If Reality Is A Simulation, Who Is Its Architect?
There is this hypothesis called the “simulation hypothesis” that I’m sure you must have read about or at least heard about, in light of the fact that it has soared in popularity in recent years.
In search for an answer to one of the biggest questions we have, “What is the origin of the universe; how did it all start?”, we have come across several possible answers but we haven’t been able to definitively say for sure, though “the Big Bang theory” is pretty much the consensus right now.
The simulation theory is another one of those theories that tries to explain it all, going one step beyond even the big bang theory, but it is quite a weird one and something that sounds straight out of science fiction, but when you think about it, it sounds very plausible.
The Simulation Hypothesis
In simple words, this hypothesis states that the whole of reality, is nothing but a simulation likely running on some kind of computer of a highly intelligent being, somewhere outside of our realm.
If true, this has huge implications for us and our search for meaning and origin of life and reality itself. We might be just code/program running in some super powerful computer and all of this might just be an experiment for a higher intelligent being.
Some of you may think that this renders everything totally meaningless because it’s a fake reality conjured up in a computer that might be terminated at anytime. The rest of you may think that despite this being a simulation, it is as real as it gets for us and it doesn’t matter if it is real or just computer code.
Regardless, I think the real question is, who is the creator of this simulation and more importantly, did they leave a backdoor out of here?
Who Could Be The Architect?
When I think about who the creator of our simulated reality could be, three possibilities come to mind. God, aliens and our future selves.
In my opinion, god is not the answer, at least not in this particular scenario. I fail to see why an all powerful being would need to create a simulation, the purpose of which is mostly to test things out. An all knowing god would not need to ‘test’ anything and so, I think that if our reality is indeed a simulation, god might not be it’s creator.
A super intelligent race of alien beings is one of the likely answers. There could be many reasons why aliens would want to create a virtual reality universe. Maybe it’s just a part of a massive multiplayer online game for them, or maybe they want to see how things progress in a universe with different parameters (laws) into play or maybe it’s just a science project of an alien teenager and we all exist on his pen drive!
Another likely answer is our future selves. Our computing prowess is increasing day by day and soon we might be equipped with the power of a quantum computer. In the future, we might be able to create the most complicated simulations easily on a personal computer. So, in that case, maybe we are a result of our future selves creating a copy of their universe in their computer through which they are trying to study everything that happens from the very beginning. It is not too far-fetched to imagine something like this happening in our own future.
Could There Be A Backdoor?
One of the things that people ask when they learn about this theory is whether there could be a backdoor here in this reality so that we can escape into the ‘real’ world through it.
I gave it some thought and I think that would not be possible. Just think about it. We create games in which we control the characters. Even if the characters in our games had consciousness and free will, they just couldn’t come out of the game and into our world even if there was a ‘backdoor’ of any kind.
Similarly, if we are in a simulated universe, our whole existence would be a subset of the larger set which is the simulated universe itself. So, I don’t think any such thing would be possible. Being able to communicate with them though, would be a different matter. They could do it if they wished to and we could do it if we found a way to.
In any case, if we ever find an evidence proving this theory to be right, our lives would never be the same again. Or at least that’s what I think!
I'm sure this is something most of us have given a lot of thought indeed.
I want there to be a God! It is preferable to me than the ancient alien theory or certainly more realistic to my mind than the thought of us being in a simulation, much less a simulation designed by a future version of ourselves.
Perhaps the answer is beyond our ability to understand or perhaps one day one of us will figure it out and that will be the game completed!
Whilst I have a bias that I lean towards, I understand that I could be wrong.
My 'beliefs' can only be based on the knowledge and wisdom I have available to me so I always leave myself room to change my views.
There is no proof for any of these theories along with the mainstream theory of evolution so if I am being honest with myself then I would have to say any and all of them are possible. I simply don't know.
It does appear to me, however, that modern society is moving away from God in a big way and it strikes me that this correlates with what I feel is a downward turn in human morality.
I ask myself which one of these theories serves us best in our objective of becoming better men and women?
Thanks for the post!
Wow, this is one of the most awesome, open-minded comment I have read on Steemit ever. Thanks man!
I agree with you 100%. A lot of the stuff we are not sure about, we can't simply dismiss them saying they can't be true or they are true in a particular way only. There are lots of examples that show we do not understand things even with proper experimentation and proper results.
We can only hope to find more answers as we go and try to complete the game as you state (if ever we can).
Thank you very much @saurvungta ! You are very kind!
I really enjoyed reading your post and another couple I've read also and look forward to looking back through your previous posts.
Thanks again for replying to my comment and for such a thoughtful post!
Hope you're having a great day wherever you are!
Thanks for that wonderful comment brother and for checking my other posts out! Have started following you too. Keep steeming :)
Maybe we shouldn't search for a backdoor, but a way of communicating with the intelligence. Even if we can't get out of this trap, we can ask questions and make more sense of everything.
Exactly. Being able to communicate with any intelligence that resulted in the creation of this reality would be just awesome. We could find out about a lot of things and could fill in a lot of gaps. Maybe some day, we will find a way. What a day that would be. :)
Early writings tell us that we were created by aliens to be 'dumbed down', that we were genetically altered to experience a limited reality. Previously we may have had sensory powers of great magnitude and would have been aligned with our spirit body. Who knows what else is around us that we cannot hear or see?
In Hindu mythology, there are tons of mentions about these saint-type people who were able to perform a lot of miracles that we are now doing thanks to technology. I wonder if there is such a realm that is beyond our perception and can be perceived with the help of either technology/science or on our own like through meditation like many people claim to do.
The reason I don't enjoy this kind of speculations is because they create more questions than those they claim to answer. It is the same as with the God hypothesis.
If there is some extremely intelligent supreme entity that created such an extremely complicated universe then who created the original and extremely complicated entity that created all these? (and so on and so forth).
If a hypothesis raises the same innate premise then it becomes invalid by default. What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
Not knowing where the creator came from does not prove there isn't one. We don't need to know where a creator came from to know there is a creation, i.e. I'm wearing pants, but because I don't know who made them does not mean I'm not actually wearing them.
You can't disprove a negative. You don't have any evidence there is a creator thus the hypothesis is discarded. Again. What can be assume without evidence can de discarded without evidence.
Aliens...
that is correct! the fundamental error we commit when trying to explain "life" is that we assume there are choices waiting for us to pick when in truth i say "God-aliens-future selves are nothing but 1 inseparable entity just like the past-present-future are: Time deconstructed into 3 parts for conventional reasons. We forget the oneness of things, we deconstruct instead of constructing, we think instead of meditating, we float instead of immersing, we exist instead of living. This article would have been deemed valuable instead took the opposite direction in terms of the approach but nonetheless, respectful.
Yes, I agree that such a theory, even if proved somehow, would raise even more questions, but would it not take us one step closer to the answer though? Like for example we find proof that reality is indeed a simulation created by some super intelligent race of aliens, would that not be an answer to our origin? It would raise even more questions but I think that is how science has progressed and will progress. But I do see your point :)
The answer is close than you think. All the evidence we have as of now is that everything, always existed and that we just found ourselves in a given cycle with some given parameters. Everything looks designed for us because we are the outcome of such an environment. In the same respect if a paddle woke up today it would say "What a wonderful hole I am in, its just the right depth to keep me wet, and look at that tree, it is shading me so I won't evaporate. And hey, check that animal that drinks from me. I am needed and important".
Instead of searching for creators assume simply that there are not any and that we are just the outcome of a given environment that doesn't have any purpose. The only reason you seek a creator is because humans seek meaning.
steady state hypothesis?
yup...that's what I'd bet on.
What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
oh...I LIKE that.
Our reality is not an illusion. It is very real, but it is a much smaller version of a much greater reality that awaits us.
The matrix, world, this reality (whatever it is)...Seems to be responding to us in more personal tangible ways. Have you noticed this? Kharma is being dished out hard for those who have it coming. (Got a good dose myself, recently:). Its like the law of attraction concepts in Real Time. Anyone else experiencing this?
Yeah, there are other theories pointing to what you are saying, that ours is not the only reality out there, that there might be many dimensions and many universes.
Yes I believe this theory is plausible, they say at the rate of our creation of virtual universes (VR as it is today, compared to the first ever video games) there is bound to be a time that we reach perfect simulation, where the characters in that virtual reality have full consciousness and are not aware of the fact that they are a simulation. So there could be either a very advanced alien species that are running experiments like you said, or it could very well be future humans trying to understand their own selves by emulating an entire world of new humans to see how they behave adapt and evolve to certain situations.
Very interesting stuff...
Maybe when we die our so called spirit progresses to a different physical being or body.This would be given that should we progress according to the evolution of the universe. If you believe in reincarnation, it might be possible that a person is reincarnated as another being or species further along a specific spiritual path I guess I could say. Maybe each species in the universe exists on a different spiritual plain and the life you live now will determine the outcome of your next existence, species ect.... on this earth or elsewhere....
That is bound to happen. Our computing power is just increasing exponentially and virtual reality is just in its infancy right now and already producing great results. Also we are already running several simulations on the world's supercomputers for various purposes.
Just imagine the possibilities when the power of a supercomputer could be put inside a personal computer thanks to quantum computing and when that is combined with the ability to create virtual worlds, even kids would be able to create worlds of their own. Now, being able to create conscious beings in those world is a different matter.
Since time itself would likely be an aspect of the simulation perhaps we are the architects from the future, simulating our past. Wrap your head around that.
That is where I was going with the idea that it might be our future selves that are the architects and they have created this simulation for whatever purposes it might be. It's so mind boggling to think about this particular possibility.
But why in the hell would we want to come back to this?
Same reason we play many simulation games. :)
Congratulations @sauravrungta!
Your post was mentioned in my hit parade in the following category:
Thank you :)
"Satan sells you the illusion of truth, that whatever is good is evil, and whatever is evil is good"
Iv been thinking about this since quiet a few years now. I do sometimes feel we are living a matrix or we are living in the world where we didn't originate. think of the humans as a part of the earth, our nature, our way of life, our thinking, etc. we are the only species that don't wana coexist with the rest of the species. We are the only species that causes more destruction on the planet then any other species.
Another thing is that we are the only species thats judgmental and now extremely materialistic, unlike rest of the species that are purely instinctual.
Imagine a dog or any animal be it vegetarian or non nonveg that we have to give a piece of paper (which was gold before) for getting food etc. or gold for food when we can grow or hunt to consume, we need visas to travel, we have invisible borders etc. lol.. its the most stupid thing. what is patriotism? lol. and many more thing we have created to make our life more and more complicated.
OR
If we are some alien made race which they created for entertainment and destruction of planet, or maybe we were saved by the aliens and transferred to this planet after we destroyed one (history in repeat..lol) Infact if we think scientifically, our skin etc. are way different then other species on the planet.
OR
If gods and demons do exist and created this planet? then Demon/Satan is winning for sure.
OR
as for matrix or future race, there might be a third dimension and maybe we both are trying to find each other. (many videos on youtube on it)
However im a big Nikola Tesla fan.. And also follow Niel Tyson...lol.. so these thoughts keep coming in my mind..
Yeah, to think about all these is like going down a rabbit hole.
You have some good ideas there. Hopefully we as a race can finally find out the truth.
Thanks bro... Also think that in the last 20 years, technology has grown like never before and more and more people are getting tech savvy. I dont think its because are becoming smarter, i think of it the other way round..
Yeah, and it is only going to get faster in the coming years. Think about where we will be in just 10 years.