Questions tagged [simulated-universe]
It was Nick Bostrom who coined the "simulation hypothesis" but the concept of a simulated universe touches upon many related ideas: from Descartes' "evil genius" to Edgar Allan Poe's "Dream within a dream". Use this tag when manifest reality is contingent on the machination of a more "real" domain.
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Physicalists consider virtual reality generated in our brains a science. But is it? [closed]
What makes scientific facts about intelligent consciousness generated by our brains more prudent physics than virtual reality generated by supercomputers (Simulation Hypothesis)?
In my view, we ...
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Simulation hypothesis and solipsism
Is Nick Bostrom's simulation hypothesis a solipsistic idea? This hypothesis says that only I have consciousness, and all other people are unconscious philosophical zombies? Which version of the ...
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If we live in a simulated world, doesn't there have to be a first world that's real?
There are people who believe we live in a world, simulated on a computer. That computer must have been built in either another computer-generated world or a real world (by which I mean a non-simulated ...
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Can you switch off an infinite regress of simulations? [closed]
I don't know where I'm going with this
I know there are objections to throwing things out to the community.
If the world is an infinite regress of simulations. Ie a matroyska doll that our world ...
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How is the universe able to run physics so smoothly?
Motivated by the discussion on whether chemistry can be reduced to physics, I came across a similar thread on Reddit, where a user commented:
A lot of chemistry has been reduced to physics, in the ...
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Have claims of alien abduction or simulated/AI realities displaced 'miracle'? [closed]
Many religious adherents subscribe to miracles. It seems that miracle-like occurrences no longer suggest divine intervention; for instance advanced alien races may possess technologies beyond our ...
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Does this argument support the simulation hypothesis?
https://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy
Does this argument support the simulation hypothesis?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_hypothesis
Induction and argument by analogy is ...
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What is the strongest argument to debunk Bostrom’s Simulation Hypothesis? [closed]
Are we living in a computer simulation? Are we just a video game being
played by some snot-noised kid on Alpha Centauri? This idea, or family
of ideas, is known as The Simulation Hypothesis and it has ...
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The supposed "knockdown argument" for Simulation Theory -- what did I miss? (IF we can create simulations indistinguishable from reality...)
I have never read any extensive formulation of the argument; I've only listened to people (like Elon) lay it out in Youtube videos; so I don't know what it's called or how to lay it out with rigour; ...
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If numerous people 'believe' that someone/something guides them through life, does it make it legitimate for philosophical discussion? [closed]
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental
structure of reality, and how it influences life. It's often
considered to be more fundamental than other types of philosophical
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Would a sentient program have an afterlife when it has been deleted? [closed]
With the premise that what we experience is a base reality.
If we created a simulation inhabited with sentient programs.
Would we be responsible for that programs experience after it was deleted?
Or ...
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Can we know anything about the "outside", if we are in a simulation?
Please note this question isn't about "simulation" as such. It is cast in this way to illustrate a particular sub-to-super ontology relationship:
Given that all we see or seem, are the product of ...
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Does the teleological approach to philosophy of history build a foundation for simulation theory?
Christopher Lloyd puts forward four "general concepts of causation" used in history:
the "metaphysical idealist concept", which asserts that the phenomena of the universe are ...
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Why we are coded with the idea of religion and its concepts if we are living in a computer simulation? [closed]
We all know that Nick Bostrom's cliche argument in favor of Simulation Hypothesis.
I am wondering if my question can downgrade the Bostrom's hypothesis.
Lets assume that we are living in a computer ...
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Can simulation hypothesis be cracked by the problem of evil?
We all know that Nick Bostrom's cliche argument in favor of Simulation Hypothesis.
My question is very simple and I am wondering if it can crack the Bostrom's hypothesis.
Lets assume that we are ...
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Can’t we assume that the Boltzmann Brain scenario can be cognitively stable?
In the Boltzmann Brain scenario, we are all brains produced by random fluctuations within a high entropy universe. The argument which I had accepted before was that our very reasoning can not be ...
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Academic research on technical and philosophical possibilities of the world in a computer simulator?
This question is as mainstream as it gets in online publications.
But, does more serious and balanced academic research exist on this subject?
If your PhD student were writing an article on this ...
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Is it possible to simulate a reality like ours using other logic than classical logic?
Are there alternative logical systems that could serve as a foundation for simulating a reality similar to ours, given that non-classical logics such as paraconsistent logic, while applicable in ...
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Consciousness in Simulation theory & AI, why do some believe that it is even possible?
There are many famous philosophers that assume that "consciousness can be create by calculations in a computer". For example: Nick Bostrom with the simulation theory [I greatly respect and ...
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Does it make sense for an omniscient being to be able to give an answer about the universe without any internal processing?
It makes little sense to speculate about the mind of God. Anyway...
If God wants to know if it will snow today in Bergen, I would imagine that there are 2 approaches to 'solving' this question
God ...
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Deterministic simulation and Pascal's mugging
So the canonical description of Pascal's mugging involves simulation, and torment, of a large number of self-aware beings. What makes it even worse is that it involves a Turing machine doing the ...
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A terrifying variant of Boltzmann's brain
I am new to this forum even though I have read a lot on the subject of boltzmann's brains and have come to a terrifying conclusion, the classic argument which for example Sean Carroll used, "The ...
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Is it possible to simulate a world within a world?
I would argue that it is not possible to create a simulation of a world within a world.
I can only imagine that a simulation of our world could be done within a computer?
A computer has a finite ...
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If a person claims to know anything could it be disproven by saying 'prove that we are not in a simulation'?
Everyone starts out at 0 and if anyone wants to say that they know something they have to prove that claim. Is the counter to this person claiming that they know something logically correct?
Person 1:...
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How touch occurs in a simulation hypothesis or in a brain hypothesis in a vat?
The point is that it doesn't matter whether these hypothesis are correct or not. The only thing that worries me is how the touch happens if in the real world it is the interaction of atoms (in ...
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Does the simulation hypothesis bring back certain ideas long rejected by skeptics and typically associated with religious believes?
The following ideas have long been rejected by the scientific skeptical community as superstitious and incompatible with reason:
That the universe has been designed by intelligent being(s) - the so-...
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What is the likelihood that human civilization is just a petri dish to an alien race? [closed]
Not to confuse with simulation theory, but how possible is it that we (humans) were placed/created on Earth by aliens to create an observable simulation of civilization?
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How Do We Understand our Existence? [closed]
I apologize if I tag this post incorrectly as this is my very first post. I’m rather new to philosophical topics and I find myself constrained in a state of disassociation. How do I know I’m here?
I ...
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Is dying in a simulation ever sufficient for death, and if not does that make death inconceivable?
Is dying in a simulation -- any simulation at all -- ever physically sufficient to die at that instant outside it?
I mean a simulation like in the film the Matrix, or in a dream, one that kills your ...
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Logical/mathematical (non-physical) arguments against simulation hypothesis?
So the Simulation Hypothesis, from what I've heard, is not scientifically testable because it is not falsifiable, which makes perfect sense to me and is the viewpoint I have always adopted.
Yet ...
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What is the most probable AI?
then I have a difficult question to ask.
Let's imagine that in the distant future of our universe, through the arrangement of atoms that move in empty space, various objects are formed, any object can ...
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Which branch combines solipsism and monism?
Which branch of philosophy whole-heartedly accepts (and builds upon) that only self exists (solipsism) and the universe is the part/creation of self (monism) by eliminating the possibility of ...
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How to distinguish the species of „real“ persons from the species of simulated persons?
Today I learned from an academic talk given by Prof. Gilles Brassard (Montreal): In the context of artificial intelligence one discusses not only civilizations (level 1) which are simulated by ...
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What is the best scientific argumentation against the Dust Theory?
The "Dust Theory", by Greg Egan, states that...
... there is no difference, even in principle, between
physics and mathematics, and that all mathematically possible
structures exist, among ...
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How does the 'Brain in a Vat Argument' differ from the 'Simulation Argument'?
The brain in a bad vat argument states that we may be a brain plugged up to a supercomputer that simulates the external world by sending signals to the brain, just like the brain normally receives ...
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On the quantum mechanical nature of time flow
I am going to write below some ideas that I have been playing with lately. I am writing this question to ask for (1) your opinions and insights, specially comments on where my logic/intuition may be ...
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Simulation argument and compressibility
Short version:
Has anyone tried arguing against Bostrom's argument's final postulate from the compressibility viewpoint?
Long version:
As per Nick Bostrom's simulation argument if people can make ...
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How is a computed existence different from a non-computed existence?
How is a computed existence different from a non-computed existence? Because some theorize our world is a simulation, it implies the existence of computed existences and non-computed existence. Did ...
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What actually is a simulation philosophically?
Everyone has heard of the idea that the universe might be a simulation - which we understand to mean that there is some computer in the "base" universe, which is running a program that is ...
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Where is it that I go when I dream?
This is a question that I had posed regarding the nature of mental images described by patients who suffer from Charles Bonnet Syndrome here:
What is the nature of the mental images that are perceived ...
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Intuitive reasoning on the nature of time
I claim that the measurement of time is the measurement of change if the following holds:
Our universe is (or can be represented as) a simulation, namely a set of data operated on by an algorithm. ...
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Simulation Hypothesis - trivial objection - what is the response?
There's a very simple objection to the simulation hypothesis that I came up with, and I've read others come up with this same idea. So I assume it's something philosophers should already be aware of.
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Is this argument for simulated reality really valid?
I was skimming through the wikipedia article on the simulation hypothesis and saw the following argument by Elon Musk:
If you assume any rate of improvement at all, games will eventually be
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What is the best way to model reality if it is a simulation?
Erwin Schrödinger proposed the quantum mechanical model of the atom, which treats electrons as matter waves.
So...
Quantum mechanics is a model, but it was not created on the assumption that the ...
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Are we living in a simulation? The evidence
I am not questioning whether the simulation topic is outside science. I am asking what evidence there is or could be to resolve whether we are or not.
Living in a simulation has been a topic for ...
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Can the simulation theory be a scientifically-sound proof that God exists?
The way I understand it, it says that the probability of God not existing is like 1 / infinity.
I wonder if there are any flaws in the logic below that I don't see.
A possible interpretation can go ...
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What does it mean for the universe to be a simulation?
Amongst philosophers in general... what exactly is meant by the universe or reality itself being a simulation?
Simulation is fairly clear to me, when works "within" the assumptions of the ...
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A concept which "shows" why are we limited by speed of light?
These are my thoughts about the above:
So, lets say at a given time t, I am in a room, and it has a state, which describes all the info about that state. Assume for simplicity that the room and its ...
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Can it be shown that video games have in some way impacted philosophy or vice versa?
Video games are a quite recent invention and they became popular far after being invented, maybe by the 90s. However, I think video games somehow affected my worldview and produced some ideas. I will ...
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What is the current state of the Philosophy of Video Games?
Since there is philosophy of literature and philosophy of film I was wondering if someone could describe the current state of the philosophy of video games since there doesn't seem to be any articles ...
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