This cosmoforming hypothesis is essentially equivalent to the simulation hypothesis, but everything happens in one universe: the universe of string theory. Perhaps our universe is a brane-world created and managed by ultra-advanced engineers in the bulk? See my book “ Tales of the Turing Church” (Chapter 11).Īdvanced beings in the bulk could conceivably design, build, and run a brane-world. If so, read on.Īccording to string theory, our universe is a membrane (brane) in a higher-dimensional space (bulk). In simpler words, the world is some kind of game-world and we are characters in the game.įine with me, but perhaps you want to be a real physical thing in the physical universe instead of a simulated game character. TLDR: the simulation hypothesis is the idea that our reality is a simulation computed in another reality. Still, it’s not quite as much of a headfuck as the biggest question: if this is all a fabrication, who made it? (I’m just messing, it’s probably Rockstar Games).I have been revisiting the simulation hypothesis recently, see my review of “ The Simulated Multiverse ” by Rizwan Virk and references therein. I was alive when the first open-world game was made, and the advancements since then are nothing short of mindblowing.
The full spectrum of human emotions and behaviours isn’t possible to replicate just yet, but developers are getting better at creating convincing illusions. Video game creators are still a long way off creating a truly believable world.
What if that’s just someone playing in spectator mode? I doubt it’s aliens because if they had figured out how to travel faster than the speed of light, it would really wreck the frame rate. Fighter pilots have chased them and they mostly just look like Tic Tacs. I promise I haven’t woken up and taken a huge hit off a bong this morning, but what about UFOs? They’re confirmed to be a thing. The Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment is another classic, but I know for a fact that a cat can exist in two states simultaneously - I’ve seen my cat eat food in its sleep loads of times. If a tree falls in the woods and nobody hears it, does it make a sound? I guess it depends if the animals are AI or not. It changes when it’s in view of the player. But if the experiment is being observed, the electrons suddenly behave like particles, producing no interference pattern. Usually, this results in an interference pattern that suggests wavelike behaviour. In the double-slit experiment, electrons are fired at a photosensitive screen through slits in a copper plate. Then there’s quantum physics, which is basically our very own version of frustum culling - a video game memory-saving technique that stops the engine from rendering objects that aren’t in view of the player. I mean, look at dreams and hallucinations - our brains are certainly capable of conjuring up a believable reality from nothing. That sounds impressive - it’s a coin flip - but that’s just basically saying “we are or we aren’t living in a simulation”, which is about as useful as a Tory health minister talking about face masks.
When scientists talk about the chances we live in a simulation, the statistic 50/50 pops up. I guess billionaires got premium accounts for this cursed MMO. It would certainly explain that impassable barrier beyond the open world that is Earth. Or maybe Elon Musk was right for once in his life and this is all a simulation. Just like how our entire perspective changed when we realised we lived on a sphere, I think there’s some other reality-shattering truth behind all of this - maybe we’re a microorganism living inside some other living creature, like a flea on a cat’s back. We’re simply cursed with forbidden knowledge and existential dread. It’s more likely that our reality isn’t how we perceive it at all. If I’m wrong and there is some omnipotent force behind all of this chaos, I don’t ever want to meet the being responsible for the worst episode of EastEnders ever.
Personally, I think we’re some sort of cosmic accident.