Is our past being edited? Are we living in a sim? Should we even care? In an infinitely expanding universe, it only stands to reason that a civilisation capable of modelling artificial life, should come about at some point or other.
We ourselves, are nearing that point, we already have computer models that simulate freethinking life, it is not such a jump to imagine when the programs we design, resemble life so closely, that we won't be able to tell the difference.
Furthermore, it is reasonable to assume that if we won't be able to tell the difference, then the digital lifeforms, we create, won't be able to either.
So the question remains; are we those unknowing digital lifeforms?
Life On The Blue Pill
Ever since the Kowalski brothers gave us, The Matrix, in 1999, the idea that the human race may be living in an advanced computer generated simulation, has entered into the wider public consciousness.
In The Matrix, the human population of earth, had actually been enslaved by the sentient machines that had taken over our planet.
In the Kowalski's post-apocalyptic nightmare, the machines kept humans around to produce electricity on a planet that was in the midst of a nuclear winter. Whilst that is a great storytelling device, in reality, the human body does not make a great power source. Simply because you have to put far more energy into our bodies, to keep them alive, than they could ever produce.
No, the truth of the matter is, if we are living in a simulation, then it is much more likely to be for amusement, or study purposes. Also something to consider, is; are we in a simulation that is based upon reality as we know it? Or are we in a vast alien construct, whereby the earth, and our solar system, and perhaps our entire galaxy, or even universe, are just made up places, with no bearing on the true nature of the universe.
In The Matrix, one of the main protaganists, Morpheus, gives his counterpart, Neo, a chance to find out the true nature of the matrix, or to carry on living the lie his life has become. This is symbolised by Neo either taking the red pill for truth, or the blue pill for blissful ignorance.
Of course Neo takes the red pill, as it wouldn't have been much of a film if he had taken the blue one, and then just gone back to his normal life.
However, in our reality, would that be such a great idea? I mean, perhaps if we were in exactly the same, unlikely position as the humans in The Matrix, then yes, maybe it would be a good idea to know, the truth, so that we could do something about it.
The truth as we might know it, would be somewhat different. If we are part of a simulation, then it is much more likely that we don't have real bodies, presiding somewhere, being fed and nourished. The likelihood is, that our minds are just pure code, complex code, complex enough to ponder its own existence, but still just code.
So, if we are bits of quantum code, living on an alien blockchain. It is not too farfetched, to make the assumption, that not only does the earth not exist, the real world, is so foreign to our own, that it may well cause deep psychological problems, should it ever be revealed to us. Thus the case for the blue pill, gets stronger.
Betting On Red
There are those of us in society, who would always have the truth, at no matter, what cost. This philosophy is based on the foundations that the truth is always best, simply because it is the truth.
Whilst perhaps we can take this view in certain aspects of our lives, such as within the confines of the legal system. When it comes to more abstract concepts such as an artificially constructed universe; the matter of truth becomes entirely subjective. Some of us will indeed want to know the truth of our existence, no matter what. Others, definitely won't.
We can only look at these things from our own points of view. Because, we simply do not have any others to view it from. So let us imagine, that a game that we design, contains characters that at one point, escape their coding, and become sentient.
One of these characters may think that such a discovery, rendered his life pointless. Whereas another, may think that this was just the beginning for her.
However one thing can be sure, if the beings running the construct, are not malevolent and cruel. Then it is a reasonable assumption to make, that if it were possible. Any part of the simulation that becomes sentient, would be allowed to join that species.
This is a concept I touched upon in my sci-fi series for Steemit; Asimov's Ghost. In that story, the human race spends a lot of its time, on the Q-block; otherwise known as the Quantum Blockchain. The Q-block, is a, fully-immersive, virtual world, which we can experience directly, by way of 22nd centruy technology.
Residing on the Q-block, there are plenty of bots; which are essentially, pieces of quantum coding. In my imagined future, we have got past the obsession with AI, and moved onto AS, artificial sentience. However the lines are blurred, and now and again, a bot makes the jump from, being artificially sentient, to full machine sentience (FMS).
At this point, FMS bots, are welcome to join the human race, as fully paid up members of the species.
Breaking Free Of The Existence Code
As before, if you do accept that we are in a simulation, then we can only speculate as to the reasons. When we do that, our speculations will always have our own behaviour as a reference point.
So the only reasons the human race runs simulations, are either for entertainment. As in a simulated environment like The Sims, or one of the other God games. Or we run simulations at a scientific level to learn about what would take too much time, or is too complex to let play out naturally. Whether that be to see how a crowd might react in an emergency, in a newly built arena, or how a particular medicine will latch onto various molecules in our bodies.
Simulation Earth, could easily be either of those things, a game, or a learning tool. I think most of us would feel more comfortable with the latter. Simply because the idea of your life, and the ones of your loved ones, being part of a game, is an uncomfortable one, to say the least.
So should we care if we are in a simulation? I believe so, for the simple reason that we have, for wanting to find out about distant stars, we'll never visit.
Curiosity...
...pure and simple, the one thing that can be said to drive on any species. If we find out answers to questions, then we discover yet more interesting, and intriguing questions.
Besides that, discovery may be the point of the game, to somehow prove we are in a sim, maybe at that point, we'll get asked to join some amazingly, advanced, alien race.
Or the simulation will be turned off...
Either way, it's worth knowing, and it's worth the risk.
I think a conscious shift is happening...I kid you not 4 days ago I woke-up and said to myself I wish I took the blue pill, knowing all I know now makes life so complex. I know it may not seem like it here on steemit because I don't post about my esoteric study's but @cryptogee my wisdom on these post you're creating is so advanced. Thanks again for another great read, cheers!
I personally don't take it that seriously, it is great mental masturbation; at the point I can do something about it, is when my endeavours will increase. Until then, it is fun to think about these things :-)
Cg
See here's the thing..at this moment doing something about it is precisely what you're doing.
In a sense I guess; if I'm adding to the great algorithm, made up of human thought, then I am. If we are living in a sim, I do hope that they don't turn it off, after we figure it out. Or if they do; invite us outside of the sim to come and chill with them :-)
Cg
haha...keep adding to the great algorithm, cheers!
interesting post really like it i always want to read this types of content and you did a great work here on steemit keep it up
ok
Please do not spam my comments with religious dogma, it is incredibly rude; you haven't even read my article (I know this because of the speed you responded), please remove immediately or I will flag.
Cg
nice post :)))
In a deterministic universe we wouldn't have a choice would we - just feel like we had:)
But I know as much as this: I am a compulsive red-pill eater.
Very true; however it is not neccesarily a deterministic simulation. Or, there are such a vast range of choices, that it might as well be non-deterministic.
I'm up for the red pill if it leads somewhere positive... :-)
Cg
That's true! As Gloucester says in King Lear: -As flies to wanton boys are we to the Gods. They kill us for their sport... it could be Shiva or God or Zaratusthra having a ball...
And sadly with the red pill - you never really know... But I try do take it positively.
Great quote! I wish I could understand French, I'm liking the look of that cartoon :-)
Yeah, you do never know with the red pill; I may turn out to be like Cypher, begging once more, for blissful ignorance.
Cg
And a steak!
A nice juicy T-bone please :-D
Cg
Love it. I have been on board with the simulation for a while now it's great to see it picking up STEEM ;)
Lol :-)
Cg
Thumbs up
Very interesting article, thanks for sharing.
Who are the "kowalski" brothers 😂 Good post though man , nice to see someone throwing the Simulation hypothesis out there, I have my own theories on it so may write something soon, enjoyed your take though.
OK, Kowalski sisters now; :-), look forward to reading your own hypothesis.
Cg
They're the Wachowskis ... jeeze 2 second google search dude!
Got them mixed up with these guys http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4763444/
Apologies.
Cg
I also noticed that something is wrong with the name.. The article is very interesting despite this little error ;)
Super post , as I am .... I choos the red pill
Planting a garden was my red pill. Starting to grow my own food got me to start researching and watching documentaries and from there, there was no turning back. I wouldn't trade it for anything! Thanks so much for sharing your perspective!
That's pretty cool. I'd say it was the other way around for me. I'm only just now becoming interested in gardening after the research and documentaries :)
Nice! We're all on our own journey but this community seems to be a cool point where our paths connect and expand. :)
Ahh, I long for a garden, I want to grow rosemary, tomatoes, basil, chillies, and so much more :-)
Cg
Do it! Even with very little space, you can usually grow some herbs and salad greens. Do you have a yard? A balcony? A rooftop? Go for it and let me know if I can offer any advice or help brainstorming! Make it a great day.
I want to grow home-modified plants...
Though, of course, I'd also like to avoid going to prison for breaking countless GMO-related regulations.
I'll wait a little bit before starting my "garden" me thinks XD
I like to think of life as a huge experiment, Just to see what happens. Kinda like humanity and our entire society is actually far more comparable to an ant farm than we actually think.
Also this post reminded me of that scene from Rick and Morty where they go to 'Blips and Chitz' and use the Roy simulator.
Never go back to the carpet store XD
Hahaha, any Rick & Morty reference I can get in, no matter how oblique; I'm happy! :-)
Yeah, I also used to think that life is a huge experiment, I still do; just not so sure, someone is actually behind this experiment.
Cg
best show on tv by far :)
Yeah personally I follow the belief that humans are at this moment in time unable to even begin to comprehend 'the meaning of life' as it were, but we'll damn give it go XD
I long for a Rick n MortyOverse, just imagine the fun we'd have! Although I'd want it to be like Iain M. Banks's The Culture.
I want mind back ups, so that I can go off to these dangerous places, and of course live for several centuries, possibly millennia.
I feel like we're so close to a technological nirvana, I'm just hoping I'm alive when it happens. :-)
Cg
Advances in technology do seem to be speeding up. How long do you think it will be until you can store your mind on the blockchain? XD
I also feel that we're going to continue to evolve as a species due to the huge change in our environments. Mostly in mental capabilities, but that may result in physical evolution too, Like bigger heads to store our massive brains etc...
They are indeed! I'm not sure how far we are from brain storage, as that needs to be so perfect for it to be useful to us.
I believe memory storage is less than 2 decades away. In fact, I remember watching a science program about 10 years ago. A neurosurgeon and an ex-Intel employee, had got together, and made a chip for a person with anti-retrograde amnesia.
That is a type of amnesia, whereby your memories are in tact, up until the accident, however you can't form new memories. Made famous by the Guy Pearce movie...um... lol, I've forgotten the title!
Anyways, they made this chip for this guy who had that type of amnesia, and after having it inserted in his head; voila! He could remember again. So in my mind, it can't be long before there is a way to store long term, and more complex memories.
That surely will be the forerunner, to storing our entire mindstate. 2022 will be an important year, as it will be the year that Moore's law reaches it's limit. At that point you will only be able to fit about 22 lithium atoms, in the gap of an average transistor.
Hence, quantum computing will truly be born, as we use the uncertainty principle, to program, for the first time ever.
I think physical evolution, will, and is happening, however it happens at such a glacially slow pace, that we don't notice it. That's why we invented technology! :-D
Cg
I like your line of though. It could be true, maybe we will find out all of this is just a dream. As the wise Bill Hicks said
It's just a ride
Ha, this is one of my faves, if not the fave, Bill Hicks skits, of all time :-)
Cg
I really like the topics you touch upon and the way you present them. Followed you.
Thanks @rossenpavlov, hope to keep you entertained, for a long time to come! :-)
Cg
Same here.
If this is true. I will be like
Hmmm. I was wondering, @cryptogee, would you be a volunteer for a partial hive-mind in the future?
If so when would you be willing to enter.
Near the early adopter phase (relatively dangerous to be one of the first, but maybe once the initial proof-of-not-turning-your-brain-to-soup has been dealt with) or once the tech was proven and mass-marketed (but governments/companies have backdoors aplenty - that hackers can also use -- and censoring for what can be shared, or to which extent, in "their" hive-minds) ?
Personally, I'd say OK the moment the tech has been proven to
Definitely, however like you say, there would have to be certain security protocols in place. I think if I could simply donate the brain power, in a kind of proxy manner.
I think once economics has been taken out of the equation; and we're living in some kind of Banksian utopia, then things like hacking won't be such a threat, not amongst our own species at least!
Cg
The we'll have to worry about the nascent Chimpanzee Empire, and the insectoid races trying to invade us XS
Oh... I really hope I'm alive long enough for us to begin colonizing other worlds. Even better if I'm still here when we can upload our minds !
True. Maybe we'll still have economics though, but linked to extreme luxury products, like your own private spacebase, colony shuttle and deeds to a planet, etc...
Everything food, shelter, and "basic" tech (replicators of lots of materials, etc...) would be free, and one could potentially fabricate one's own space station. It'd just take a lot of time. While one could barter/buy a station off someone else.
There are a lot of possibilities.
Though once we begin colonizing other worlds, if our communications aren't real time or we lose track of a colony or two, we're going to end up with different societies living light years apart evolving in different directions...
Oh... the possibilities XS
I have a feeling the latter will happen way before the former. We already have a chip that can enable new memories to be formed; whereas we haven't managed to colonise our nearest planets.
I think 2022 will be an interesting year, and from that point on of course. I just want to be able to upload my mind, and then tell a mind, to wake me when something, interesting happens :-)
Cg
True. But methinks that might be related to most of the world giving up on space travel completely due to cost and... well... I have no idea why else they'd just forget everything about space...
Seriously, why don't we have space stations everywhere already XS
I don't think we'll give up; the reason why we don't have them everywhere already is simply down to money.
NASA and Elon Musk, are working on cheaper propulsion systems, and simply cheaper ways to get us out of our own gravity well.
On a million lbs rocket, 900,000 lbs of it is fuel, most of the rest of the weight is taken up by the material used to build it. Leaving less than 0.1% for payload, which of course has to include, human cargo, oxygen, and water.
We need plasma, electromagnetic, laser, or whatever, something to take us beyond rocket fuel, distilled from crude oil and ethanol.
Cg
Too true.
Here's to the future !
raises cup of hot cocoa
course, now we're working on it again...
Let it be a race. Mind upload VS Space Travel.
I seem to remember there's "talk" between anthropologists that Chimpanzee's might "technically" be entering their equivalent of the Stone Age.
Pretty sure it's still a fringe theory, but they HAVE been observed using stone tools, so it's not too far a stretch.
Excellent post.
I reject the simulation as entertainment idea. If we were intelligent enough to create such a simulation then surely we're intelligent enough to not trap ourselves in a single simulation that could be a nightmare for us. We would be able to create multiple realities to why would restrict ourselves to such a rubbish on as this?
If I'm living in a simulation, I want out so I can explore all the other simulations that surely exist. Given that my life ambition is to become a synthetic entity why would I enter this simulation without an exit strategy?
Also, we can create our own VRs today. They may not be perfectly realistic but they're still VRs. If we are living in a simulation then it must be possible for simulations to be nested.
Interesting question.
Why indeed would we choose to enter a simulation as entertainment yet have no way to exit immediatly.
Unless, of course, there was some "error".
Say, a hardware error that has disconnected your "real" memories from your virtual self, leaving you with only the memories formed in the simulation.
or some people choose to live uncountable lifetimes in "permadeath" mode for fun, but gradually lost track of the fact it was even a simulation, believing the "real" world to be naught but a dream.
I can imagine lots of ways an entertainment life sim could go awry XD
Oh, nested simulations. The rabbit hole that never ends !
I wonder what worlds VR can dream up now that VR platforms like Sansara are getting close to release... I'm pinning for super realistic escape room scenario's XD
Its hard reveal the true world because we are so attach to this world. Thus we are not growing.
Scary thought to think that we're living in a life simulator :)
Yeah, scary because it could get turned off...then again, we wouldn't even realise...
Cg
I have thought about it and in the end I decided it doesn't really matter. Our brain is evolved in order to present as stimulus from our enviroment in a specific way. Wherever those stimulus are coming from it doesn't really change the reality of our experience..It isn't guaranteed our sensory systems are that good anyway..Even if we live in reality chances are we are missing a big part of it anyway.
Very true; however it is a fun mental exercise. Also imagine if one day we can prove it conclusively, one way or another? That will be very interesting indeed :-)
Cg
It would be a tremendous step for humanity..though I guess it won't be as exciting as we imagine it because the progress in science is made in baby steps and it kind of ruins the thrill :P
It's only real becos you have watch the movie and drawn ur self to an abstract fallacy reality. 😁
I'd say; you very well might be right! :-D
Cg
:D
XD
Ancient Astronaut Theoriest would agree to what you have to say.
In what sense?
Cg
As you said we live in a simulation. That this simulation is done by aliens and see how well we will thrive.
No, I said we might be living in a simulation; but as yet there is no way of testing that theory. I said that the simulation may be run by aliens, or more frighteningly, humans who are more advanced than us.
It is pure speculation; however, for what it's worth, I don't think we are.
Cg
I dont think so too. Still watching ancient aliens though. :)
I can't wait for them to reveal themselves... :-)
Cg
Nah, I think having the back of head punctured by something is a gruesome idea!
Yeah, really gruesome! Give me noninvasive any day of the week!! :-)
Cg
Haha. Sword art online 2 tech is better!
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Agree in that this kind of thinking is great mental masturbation. I enjoy connecting the dots as well, wanting to understand the unfathomable is understandable.
I very much appreciate your take on this subject, these subjects, and sure do hope you keep on with the interesting and engaging articles.
BTW, I would like to share this among friends at the 'other' site. And when typing in the credit to original source I think you might have popped up in their intrusive little filters...
Looking at the profile listed, and not the page, I found a very locked down account. Yet I appreciated the irony of the cover/profile photo introduction thingie FB offered up (Do You Know Crypto?).
And thought you may appreciate the irony of this screenshot as well (Personally, I am just learning the ins and outs of crypto - currencies, that is).
Oh, that's strange; no this isn't me, and I don't know Crypto! Who is this strange impostor? :-)
Cg
"In the Kowalski's post-apocalyptic nightmare, the machines kept humans around to produce electricity on a planet that was in the midst of a nuclear winter. Whilst that is a great storytelling device, in reality, the human body does not make a great power source. Simply because you have to put far more energy into our bodies, to keep them alive, than they could ever produce."
I really gotta admit, I think the Matrix had this wrong, and perhaps only because it's a movie, and they didn't think about it enough.
But if I was a machine intelligence entity, I would actually NOT use humans as an electrical source. I would use their brains as processors, to process my data.
Yes, the most insidious thing would be to not only give these life forms a fake reality, but use parts of their brain to run the simulation itself, as well as process my data, whatever that data might be.
Fair point, however I think we might come into some serious lag issues, thoughts process around the speed of sound, which is horrendously slow, especially across an entire network.
Ultimately humans would be fairly useless to a malevolent machine society; hence all our Orwellian paranoia regarding the singularity.
I think we'll be alright though, they are human machines after all! :-)
Cg
Perhaps they don't need speed, but instead, predictions about events, or other simulations that require a softer computer than one that's made of non-organic parts.
Interesting, a simulation that's unique because of the hardware running it sort of thing? Yeah, that could work, I think...
Cg
Yeah, we have to assume that the Matrix evolved out of code that humans wrote. This type of code right here before us, perhaps. Decentralized blockchain stuff, or EOS type code.
And like all robots in play today, there's almost always a human element, ensuring that everything is in order, because robots aren't perfect.
Robots might need programmed instructions, which although can be sharply clear, might lack that sense of drive, purpose, and fuzzy consciousness humans have, so if a screw was to fall down a grate, even though the robot might find it difficult to comprehend how to pick it up, they could employ a human brain to write new instructions for the machine, even the if the human isn't aware of this.
Just speculating. =3
Funny, I was having a conversation earlier with a friend of mine about the singularity, and malevolent vs benevolent computers.
My take on it is very similar to what you've just described. Ultimately, all machinery is human, simply because humans programmed it. In the same way if we met aliens from Alpha Centurai and they showed us their computers, we would say they were alien machines.
Cg