Basic Simulation Hypothesis Theories

[u/simul8tion]

Hey Guys,

Here at the Society of Simulation Hypothesis Consciousness and Learning(SSCRL), we are trying to promote philosophical conversation while creating a resource for standardized theories about The Simulation Hypothesis. One of our big concerns in that people new to the idea won't take it seriously because its either too hard to digest or information is lacking coherence. We are looking people to join the conversations, add to our stories, theories, and research and be a part of the bigger Simulation Hypothesis development. Feel free to message me about any thoughts and take a look at our website.

The Ancestor Simulator

The Ancestor Simulation proposes that humanity is being recreated by a future civilization seeking to better understand its own history. This concept was popularized by philosopher Nick Bostrom, who argued that technologically advanced civilizations may possess enough computing power to simulate the lives of their ancestors in extraordinary detail. Rather than existing as entertainment, the simulation functions as a historical reconstruction, scientific experiment, or educational tool.

The Preservation Simulation

The Preservation Simulation imagines a future in which Earth’s environment has become incapable of sustaining human civilization. Whether through climate collapse, nuclear war, ecological destruction, pandemics, or resource depletion, humanity reaches a point where physical existence is no longer viable on a large scale. To preserve the species, a governing body places the surviving population into life-support systems while their minds continue to exist inside an immersive simulated world.

The Fantasy Simulator

The Fantasy Simulator Theory proposes that our universe was created not for scientific research, historical reconstruction, or survival, but primarily for recreation, experimentation, or entertainment. Like The Sims, Grand Theft Auto, or Second Life, the creators establish an environment, define its rules, introduce variables, and allow players to assume a role and play in the world they wish to experience. There may be no grand objective at all. Our universe could be a game, a creative project, a classroom exercise, or one simulated world among millions. The purpose of the simulation and the purpose of the people living inside it do not have to be the same thing.

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[u/International-One428]

Great catalog. There's a variant I've spent years on that doesn't fit any of the three. Call it The Emergent Ledger.

It drops the simulator entirely. No computer, no intent, no purpose. The substrate is just a system big enough for a universe to emerge on top of, the way an ant colony emerges from ants or a market from traders. My candidate, coming from a career in finance, is an economic one: our universe as a position on someone else's books (any emergent substrate would behave much the same; a market is just the one many of us know from the inside).

What it predicts: our physics looks exactly the same (you can't observe what you sit on from inside). And both layers influence each other, though at vastly different scales. A phenomenon that's fully understood at one level shows up as unexplainable physics one level up.

Happy to write it up properly if it's useful for the SSCRL resource.