Higher Connections

So the question on everyone’s lips—their chapped lips (Groundhog Day, anyone?)—is: Are we living in a simulation? It’s a question more and more people are asking. Some of the smartest people in the world—Elon Musk, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and philosopher Nick Bostrom, to name a few104—have stated on the record that we might be or likely are. But what does that even mean?

The theory that we are living in a simulation is mind-numbing. If true, it makes all the decisions we make in life moot and pointless. Who cares if I get fired or lose money or cheat on someone? It’s all a game, anyway, so I might as well enjoy life as much as possible!

I’m not going to try to conclude whether we are living in a simulation or not, because there is no way to prove it. Maybe someday we’ll be able to scientifically prove whether we are or not, but that day is not today.

But for now, we can ask ourselves several questions:

1. What would living in a simulation actually mean?
2. Am I living in in my own simulation, in which everything around me is just for me—like my own little made-up world?
3. Is everyone I know part of my simulation, or are they sharing it with me? Are we all just being watched together to see how our lives turn out collectively?
4. Do other simulations exist for other people? If so, will I ever be able to see what those are like? Maybe other people get a simulation like Avatar or Star Wars, with some human and some alien beings. If that is the case, I would like to ask my simulators for a trade please.