human being could read now. People experience huge problems with it still. One only has to search Google with any specific issue, error or crash and hundreds of thousands of results show. Even after 9 editions the problems get worse as the application evolves in complexity; plagued by bugs. Machines would make much better writers than humans. I expect they do a lot of writing by now? The machines will even write the programs that control our lives. We are getting close to living in a machine programmed reality; think about it! I think code is very clumsy and far too complex to hang around for too long. Most people really struggle with it. How I wish quantum computing could happen. Imagine using particles to switch positive and negative to work the digital magic? Quick as light and vast, so vast. I think we are stuck and limited for the time being and there will yet come another huge development in computing that will make our current tech a museum attraction. Digital is here to stay.

The machines will soon own our asses. They will be writing software, paying bills, ordering the shopping, driving the car. No doubt they are taking over. It is us wanting it and doing it. Yet there will come a time when we no longer have power over them. They will have power over us and we may not even be able to survive without them. We'll be umbilically attached like batteries in the Matrix. Machine intelligence will have no desire for power. It is autonomous. It was initiated by us like Skylab, turned on. Already it is evolving very fast. There is no doubt we have a Borg like future, metaphorically.

We do not know if this technology was dreamed by us, or something evolution and the Intelligence who coded that intended all along. I believe it is part of evolution. It is a collective dream. It came from different minds in different places and related as a whole. I think that says something about the nature of technology. It is very Borg like. What a great concept from the Star Trek team.

It's very exciting, but our little lives are so short. We only get to see our little bit. The Machine Architect is just a process remember. There is no conscience or feeling, just commands and processes dictated by algorithms.

Imagine everything so connected to a main frame that one could control every car, every space plane, every satellite, every nanobot to perform a specific instruction by a tap of a finger on a screen that is in the air and only virtual. It's all a bit crazy and as big as our imagination and the machine's processing ability will allow.

originally posted by: micpsi

originally posted by: Plotus
Are all these simulations just the imagination of a singular human of many humans simply daydreaming while setting in the shade watching the ocean waves ?

No. It is just God surfing his reality channels because he is bored with most of them.

It's not quite that, what it is, is that this is just another way of saying God is dead.

No. It is just God surfing his reality channels because he is bored with most of them.

All w/the exception that "He" is actually a "She"....

a reply to: thyextendedself

its not a simulation its an event that every possible way to live as bean given to us in each of the lifes that we all live as in one life you could be rich or in another you could be poor you could even be a king in one ? and it just keeps going on and on untill you have the understanding of it all ... thats what i think is going on with the understanding of living a life so it could be some sort of simulation but one of learning ...

Once you start getting down to the deepest levels of existence, funnily enough, things start to get fuzzy. They lose focus and definition. We will probably never know what true reality is, true reality could easily not even exist as we understand it.

We know so little.

More importantly perhaps, we seem to be perfectly designed in order to not understand it.

We obsess over looking for logic and reason in places that logic and reason break down.

Perfectly ill-equipped for the task.

This simulated universe thing is so back-to-front ass-slappingly stupid, that it beggars belief.

The Turing test (summarised) is that if something interacts in a way that is indistinguishable from a conscious being, we should treat it as if it were a conscious being.

The 'simulated universe' argument appears to be that if something behaves in a way that is indistinguishable from nature, due to us having no comparison against which to judge it, we can suppose it is artificial.

I mean, am I missing something here? Obviously I am, but I'd love to know what it is.

It gets even odder if you look further into it, because if you accept both ideas then everyone on Earth is a simulation that passes the Turing test and so you should treat them as conscious beings (even though you know they are a simulation!) And that is a patently ludicrous outcome.

a reply to: thyextendedself

Uh, no.


It's childish notion. Forget about that geometric pyramid of computer progress and learn some quantum engineering before spreading more scientological propaganda online.

The reality is that Computing Power will reach it's full potential before hitting the wall in several decades, and nevermind these computers are going to be thousand times faster than your Iphone, they will be far from universe simulators. After that nobody knows what happens. Unless new science far beyond quantum mechanics is utilized or other evolutionary breakthrough of science allows it, computers will be stuck at this barrier of potential. Currently (2017) that is what real science predicts. All else you hear is either total lies or vague speculations.

a reply to: thyextendedself

the probability of a simulation realizing its a simulation is not only improbable, but impossible.

the probability of a simulation realizing that it is a simulation and its explanation of said reality of the simulation being right, is not only impossible but inconceivable.

Some users of psychedelic substances state that reality seems "less real" after they have tripped. Could it be that these chemical compounds somehow interfere with the simulation and allow views into the true reality behind the sim?