Simulism
From Simulism
Simulism is a concept that deals with the possibility that we are living in a simulation.
This concept is best explained by example. I'll use familiar concepts such as computer games to illustrate Simulism.
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[edit] Simulism explained using computer game history
[edit] Pac-Man
In 1979, gaming company Namco released the wildly popular game 'Pac-Man'. Pac-Man is a simplistic game, which featured basic elements of survival (getting enough food and outrunning enemies). Pac-Man's world is very limited, and does not resemble the real world very much. Still, the player controls his character in a (very basic) virtual world, so Pac-Man can be considered, in some sense, a simulation.
[edit] Sim City
Ten years later, in 1989, game designer Will Wright (wikipedia) developed the game 'Sim City'. Sim City was very original, in that it simulated a world very similar to our own. You could build complex cities, and the game featured a simulated economy, and simulated forces of nature (limited though to a specific set of disasters you could summon). Only 10 years after Pac-Man, Sim-City marked a decade where sim-games became very popular, from virtual ant hills in Sim Ant, to simulations of evolution in Sim Life.
[edit] The Sims
In 1999, Will Wright created the next generation of simulation games, The Sims. Where Sim City featured only economy and nature, The Sims added the 'social' and 'emotion' elements. Both computer and player characters are equiped with basic social and emotional skills and needs. As can be seen in the screenshot below, a character has 'needs' that must be satisfied. Characters become hungry, lonely and tired, and they can even form relationships.
The first version of The Sims featured a player who is surrounded by computer-controlled characters. 'The Sims Online' connects players over the internet and makes the simulation even more realistic, by having simulated interaction between characters that are controlled by real people from around the world.
The Sims comes close to a simulation of life in general. The Sims is not real, and in some respects rather limited, but if you compare it to Sim City or Pac-Man, the advance in computer gaming has been significant.
[edit] Spore
'Spore' is a game (again by Will Wright) that was released at the end of 2008, again almost exactly 10 years after its predecessor The Sims was developed. Not much is known yet about Spore, but according to Wikipedia, "it simulates the complete history and future of life. (...) The player molds and guides a species across many generations, growing it from a single-celled organism into a more complex animal, until the species becomes intelligent. At this point the player begins molding and guiding this species' society, progressing towards a spacefaring civilization."
Spore will be even more close to simulating a reality than Sim City and The Sims have been, and will feature many concepts that we know from the real world.
[edit] 'Universe 2029'
Let's take a leap forward. As computers become more and more advanced, and computing power is growing exponentially, it is not hard to imagine that in 2029, approximately 20 years after the release of Spore, a game would be feasible that simulates a large part of the universe, including many of its laws of physics. Having evolved from Pac-Man, Sim City folk, The Sims characters and Spore species, the characters of 'Universe 2029' will be very human-like. They will have emotions, social skills and, most important, (artificial) intelligence. If you take into account the advances in the field of computer graphics, 'Universe 2029' would probably look amazingly realistic too.
[edit] Simulism
Why this history of computer simulation games? Think about it for a moment. Suppose that the more advanced computers become, the closer to reality simulations would become. If the characters in the simulation act intelligently, have all 5 basic senses, and can make their own decisions based on their virtual suroundings, they would act very human-like.
This is where the philosophical underpinning of Simulism enters the arena. The characters in 'Universe 2029' would not know they are simulated. Within the virtual world created for them, they live a life, even though, to us, this life is not real. In the movie 'The Matrix', one of the main characters, Morpheus, states: "If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply signals interpreted by your brain". This leads to a statement about reality: If the virtual characters in Universe 2029 have simulated senses, the simulated world is as much real for them, as the real world is to us.
If the characters in Universe 2029 will be intelligent enough, they can create computer games about simulations, and eventually, some of them might start to realize they are living in a simulation, and, in their simulated world, create a website about Simulism... you see where I'm going?
Also, many people have argued "No life, in any universe, has evolved sufficiently to be able to create the technology required to support such a simulation." Now, lets think. If you have any understanding of game programming you would know to make the game interactive you would need graphics, correct? Well, if we actually do live in a simulation, our graphics could be in a VERY low quality form. Many reasons of this could be: Us, as a human race, have adopted to the 3D world we live in, and have never seen anything different (example: in a different simulation the "graphics" could be better or worse). Another reason would be that it would be programmed into our minds that we are actually in a 3D world with really high quality. The possibilities could be endless.
[edit] A matter of chance
Suppose in the future, 'Universe 2029' will become as popular as The Sims has been. The Sims has been sold about 7 million times worldwide. If 'Universe 2029' is that popular too, then one time, 7 million simulated universes will be run by players. That is 7 million parallel universes, each containing simulated people not aware of being simulated, and unaware of the existence of all these other simulated worlds. In his article 'The Simulation Argument', Nick Bostrom proposes that if there are that many virtual worlds, and only 1 real world, the chance that we are living in the real world, is very small. Weird?
Well, that is not weird if you accept that, like with the 'Universe 2029' people, our 'reality' is defined by our surroundings, by everything we hear, see, smell, feel, think. We are not unsimulatable.
[edit] Ants
Gaming is one reason for simulation. Studying behaviour is another. Like a boy studying a colony of ants in a jar, we run simulations to assist us in every-day decision making. We simulate the weather, the stock market, animal life etc. It is not unthinkable that as science progresses, we would even run simulations of human evolution. With enough processing power, we could run realistic simulations of any historical event, or life in general. In this scenario, the chances are similar that we are part of one such simulation.
If we are living in a simulation, it is hard to tell whether the simulation is intended as a game, as a digital aquarium or for research. The world is full of competitive elements, but there is no clear 'goal', so we might not be part of a game. But then again, does 'The Sims' have a distinctive goal? Throughout history, mankind has been faced with challenges we've had to overcome. But this could point in either direction too. The FAQ covers several questions dealing with the 'why' and 'how' questions of Simulism.
[edit] Conclusion
Using the above examples, I've tried to explain that simulism isn't as farfetched as one might think. We can't prove that we are living in a simulation, but neither can we prove that we aren't. There are arguments for both sides though, which you can read throughout this site.
The Main Page of this site contains links to articles, essays and external references that you may like to read if this page has got you thinking.
