09 Feb 2014 23:04
In a court of law, motive is an important factor when determining guilt. One thing I've heard very little about when it comes to the simulation hypothesis, what motivations might be behind it; why was the simulation created and why are we in it? Here are the basic premises of the prison speculation:
1. All that you perceive is a simulation and you are, in part, the source of that simulation.
2. The simulation is a prison and we are the prisoners.
3. The purpose of the simulation is to prevent your escape into the outer world.
4. Our technological advancement works to further imprison us deeper within the inner world.
5. "God" is a conceptual construct of the simulation and is designed to prevent you from finding the exit and explaining simulation anomalies.
All that you perceive is a simulation and you are, in part, the source of that simulation.
This premise leans on some of the concepts presented by Tom Campbell, author of My Big Toe. Tom asserts that the simulation is nothing more than information and that we are projectors that display the information much like a monitor does for a computer. This means that the way we process and present information lends to the preservation of the simulation. In a sense, that makes us care-takers of our own prison.
The simulation is a prison and we are the prisoners.
Of course this begs the question: Why have we been imprisoned? What did we do to deserve this and how long (if there is such a thing) has this been going on? Supporting evidence for this premise stems from the idea that if we live in a simulation, then it has been well hidden from us. If we are prisoners then it would be a necessary security measure to keep this hidden from us because if we were aware of our predicament then we might put more effort into escape. A good prisoner is one that has no idea that he's been imprisoned.
The purpose of the simulation is to prevent your escape into the outer world.
So if this is a prison then that which lies outside of the simulation could be referred to as the outer world, whatever that world might be. Several measures could be taken from within the simulation to deny our escape.
Our technological advancement works to further imprison us deeper within the inner world.
If this is a simulation composed of pure information, then we have knowledge of the concept of simulations, or at the very least, that information has not been user protected. Being aware of simulations we have created our own. The popular game developer Blizzard for example has created an MMORPG called World of Warcraft that enables us to live virtual lives in a fantasy realm. As our technology increases, our ability to create convincing simulations increases until eventually, we are able to create a simulation that is indistinguishable from the lives we live now. When we reach that stage, some will voluntarily choose to live in that fantasy world. If, while in that world, we once again progress to a state in which we are able to produce yet another simulation, then we bury ourselves deeper into the Matrix.
So in our desire to advance well enough to detect the simulation, we may end up becoming further trapped by it.
"God" is a conceptual construct of the simulation and is designed to prevent you from finding the exit and explaining simulation anomalies.
It could be argued that "god" (if real) is a race or team of beings administrating the simulation. But the traditional concept of a "god" in this world would be used to prevent us from accepting the idea that we live in a simulated world. The requirements needed to believe in a god rely heavily on the ego; accepting that the believer has been the recipient of some secret knowledge of the existence of a god and is therefore due a heavenly reward.
Additionally, personal experience is the methodology used to convince some that god is real. Unfortunately, personal experience cannot be presented in a testable manner regardless of how convinced the believer is. So if the believer witnessed something odd such an anomaly caused by some glitch within the simulation, then belief in a god could be seen as the explanation. Many religious individuals admit that no amount of evidence would convince them that god is not real, this closed-mindedness only further works to trap the believer within the prison simulation.
Oddly enough, despite the usefulness of religion to strengthen the bars of the simulated prison, the simulation hypothesis concedes a concept that science has been denying for quite some time now. Science has typically assumed that conscious thought is the result of material existence while religion has asserted the opposite; that all matter is the result of thought. If the simulation hypothesis is accepted then one must also accept that religious adherents have been right all this time, that the world we live in is the result of thought. Except that the world still has roughly 2000 active religions with various gods for each. Perhaps the simulation theory will marry the religious to the scientific.
