The Simulated Hypothesis

Are we living in a simulated reality? Are we merely simulated quantum instances inside a holographic substrate? Is the cosmos an advanced computer simulation created by a future technologically mature human civilization?  Who are the original simulators and what are they looking for? Could our reality be the product of a lonely quantum Artificially Intelligent machine stranded on the outer edges of our galaxy in the distant future? If we are inside of a simulation, does it even need a creator or could the digital simulation be a naturally emergent infinite fractal, with no beginning and no end? 

Welcome to The Futuristic Now podcast. My name is Gray Scott 

SIMULATION - Merriam-webster defines the word simulation as Something that is made to look, feel, or behave like something else especially so that it can be studied or used to train people

To SIMULATE:  to give or assume the appearance of or effect of…. often with the intent to deceive:

Oxford professor, futurist, and transhumanist Nick Bostrom argues that at least one of the following propositions is true: (1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a “posthuman” stage; (2) any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof); (3) we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation. It follows that the belief that there is a significant chance that we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor-simulations is false unless we are currently living in a simulation.

To truly unravel the simulation theory, we must ask ourselves some mind-boggling questions.

Will it ever be possible to create realistic simulated realities filled with AI beings? Are we experiencing the original reality now or are we inside a simulation?

Who are the original simulators? Maybe it’s the guys from Unreal Engine. Why did they create the simulation?

Are they being stimulated as well? Do you need an original creator or could this simulation be a natural recursive process inside an indigenous digital cosmos?

What is the point of this simulation? Do we respawn into other simulations when we die?

Is this a quantum simulation and do we gain access to all the data when we die?

Maybe the simulation is in a state of superposition. If so this would mean we are all things at all times. In other words, maybe we are every one that ever was and ever will be. No, you, no me just one single awareness in a state of quantum superposition. 

Here is another question. Is it unethical to produce simulations that are inhabited by AI conscious beings that can suffer? Should we allow this to happen in the future? Can we even stop it? 

Who is the observer in this simulation? Are we observing the simulation or are we being observed? Maybe both. 

The delayed choice protocol in the double-slit experiment suggests that we may only exist because we are being observed and quantified inside a simulated reality.  

If this sounds crazy or impossible to you, then you have not been following the emerging technologies and the world of Virtual Reality, gaming, visual FX, and AI research, in just the last ten years, VFX has reached a new threshold of realism. We are on the cusp of creating a true AI simulation future. 

We know that if we continue to progress in this direction that AI simulated games in the future will become indistinguishable from our current reality. It is just a matter of time and that time is near. 

Hyper-realistic augmented reality is the pathway into a believable virtual reality and brain implants will lead from virtual reality into the AI simulated reality. Brain scanning technologies and neuro-brain implants that can directly interface with the web will move us toward our inevitable AI Simulated future. This future AI simulation will be procedurally generated. 

Maybe our current reality is already procedurally generated. Is the moon actually there when you look away or is it procedurally generated only when observed? 

All of the primary pieces to the AI Simulation are already in place. The computing power, quantum processing, virtual and augmented reality technologies, the internet, wearable tech, social media, and EEG technologies are all here now. Each of these alone is not enough to cause the AI Simulation to occur. It is the amalgamation of these emerging technologies that will inevitably cause the AI Simulation to begin. 

Or our current reality just a level up in an infinitely recursive fractal simulation? Has this all happened before? Will it happen again? Is time a flat circle? 

I believe the AI simulation has already begun in this reality. And if we are about to simulate AI beings in the near future, more than likely the developers, the original developers of the AI simulation are alive right now.

 So what are the simulators looking for?

Maybe we are in a quantum state of superposition with boundary awareness protocols coded into the system making it impossible to inhabit the minds of multiple conscious beings at any given moment. 

This would ensure that the simulators could collect information and experiences individually. It would be the most efficient way to collect experiences in the human condition. In other words, imagine simulating 7 billion human scenarios at one time. Imagine the variations of experiences and information you could gather if you were a future machine studying the emotions and behaviors of ancestor simulated humans. 

This may be one reason or purpose of this AI simulation? Or they might be looking for the original developers of the AI simulation? This Procedurally generated algorithmic reality that we currently find ourselves in might be the product of an advanced future civilization that realized that they were inside an AI simulation themselves. Maybe they wanted to run ancestor simulations to see how it happened to them. To see if they can communicate between levels or multi-simulations. 

This takes the multiverse theory to a whole new level. 

Now, another direction is a naturally emergent one. If the cosmos is a machine or quantum computer, why would it create human simulations? 

Why would a computer want to create flesh beings like us? Maybe humans have become extinct in the future and humanoid machines that have inherited the Earth want to study humans just like we would want to study dinosaurs. Maybe these future humanoids want to be human. Maybe we are their avatars? 

To me, Ray Kurzweil’s singularity theory sounds like the beginning of the AI Simulation. The moment an artificially intelligent machine can self-replicate and upgrade its own operating system, it will inevitably run AI Simulations. It will create worlds within worlds filled with simulated AI beings. 

Why would it do this? For the same reason, we are trying to create AI machines. Simply out of pure, curiosity.  

Finally, Why would any technologically advanced human civilization create an ancestor AI simulation? The answer to this question might be unbelievably simple. 

The entire point of the simulation may be to see how long it takes the simulated beings, inside the simulation, to figure out they are being simulated.