Are We in a Simulation

By Romana 09/02/2010

Salty Writer’s Submission

The idea that our reality is a computer simulation has been circulating for many years.  Recently, it was even profiled in Through the Wormhole, with Morgan Freeman.  The basic tenet is that human beings evolved to a very high state long ago.  They have nothing better to do than build supercomputers that run simulations of history.  This would imply that we are part of a simulation, and that what we see is only real so far as we can interact with our environment.  One could ask how long such a simulation has been running in simulated time.  Pick a number: between thirteen billion years and six thousand years.  Such a simulation would also be highly teleological, since the deterministic objective of the simulation would be to evolve human beings just like us.

I guess the rest of the universe would just be images projected to make us think they were real.  I ask why?  Why would advanced beings engage in such constructions?  I don’t think so.

I don’t want to be part of a simulation; I want the real thing.  I never liked simulated sex, and I certainly don’t like the idea that my reality is simulated.  What is the reason for going on?  If we kill ourselves in a simulation, it will make no difference whatsoever.

I don’t think the idea of a simulation is any better than the idea that reality was created by an omnipotent God.  Both models leave out all detail of any original creation.  Where did the original human beings come from, and where did God come from?  Both science and religion leave out a lot.  Worse, there have not been many scientific breakthroughs in theoretical physics in at least twenty-five years.

I have thought a lot about where everything comes from.  The best ideas proposed by modern physics are quantum fluctuations.  These are also called vacuum energy.  Vacuum in space has been shown to be anything but perfect, since matter spontaneously comes into existence and then vanishes all the time.  These fluctuations create equal amounts of positive and negative energy that eventually cancel out.  These fluctuations are not predictable, and they do not violate any conservation principles, since they eventually completely extinguish without a trace.

Every so often, there is a very special quantum fluctuation that creates a new universe.  This is a special event, since the new universe is not relational to anything else.  This universe is an absolute base that could be a seed for a series of long-lived evolving universe.  Child universe are specials cases of quantum fluctuations, in that they would owe their existence to preexisting universe.

Universes are not forever, since they contain the seeds of their own annihilation.  This means that some or all of our parent universes no longer exist.  How does this happen?

There are many new theories floating around.  Some say that even quantum mechanics and the theory of general relativity are mere subsets of more profound theories.  At high energy levels, even the speed of light may not be a constant.  And then there is that base absolute state of every creation that is not relative to anything else.  These ideas bother a lot of people, because they challenge current theories.

Some say that a creation point is like a quantum computer, which governments are busy trying to devise.  Three principles derive from this natural computer: emergence, relationships, and causality.  All existence evolves from these three principles to create a universe.  Nothing created evolves without a reason, even the evolution of living beings.  All created components of reality follow the rules of emergence, relationships, and causality.

Emergence:

Before I can talk about emergence, I need to define what an entity is.  Entities are emergent objects of creation. There are two possible types of entities: real and virtual.  Real entities can be given a name, such as quarks, electrons, atoms, molecules, planets, stars, galaxies, people, cars, and so forth.  Virtual entities cannot be given a name.  Virtual entities can be used to describe processes such as the development of a fetus, wherein the virtual entity vanishes after a fetus is born.

Emergence is the creation of new entities from component entities, where the whole is more than the sum of the parts.  Neutrons, protons, and electrons combine to create atoms.  Atoms combine to create molecules.  Atoms and molecules combine to create stars and galaxies, as well as living things, including people.

Relationships:

Relationships describe the rules that allow entities to interact.  Reality is about the sum of all the effects generated by relationships.  Many relationships are powered by subatomic particles, such as gluons, gravitons, and electro-magnetic waves.  It is probably possible to describe relationships between any and all components of the Universe.

Causality:

After a universe is created, the rules of causality take effect and self-organization kicks in.  Entities come into existence and self-organize locally into ever more complex structures, all the while obeying all the physical laws that define relationships.  Self-organization goes through phases.  There were many phase changes required to get to where our Universe is now.  Originally, the Universe existed in a very dense, high energy state, but now the average local energy densities are very low.

There has to be a reason for everything that happens.  Some spontaneity can be expected, but outcomes will always be undetermined options followed determined results.  There is no magic.  The only way for new entities to be created is to evolve from prior, less complex entities.

Information, the missing ingredient:

Emergence, relationships, and causality are necessary features of reality, but they are not sufficient to describe how reality works.  There has to be information, a lot of which is present in the form of feedback.  Without information, there would be no threads holding everything together.  Reality would simply collapse.  Living things, especially people, are all processors of information. 

If a universe is dying, how does it manage to create a child universe?  If we think of all the inorganic and organic parts of reality as being separate, there would be no reason.  Perhaps this is the ultimate function of life: to keep the processes of creation going that started with an original quantum fluctuation.

Therefore, I would say that reality is not a simulation, but a prototype.  All things exist within a prototyped evolving structure.  Next, I claim that at some point child universes are most likely created by gods.

However, these are not biblical type gods, but advanced technological intelligences.  We would be like gods to a caveman, and beings that controlled entire galaxies would be like gods to us.  It could go so on and so forth up neverending scales.  There is one key thing that technological intelligent entities, including us, do: we create things.  Or creations are natural, though subjectively natural, not objectively natural. 

Could there be omnipotent gods?  Who would know?

If a universe is coming to an end, would not the end-time beings want to save themselves somehow?  Of course, everyone in the universe would perish, unless they could launch a fluctuation to create a new universe.  Remember, in the end, everything can be represented by information, and only information would be needed for some kind of salvation.

Our universe does not look like the product of a simple fluctuation.  Rather, it looks like the product of a long series of evolving structures.  Perhaps our universe came with instructions, and we can partially read the information.  This would explain why people think there is a God of the Universe, when they are actually hearkening back to the technological gods who created our Universe and seeded it with information.

New universes start out hot and compact; then they evolve into self-organizing structures.  In some place, self-organizing living things evolve.  The amazing part is how life evolves with apparent purpose and gusto, as if it were all very important.  The old theory was that God created everything and that was that, but I think instructions from a preexistence that involved only technological gods would make more sense.

I think the idea that we are the product of a chained series of evolving universes is more satisfying than being in a simulation.  This makes our reality sacred, because countless beings in countless universes have lived and died to keep it all going.  Only beings with a vested interest could possibly care what happens in reality.