Play!

I am an avid gamer (replaying Halo at the moment). The quality of gaming is taking leaps and bounds, particularly when you combine it with AR, VR, mixed reality, and other immersive technologies. It is starting to look very real. And AI is accelerating that process. I also recently finished reading “Our Next Reality“.

Our next reality

How a new reality will be interactive and adaptive in magical ways. It will be populated with AI-powered characters, both human and fanciful, who will guide us and assist us at every turn. It will be a hyperconnected world, allowing us to interact across nations, cultures, and languages in ways we have never imagined. That is why I picked up “The Simulation Hypothesis: An MIT Computer Scientist Shows Why AI, Quantum Physics, and Eastern Mystics All Agree We Are in a Video Game”

What are the main elements of a great simulation?

• High-resolution pixelated world.
• A rendering engine based on quantum indeterminacy.
• A massively multiplayer online game.
• A seemingly infinite algorithmically generated world.
• Player characters, non-player characters, and AI.
• Downloadable consciousness.

Exponential

The book is the second edition. Brought on by the development in AI, 3D glasses, spatial computing, 3D printing, holographics, bioprinting, and brain–computer interfaces. Even more is possible. So, maybe we are living in a computer-programmed reality. A question about the nature of our reality. Are we all actually characters living inside some giant, massively multiplayer online video game, a simulated reality that is so well rendered that we cannot distinguish it from “physical reality”?

Religion

Many of the world’s religious traditions tell us that the world around us is an illusion created for our benefit. That is particularly true in the Eastern traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism, which explicitly tell us that the world we see is an illusion. In Carl Jung’s view, most of what we think of as being “out there”—the physical world—is actually “in here,” meaning in our heads, like a dream, there being no objective physical reality.

Science fiction

If we are, in fact, inside a video game, then science becomes a matter of “discovering” the rules of this video game. Philip K.Dick believed that we were inside a computer-programmed reality that could be “paused” or “backed up” to change the variables, and then rerun forward. These “changed variables” were one way, according to Dick, that we could realise we were in such a simulation.

Quantum

Quantum physics provides significant clues that we are in some kind of simulated reality. The basis for quantum physics is that the universe is not continuous but exists as a set of quanta, or discrete values. One of the most famous and troubling aspects of quantum physics is that we may not be living in a physical universe after all, but in a universe of probabilities. It is what’s called the quantum probability wave—until the wave collapses into a single reality.

Probability waves

The best explanation that quantum physicists have been able to give for how the probability wave collapses is that observation (and possibly consciousness) plays a central role in this collapse. The act of observation behaves much like a cosmic usher, ushering you to look at a specific seat in the theatre, and only then can you be certain if the seat is occupied or not. However, the idea of a separate observer and observed universe doesn’t exist in quantum physics.

Quantum indeterminacy 

Quantum computers bring us full circle to the idea of a sophisticated simulation that mimics reality. Because quantum indeterminacy is a feature of our physical reality, if we are inside a simulation, then the simulation must have a mechanism to process both uncertainty and probability waves, and a way to force the collapse based on observation.

Everything is perception

We may not be living in an objective reality after all. In fact, it’s possible our consciousness is so interconnected with our perception of reality that we may be living in a set of interconnected subjective realities. This phenomenon, referred to as quantum indeterminacy, is one of the biggest mysteries in physics. An even bigger mystery is quantum entanglement, the idea that two particles can be connected over space and time, and no one knows exactly why.

Shared reality

Is there an actual shared reality, or is our view of the universe rendered on separate observation devices? Is there in fact an objective world when no one is watching, or does it come into existence only when someone is watching it—that is, when someone is “logged in”? Why would we be in a probabilistic world where making a choice (or having an observation or a measurement) collapses a probability wave to a single timeline or probability? No one seems to have an answer to this question.

Multiple futures

If you are a gamer, you will understand that video game designers map out the possible “futures”—paths that might be taken inside the game. These possible futures are similar to the idea of a probability wave. In a video game, the path that any player follows depends on the conscious choice and subsequent rendering of that choice on the player’s own computer (which can be thought of as his or her “machine of consciousness”). Moreover, in video games, the computer renders only the part of the world that is relevant to that single player, based on their choices when they are logged in to the virtual world. There is no “shared rendering” because the rendering is done on each player’s individual computer.

The simulation hypothesis

The simulation hypothesis, particularly the video game version of it, provides a new perspective on both quantum indeterminacy and quantum entanglement by looking at how information is processed and rendered in video games by computer systems. It turns out that the simulation hypothesis and the model of the world it is describing, of a sophisticated multiplayer video game with characters operating within a rendered world built on information, may provide answers to the big questions that physicists are afraid to ask about quantum indeterminacy and quantum entanglement: How does it work, exactly?

Compelling

That is only the beginning of the book. It gives some compelling reasoning and questions, such as:

• Karma as game points for tasks/quests achieved.
• Reincarnation as a new life in the game.
• Replaying actions in the game as a near-death experience.
• Kurzweil and singularity (downloading consciousness).
• Fractal, geometric ratios in nature (sacred geometry). Even processes that include seemingly random decisions end up following similar patterns of complexity.
• The Mandela effect .
• Nature as a 3D printer of biological material.
• Consciousness as information. That means that consciousness could exist the same on biological or silicon devices.
• Is space quantised—that is, does it consist of pixels like a virtual world?
• Is time quantised—does the universe have a clock speed and proceed like a computer simulation?
• Does matter actually exist, or is it like pixels in a video game?
• Why is the speed of light both a fundamental constant and an absolute limit?
• Does the physical world have a physics engine like a video game?
• Just like Schrödinger’s mysterious cat, which is neither dead nor alive until someone observes it, the world of video games relies on a player being logged in to render the world.
• If parallel universes are created each time we make a major decision (or a minor one, in the realm of quantum physics), then there is a directed graph of multiple universes that are branching out. A computer can simulate a large number of possibilities very quickly—in fact, this is one of the major ideas behind running simulations.
• Spinning off multiple probable realities, while extremely difficult for a physical reality, is almost a trivial matter if we are in a simulated reality.
• If we can define our “game state” as the state of all particles in our current physical universe, then the game state can be varied and evaluated by a computer program very easily.
• Naropa’s Six Yogas would suggest that downloadable consciousness already exists—we just need to develop (or grow) biological machines (or entities) into which the consciousness can be transferred.
• James Gates, a professor of physics at the University of Maryland, has studied string theory and supersymmetry. He claims that he has found what would be the equivalent of “error-checking codes” in the physical universe, suggesting strongly that the universe may be generated by some sort of computer.

Computation

Is computation a part of our physical world, embedded within all other biological, chemical, and physical processes? Advances in computer science, simulation technology, and artificial intelligence are revealing the link between computation and the natural world, as seen in biological algorithms, genetic mappings, and fractal algorithms. In fact, with the rise of quantum computing, even particles in nature start to look less like physical objects and more like information. By treating the world not as physical (and we’ll see that the physicists have admitted it is not) but rather as information and computation, we might be able to come to a more comprehensive understanding of the natural universe than either our scientists, philosophers, or religious leaders have been able to give us up to this point.

References

Remember Second Life, The Matrix, Ready Player One, Warcraft, Westworld, Total Recall, Neuromancer, Blade Runner, Data in Star Trek, HAL 9000, Knight Rider, Terminator, Dune, Star Wars, Asimov, and the cortical stack in Altered Carbon?

Simulation point

There is no question that if video game technology continued its rapid pace of improvement, then it is inevitable that we would be able to create hyperrealistic simulations that would be indistinguishable from physical reality. As a civilisation, we are close to reaching the simulation point, a kind of technological singularity. The simulation point is a theoretical point at which a technological civilisation can create virtual worlds (simulations) that are indistinguishable from physical reality (across all of our senses) and populated with virtual beings that are indistinguishable from physical beings. For now, the simulation point would be a theoretical point in a technological civilisation’s development when it possesses the ability to create hyperrealistic simulations with hyperrealistic AI beings. While we don’t know the exact date that we will reach the simulation point, if we think we can do so in any reasonable time frame, then it’s very possible that more advanced civilisations that have been around for thousands or even millions of years longer than us have already reached this point.

BCI

The best route is straight into the brain. In order to create a virtual reality that is indistinguishable from physical reality, we would need to develop mind-interfacing technology that consists of several parts:

• Mind broadcast. The tech would need to broadcast a virtual world into the brain so that we are fooled into thinking our body, which may be sitting in a chair or lying down, is actually in the virtual world.
• Mind reading. The tech would need to read our response(s) to the virtual world—including our movement, feelings, and interaction—and transmit those actions into the virtual world.
• Implanted memories. The tech would also need to plant a reasonable history of what happened “before” any point in the simulation.

Downloadable consciousness

Ultimately, it will come down to downloadable consciousness and  AI as real artificial companions. Agentic AI on steroids, super smart NPCs (Non-Player Characters), embodied AI, and maybe even conscious AI. If we are in a giant video game, how do we know if we are interacting with real players or NPCs (I think some people are NPCs without them knowing it). Consciousness becomes a topic.  Digital consciousness vs. spiritual consciousness. The Eastern mystical and Western religious views of consciousness are different from those of the sciences. Surprisingly, it is the religious views that are closest to the video game analogy: that our physical world is a kind of “illusion,” populated by conscious beings that exist outside the simulation. 

The observer is an essential part of the material universe

Western scientists were startled by the inescapable conclusion of quantum physics that the observer is an essential part of the material universe. Mystics of all traditions, but Eastern mystics in particular (Hinduism, Buddhism, and related faiths), have been telling us this for thousands of years. In fact, the idea that the world around us is a kind of illusion that is somehow tied to our consciousness has been a central tenet of these traditions.

It explains a lot

Not only does the simulation hypothesis provide a rational, science-based explanation for the things that religious traditions have been telling us for years, it also provides explanations for phenomena that have been unexplained by modern science. These include near-death experiences (NDEs), out-of-body experiences (OBEs), UFOs, synchronicity, astral projection, remote viewing, ghosts, angels, shared dreaming and déjà vu, among others. If we are in a simulation, then it may be possible to get around the constraints of Einstein’s special theory of relativity by moving around in the simulation instantly. These three methods are: 

• Teleportation 
• Wormholes 
• Quantum entanglement

About dreaming 

Native American tribes take the beings we encounter in dreams not just as symbols, but literally; that is, the beings we encounter are real and not just made-up elements of our imagination. The sheer number of different approaches to dream interpretation suggests the complexity that lies beneath what seems to be an everyday phenomenon. Scientists haven’t been able to definitively determine the biological reason for dreams, even while they have validated that dreams are necessary and are probably serving some purpose. 

Other worlds

Mystics and shamans of all traditions, on the other hand, believe that dreams are a way for us to tap into other worlds. Many dreamers have noted visits from those who have passed away and are now in the “other world. Aboriginal tribes in Australia believe that dreaming is a way to communicate with the dreamtime, the “real world” beyond the physical. Physicist Fred Alan Wolf, in his book The Dreaming Universe, writes that he has interviewed people who “are also apparently capable of waking up night after night in a parallel world where they have a continuous life in a different body.”

Virtual life

The idea that dreams are “little worlds” where you can “live” entire lives sounds eerily similar to the idea of having a virtual life inside a video game, which you can “pick up” the next time you start the game. If we view dreams as kinds of simulations and learn to recognise them as such, then we can see the physical world around us as a dreamlike simulation, and we can “awaken” to what is going on outside the simulation.

Dreams as mini-simulations

It turns out that dreaming, which is such a powerful metaphor in the Eastern spiritual traditions, is a natural process that shows we have already developed in biological form most of the stages that a technological civilisation must achieve to reach the simulation point! It may just be that when a civilisation reaches the simulation point, it is finally able to reproduce, with computation and video game technology, a process that every single human being already does naturally: dreaming!

Who is behind the simulation?

If the world around us is a simulation, this naturally leads us to ask who (or what) is outside the rendered world. Who is participating in it? Who created it? And who (or what) is still even now running the simulation? And why did they create it? The options:

• Other simulations.
• Humans/ancestors.
• Time travellers from the future.
• Nonhuman Earth-Based Life-Forms (In the popular science fiction book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, the Earth was actually an experiment run by hyperintelligent mice).
• Aliens.
• Superintelligent machines.
• God or gods.

It closes the gap

The author believes that the Eastern mystics may be closer to the nature of the Great Simulation than many of our scientists, although the simulation hypothesis bridges this gap really well. Mystics of all traditions have told us that what we perceive as reality is actually more like a dream. In fact, we saw how dreams pretty much already exhibit all the technology we have laid out on the road to the simulation point. The development and evolution of computation and information science has, in fact, provided us with another model and a way to bridge the gap between all of science, consciousness, and many religious concepts.

Play!

It is a great thought experiment. My take is that if life is a computer game, you should play it to its fullest. And when you die/fail, you just restart the game. You have nothing to lose.