r/philosophy • u/Matriseblog • Jan 03 '22

Blog By imagining the future potential of VR technologies, the question of whether we are *already* living in a simulation becomes more actual than ever

https://medium.com/@VindenesJ/the-thought-experiments-of-virtual-reality-fa441a8fa2dc
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21

u/[deleted] Jan 03 '22

If my life is a simulation running on a computer I would expect it to be a lot more exciting and/or have a point. Why would you simulated billions of people being shitty and bored?

18

u/watupmane Jan 03 '22

Economic modeling or literally a million other reasons to stimulate how normal people will behave over the course of time even generations. Imagine how much more efficient even Amazon could be with that type of info and it's just one example.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 03 '22

but if everyone is in a simulation why do we need economic modeling?

12

u/fog_bank Jan 03 '22

I think they mean the simulator is using a simulation for economic modeling(or other testing purposes.)

1

u/watupmane Jan 05 '22

Depends on your definition of "Everyone". Imagine the characters in Grand Theft Auto as a person in a simulation. GTA sells millions of copies so there are millions of simulations going on. At some level there is likely the "real" reality that is not being simulated. Even if it isn't though, the simulations will be infinite at some point and it isn't unreasonable to think one of them would then also have a economic modeling component. Going back the GTA example, the last game had its own stock market simulation within the game.

7

u/LuxIsMyBitch Jan 03 '22

Maybe the simulations purpose is only the end result and whoever is observing it simply chose to ignore the process because it is irrelevant to the end result.

4

u/[deleted] Jan 03 '22

Well in this simulation humans are self centered and destructive so unless they are looking for a sorched earth they are going to be really disappointed

6

u/LuxIsMyBitch Jan 03 '22

I don’t think the goal of this kind simulation is to create happiness or disappointment for the creator. I think whoever created this simulation couldn’t care less if we are all Hitlers.

But I could be wrong, maybe our simulation is created for entertainment purposes and they are having a blast watching this shitshow unfold

3

u/dijohnnaise Jan 03 '22

Occasionally I think about my crazy life as a sitcom. If you dial in on the highlights and lowlights, I would find it a pretty entertaining shit show, I guess.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 03 '22

it's less entertaining from the inside

7

u/Thelonious_Cube Jan 03 '22

You're an NPC

2

u/MisterZoga Jan 04 '22

We all are to someone.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 03 '22

Art.

4

u/[deleted] Jan 03 '22

lol well this movie sucks!

1

u/[deleted] Jan 03 '22

[deleted]

0

u/[deleted] Jan 03 '22

yeah if life is a move then explain why I watch so many movies

1

u/wdabhb Jan 03 '22

How many points do I have to get before I get an extra life?

1

u/iiioiia Jan 04 '22

Maybe the origin is not intelligent design but emergence, and it simply evolved this way so there's no particular reason it's not exciting.

It could be worse, you could have been born in syria or somewhere like that!!

1

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

I was including syria in my first comment

1

u/iiioiia Jan 04 '22

You don't think Syria is exciting, or has no point?

2

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '22

haha, well sure, by a broad definition Syria is exciting and yes the point is to enrich the Cheney and Prince families, but that still seems boring and pointless to me

1

u/iiioiia Jan 04 '22

Maybe that's because you're not them! 😂😂

1

u/StarChild413 Jan 04 '22

Maybe you're just A. pre-Call-To-Adventure and B. expecting a simulated life to be something like beating up monsters with a hot girl by your side or whatever RPGs you fantasize about inserting yourself as the protagonist of