kinvoya wrote:I just discovered this thread and I have now the curiosity. What if it were somehow proven that our "lives" are indeed a simulation? How would that change things for you? Would life, love, religion, science, etc. hold more or less mystery? Would you despair or rejoice (or deny)? Would life become cheap (as in Cantr) and death and/or murder lose it's impact?
What if you were the one who discovered the secret? Would you tell other people? Would they believe you? What if someone you knew and respected told you life was a simulation? What would it take for you to believe them? How meta does that make Jos? Maybe he created the ulta-program that runs our lives. That would be just like him. Maybe we're made out of legos!!!!!!!!!
I have no answers myself right now but I think this would make an interesting novel. Maybe (probably) it's already been written. Was the Matrix a conspiracy meant to throw us off the tracks by fictualizing a reality? Do I like to ask questions? You bet!
I just saw that this is explored on a TV program tonight called Science Investigators: "the potential use of bacteria in electronic devices." What if we are bactieria? It would give us a physical body in which to exist and be acted upon by the computer program/chemicals/whatever. It's unlikely that our experiences would just exist in a void and easier to manage than a brain in a vat. We multiply by dividing! = A song sung by bacteria in an old, old cartoon.
If some great evidence turned up that we're living in a simulation, I'd be skeptical that the world in which we really live is really the
real world. There could always be another simulation on top of that. Recursive simulations. Embedded simulations. I'd be especially skeptical if the "first layer" discovered turned out to be something mundane, like e.g., my life has been a game, and the year is really 2020, and Los Angeles has solved all it's traffic problems. I'd be skeptical. But I'd still want to tell people. So, don't worry. You can count on me! If I find out anything, just ask, and I'll let you know.
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