Reality - Your reality isn’t really real. That’s because you’re the product of someone else’s imagination. That could be imagination via wetware – their brain, say in a dreaming state; or that could be imagination via creativity in producing computer software, where you’re coded within that software. In other words, you’re a simulated being – and so am I.
Continued from yesterday’s blog…
Using our modern civilization as our (one and only) guide, here on Planet Earth, the ratio of the real Universe, worlds and our being, relative to simulated (computer software, holograms, whatever) universes, worlds and beings is highly skewed in favor of simulations. Our Universe, our Earth, ourselves get one throw of the dice. Simulations, be they DVD games or serious scientific modeling scenarios on computers, get to throw many dice, and/or the same dice many times. Our simulations (virtual reality) are of course artificial creations and playthings. The simulations of course aren’t really real. Now ratchet up one level and maybe in turn, our Universe, worlds and selves are the creations or playthings of extraterrestrial intelligence(s) (ETI). The odds are highly skewed in favor of that. If ETI exists, you may not exist! The upshot is that this idea is apparently testable by looking for cosmological anomalies such as varying physical ‘constants’, and therefore good science.
My basic premise – not original to me I may add – is that you are a figment of someone (something) else’s imagination (who have also imagined me). You do not exist – at least not in the way that you think you do. Let’s call that someone (something) an extraterrestrial. You maybe part of an extraterrestrial’s dream. You maybe part of an extraterrestrial’s waking ‘fantasy’. You maybe part of an extraterrestrial’s computer program. But you are not real! As I noted, I’m equally unreal, but we share the same virtual / imagined / simulated time and space – early 21st Century / Planet Earth.
You would be aware that not everything you experience has a solid foundation – reality. Obvious examples are watching a film or TV program or playing a computer or video game. These are just images designed to briefly lull you into their virtual simulated world – which doesn’t exist. “Star Trek” doesn’t exist in reality; Captain Kirk doesn’t exist in reality. But “Star Trek” and Captain Kirk do exist in your mind, maybe in your dreams, certainly in computer software. [I’ll omit books and the printed word as a pseudo-reality because reading is akin to visualizing in your mind which you could in theory do without benefit of the book in the first place.]
A planetarium might not be a video ‘game’, but it can project you into the past or the future to experience what the night sky did, or will, look like, or perhaps show you the night sky from the ‘Planet’ Pluto or even the starry sky from a planet around another stellar system altogether – even from a set of coordinates somewhere out there in interstellar space. It’s a simulated reality we’re quite familiar with. Equally familiar is our own minds which is a medium that can equally do simulations and project you anywhere your imagination can take you.
While awake, you could visualize yourself flying through the air under your own power or any one of possibly thousands of obviously impossible (fantasy) happenings. You don’t have to be dreaming to do this. Children often have imaginary friends. In fact, like “Alice
Of course your dreams (nightmares sometimes) can be terribly real to you. In your dreams you can create imaginary people and places as well as visualize real people and places, albeit doing imaginary things, and as a participant, interact with this temporary micro-cosmos.
But that’s not the end of illusions designed to fake you into believing in a world that doesn’t have actual existence. You can (and probably have) created if not an entire universe, at least a micro cosmos inside your head that may, or may not have been a logical one. That applies equally whether you’re awake or asleep. And, as with a computer or video game, you can interact with that micro-cosmos that you have created.
You can interact in real time with a computer or video game, though not readily with cinema images. So if simulating a form of reality, it’s obviously better to have your simulated beings be able to interact with your simulated environments, and better still if you can interact with your ‘creations’.
So, the question is, if humans (that is, the human mind) can create imaginary worlds, whether in the form of mental images, dreams, films or computer/video games, might we in turn be the simulated creation of another mind? Let’s explore the concept of a non-supernaturally virtually created or simulated Universe, and let us further put the emphasis on and go-with-the-computer-software idea relative to wetware (dreams and fantasies, etc.), albeit not totally ignoring that possibility. I should note that this is not an uncommon plot element in sci-fi. A recent example of extraterrestrial (ET - albeit I believe ET artificial intelligence) simulating us is the “Matrix” trilogy of films (which I personally found to be a totally confusing mess).
Anyway, the logic goes something like this. Within the observable universe, the probability is high that other extraterrestrial civilizations, with a technology equal to or greater than our own exist. Parallel with our civilization, we can assume that other intelligent technological beings would have discovered something akin to our industrial or research computers, laptops, PCs, etc. The number of possible computer software programs is no doubt vastly greater than the number of actual technological civilizations in the observational universe. I mean Earthlings are one such civilization, yet we have tens of thousands of interactive computer software, much of it entertainment or educationally driven. That’s a lot of virtual reality, and a lot more advances probably to come – think of those holodeck programs featured in “Star Trek”. In any event, the ratio of actual realities to virtual realities is lopsided in the extreme in favor of the virtual. So, the odds are equally as great that you, me, the entirety of our so-called reality, Planet Earth (and neighbourhood), is of the virtual kind. Thus, we have a creator (our extraterrestrial computer programmer), and I guess the word ‘God’ is as good as any for ‘our extraterrestrial father’. Perhaps our concept of ‘God’ is nothing more than a mythological version of some advanced, but hardly supernatural, extraterrestrial computer programmer! Now as long as ET doesn’t hit the delete key!
So, what if God, She, He or whatever, were in reality a very ‘flesh and blood’ extraterrestrial computer programmer, who has written a software package called, say “Planet Earth”. Maybe it’s a computer or interactive video game – maybe a homework assignment for a smart ET student. Anyway, computer software easily explains all the Biblical miracles (virgin births; the resurrection, etc.) or anomalies (like where did all the Biblical flood rain come from; where did all the water go; how did Jonah survive inside a large fish, etc.) or inconsistencies (like Cain’s wife, the discrepancies between Biblical time and geological time). Regarding the Biblical flood by the way, no humans actually died; no animals suffered and drowned, and so on, because the humans and animals were never real to start with, just as you and I aren’t real, just part of – for want of a better analogy – a computer game simulation.
Again, let’s suppose, for argument’s sake that in the real physical Universe, there exists some tens of thousands of extraterrestrial civilizations which have evolved technology our equal or better (like way more advanced). The odds are high that most would have invented computers – hardware and software. Any one civilization, such as our own, have (to date) produced multi-thousands of computer programs, many of which simulate life forms – think of the hundreds, indeed thousands of computer or video games. No doubt these programs will grow, over time, ever more complex and lifelike.
If one advanced civilization produces multi-thousands of individual computer programs that simulate an actual, or imagined, reality, what are the odds that we aren’t one of those thousands vis-à-vis being that advanced civilization that actually exists? How could you know if you were real, or imaginary? I maintain there’s probably no obvious way of you knowing.
Even if there’s only a relatively few actual extraterrestrial civilizations, but untold number of created false realities – what odds we are one of the real ones and not one of the imaginary or simulated many?
Is the idea really so way out in left field that there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that it could be right? We have to look to advances in our own terrestrial computing power to determine that. Computer generated simulations are already realistic enough that they are used to train pilots and MDs and other humans in professional activities where mistakes in training, if done in real situations, could be disastrous. Our cinema industry has already produced computer generated virtual reality films, bypassing real actors and real scenery. It’s entirely possible (legal issues aside) to bring back in a sense dead actors to star again in new productions. We’ve all been awed by computer generated special effects in films that are so realistic that if you didn’t actually know better, you’d swear were real.
Walk into any DVD store and you’ll find thousands of video (computer) games and/or simulations that you can run on your PC or computer games system. Most have ‘humans’ in various role-playing guises that are software generated and which you interact with. The reality factor is increasing by leaps and bounds. At what point will the software become complex enough that these simulated ‘beings’ are advanced enough to have self awareness? What happens when the software programming these virtual ‘humans’ becomes equal to the software (brains) that program us? What happens when the computer software complexity exceeds that of the human brain? Is this far-fetched? Methinks not. Now just replace our virtual ‘humans’ with ourselves, and maybe, just maybe, we’re the virtual reality in somebody (something) else’s actual reality.
To be continued…
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