Quote from: Moloch on October 26, 2018, 01:08:16 PM

Quote from: af_newbie on October 25, 2018, 02:15:29 PM

Quote from: Moloch on October 25, 2018, 01:00:52 PM

Quote from: af_newbie on October 25, 2018, 12:40:04 PM

As for the simulation argument, well, we cannot say for sure as there are many things in the quantum world that are just plain weird. Impossible to represent on the computer. Then you have to deal with singularities that have been predicted to exist by math.

A computer only needs to compute things that are being observed... this has been known in video games since, forever

There is no reason for a video game to computer individual atoms, nor is there a reason for a simulation to compute individual atoms

We can already create virtual reality that is almost indistinguishable from actual reality, and we've only been using computers for ~40 years... how hard would it be to distinguish virtual reality from actual reality in another 100 years, or 1,000,000 years? How much more complex will the simulations be in a million years?

What would even be the point of traveling 1000 light years to another planet, when we can simulate it right here? (probably why we've never been visited by aliens)

What physical evidence do you have that we are in a simulation?

There is no physical evidence... it is a thought experiment, like Schrödinger's Cat:

If, in the future, virtual reality simulations will be indistinguishable from actual reality... how can we know that it hasn't already happened, and we aren't already living inside a simulation?

According to the theory, there is only 1 original universe, and infinitely many simulations... so the odds are 1 out of infinity that we are in the original universe... which means the odds of us living in a simulation are (infinity minus 1) out of infinity

I'm not a math surgeon, but I'd say the odds are quite high that we are already in a simulation; infinitesimally close to 100%

Also see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_reality
"A version of the simulation hypothesis was first theorised as a part of a philosophical argument on the part of René Descartes" (400 years ago, long before computers)

It is wishful thinking, IMHO. Just like religion. Let's stick with reality, shall we?

The simulation argument is invalidated by the fact that the fundamental equations of the laws of nature do not have closed-form solutions.

The Standard Model cannot be simulated. Look up the NielsenNinomiya theorem.

This is what we know today.

Is it possible that we are in a simulation? Yes, but the chances of it being so are pretty much close to zero.