Do we live in a Simulated Reality?

You know...sometimes i have a feeling that life indeed is one big illusion with nothing real in it. You fellow ATS'ers are here simply for me to think you are real. I'm the only person in the world who is real you see. All of this is either a joke or a sick game. If it's a game, well its the most addicting, fun, and coolest game ever. Too bad i don't know if i can respawn because if i did...hehe. Well never mind. So hey God(s) the secret is out i know its a game and simulation. You better watch out, once i decide to wake up, I will totally kick your ass(es) for this lol.

Have you read the book "Exploring The Matrix"? It's a colection of essays on this topic. The Buddha said that all is 'maya', that our senses cannot perceive the "real" reality. But if so, how can we become free?

You forgot Dark City.

reply to post by the Great Gull


"You fellow ATS'ers are here simply for me to think you are real. "

I think the same thing sometimes....

But Perhaps we humans are just here to keep the 'ATS Artificial Intelligence' from getting bored....

Originally posted by bigfatfurrytexan
I have often wondered who i am.

You're not the only one. There are 6 Billion others walking around wondering.

And thats enough evidence of something unknown going on here.

reply to post by The Matrix Traveller


Let me know by U2U once you have a website or a thread or a blog on this up.

Edit-to-add: Nevermind. Ive just received a link to your blog.

[edit on 19-1-2009 by Skyfloating]

I don’t think we are a simulation, but a concrete reality operating within a certain frequency range, and that there are other such realities in other frequency ranges. Like parallel universes existing together and having a relationship with each other, but not normally visible to each other because of the different frequencies.

How do we rip the curtain down and stick our heads into the next universe? The first step in that direction must be to be able to think that there may be another set of universes or realities (or simulations), because if one adopts the default mindset that ‘nothing else exists because we can’t see it’, then we will never even begin to look.

Maybe we have to bring our own personal operating frequency up to a level nearer to that of another universe, to be able to receive hints of what lies therein. If we consider the possibility that these other realities exist then perhaps science can invent devices to enable these realities to be viewed, observed and recorded.

At one time the standard view on Earth was that Earth was flat, and anyone who said otherwise was regarded as mentally deranged. The opposite is now the case, so it's high time that we searched for these other realities.

Now, where can I find a scientist with an open mind?

Maybe this is the dream and when we sleep IT is reality.

I have had and still have lots of OBE (outer body experience), Lucid dreams or whatever you want to call them. I think everyone has them but not everyone can remember them when they wake up into this place.

In these experiences there is only energy, I am like a point of energy. I cannot begin to explain this as its too mind boggling and beyond any human experience we have in this material world.

One thing I do know though is that when I wake up its a case of "oh I´m back here again" and need a bit of time to adjust.

This is more like a prison camp for us to learn develop stuff. Dunno why but thats how it seems to me.

reply to post by bicnarok

"The Dreaming followed me into the first moments of opening my eyes at early morning....
....I found myself in my normal state of awareness, but left with the after glow.
"I realized at that moment what don Genero has always professed to me about Dreaming, that in our normal state of awareness we are actually more asleep than when we Dream."
("Don Juan ____, The Rainbow Serpent of the Toltecs," Marilyn Tunneshende)

The Double must be consciously assembled to become aware of the virtual reality of existence, which includes the etheric-astral and the 'physical' [excretionary] levels. It exists merely as Potential within the human paradigm as a battery charge, no more, until this is achieved.

Please do not believe this; it is for the select 'few.' Go back to sleep; back to sleep....(zzz...zzzzzz).

"Good Game this time, Thor!"
"Yes Father, my Hammer Thunders loudly, but no one guesses the Source!"
"What say you Loki?"
[hee..heee...heeeheeheee]
"How goes it, Heimdahl ?"
"All Quiet At the Gate, Father Odin! None come forth yet..."

("Isn't this poster crude?"..."yes, pay no attention; they only want to pretend like they know something; but don't, really."...."I wonder, tho'"..."You'd better see your shrink!"..."What are those Blue pills?")


[edit on 19-1-2009 by SS,Naga]

Thank you for this lovely thread Skyfloating.

Until quite recently, and although I used to be a senior member compared to other online games, I've been very much involved into playing a hugely popular online game. After a while, and the thrill of excitement calmed down the whole experience got me thinking about "what if free will is only an illusion?" I mean I am at the keyboard controlling a virtual character and I enjoy pretending I am somebody else at the time. So why than couldn't my life and what I perceive as reality, be a similar experience for some other being? Maybe that's the elusive soul we've been trying to find for all this time.

As I got to wondering what would my character feel like if I gave it enough computing power to be able to read it's passed memories and draw conclusions from them, thus giving it some false sense of consciousness... would it think it was alive? Would it also pointlessly try to grasp it's existence?

And than all of the sudden I got a huge lag-spike and as a result all my graphics wend into a strange loop displaying the original picture, freezing for a few seconds and than displaying the exact same thing again. Than it hit me and put a wide grin on my face... this is exactly what Deja Vu would feel like if I was in the game. I looked up hoping my player was not AFK and waved and smiled.


Have a nice day, and I see you all online


Edit to add: Ultimately after thinking about this question for months I came to a simple conclusion, strangely enough, similar to the one a computer from a rather funny guide gave after millions of years of calculations... the question is wrong. All questions ultimately lead to only one, real, question... Do I really exist?

I got no answer to that one yet.


[edit on 19-1-2009 by Manawydan]

reply to post by Manawydan


I too find playing online RPG a gives an incredibly enlightened insight into the matters we're discussing.

What i find of most interest is that said games aquire, once youre deep into addiction, a reality-like feel. Despite the lack of photorealistic, 3D graphics, despite the clumsy interface.
Seems like there is nothing our mind likes more than jumping into a new illusion.

I find that sharing such illusionary world with other humans is essential too as far for creating this sense of reality. People make it real.

He he, I love discussions like this. Gets the brain cell working for a change

In case anyone is interested, at at risk of sounding like one is blowing one's own trumpet (which I am not), I did a write up in (hopefully) layman's terms about Nick Bostrom's Ancestor Simulation theory. It gets only slightly technical, is rather long, and there is a little bit of THE SCARY MATHS, but if you would like to know a little more before diving into his actual papers, give this a read.

Why Make A Matrix? And Why You May Be In One

Also Nick Bostrom's own writings:

Simulation Argument - Dr. Nick Bostrom

And, from the same site:

A page with a few more handy-dandy articles for and against Bostrom's argument

Click here for more information.

Originally posted by Salvatore_Rubberface
Ha what nonsense! freakin' weirdos You ALL NEED TO GET LAID AND THEN YOU WILL FEEL THE REALITY KICKING IN! My god John have you ever kissed a woman? GTFO virgin geeks!

wow, i see your banning coming in the very near future.

BTW, today is my 13th wedding anniversary.

And you should study Buddhism, which (thousands of years ago) claimed that our reality was "simulated". Further, you should read this article:

Our world may be a giant hologram


Real science. You can lay your pitchfork down and step away from the ignorant masses.

Originally posted by Harassment101

Originally posted by The 5th
Good thread, star and flag.

How does this fit in with your spiritual views and occult teachings skyfloating?

Im 100% certain that if everyone knew this reality was simulated, working to pay for the house etc would not seem as important. Would like to think people would live in the now, and for the moment than thinking about what work will be like next week.

Another point for people to ponder is, would is put everything out of balance?

Peace

I didn't want to add this in before and ruin the flow of the thread, but I think I read somewhere were one school shooter, thought this was not real, and so his actions did not matter. There is a thread somewhere here with a link to what he said. Sorry I can't find it right now.

Would this cause some of us to be lawless? Do whatever we want cause we know it's just simulated? It would change some behaviours, I am sure of this.

People would have affairs, abondon kids, well they do that now, but they would do more of that, rob banks, etc.

It also has the potential to make you more powerful, cause if it's just a simulation, then you can learn to circumvent the rules and laws of the simulation and walk on water or other neat things.

Well, that almost makes sense to me. But there's that whole notion going on in my mind about consequences. Even if we did figure out the whole world was a hologram. Wouldn't the laws of physics still apply? If you drop the apple the apple will still fall, right?

Unless we started to look in to mind over matter. I guess that would make more sense.

Originally posted by Anonymous ATS
I'd like to point out that it's only Western societies that label people who suffer, say Schizophrenia, insane. Research has shown that where such illnesses are treated as an 'awakening of consciousness' (which suggests awareness of the nature of true 'reality') then the patient is cured in 40 days. The cultures that evidence people suffering in the way we describe 'schizophrenic' regard these people as emergent shamans etc and have huge respect for them.

Thanks for pointing this out. I have always felt that things like schizophrenia were in fact an awakening of consciousness of some kind. And I've always thought the only difference between the schizophrenic and the shaman/magical adept/etc. was one of integration... the shaman is able to integrate his/her new consciousness with this level of reality, whereas the schizophrenic is not. And I've always felt that the schizophrenic's inability to do so had something to do with the society/culture in which we live. Do you have links to this research? I would be interested in reading more.

I totally agree. I mean, I keep seeing Keanu Reeves flying around everywhere.

Come on...the only truth is from Jesus, and God didn't create us so we could create alternate realities. They don't exist.

reply to post by eam4jesus


What a bold statement!
I see it quite differently, though. Surely you, being a man of god, is enlightened enough to allow me to believe something that is becoming more and more evidenced by hard Science rather than the blind belief in an invisible man in the sky.

To me, it all makes sense. Every bit of it. This is the point in which religions and Scientists can find common ground, me thinks.

Originally posted by eam4jesus
I totally agree. I mean, I keep seeing Keanu Reeves flying around everywhere.

Come on...the only truth is from Jesus, and God didn't create us so we could create alternate realities. They don't exist.

So all of the worlds history before Jesus was a lie?

Have you ever considered that our universe is created with structure and order? Nothing happens without something giving it cause? "The Universal Law of Consequence". Even Jesus knew this to be the reality, thus he didn't jump off the cliff when Satan tempted him in the desert. God would not be able to save him if he did, as the Universal Law of Consequence is Divine.

Have you ever considered that alternate realities are the mechanism which gives rise to the domain of your Lord? That the existance of further realities doesn't usurp His glory, but rather reinforces it?

Originally posted by Skyfloating

Originally posted by Walkswithfish
When do dreams become nightmares and nightmares reality?

Answer that correctly and you will understand with complete wakened clarity what is simulated and then know without doubt or question the true reality of our human condition.

Hello Cryptic...care to elaborate?

Hello back at ya Skeptic.... I could elaborate but then nothing will be gained by you from it.

It is no longer my question to answer, it is yours and the same for anyone who reads it and dares to attempt to answer it.

That question was posed to me by an elderly Chinese American man many years ago.

Up to the challenge?