Do we live in a simulation?

[Percivale]

Confirmed! We Live in a Simulation
I am not at all convinced by this article that suggests our whole universe is a program on some kind of computer; it's two reasons for believing we are in a simulation are that the speed of light is a limit caused by the computer's processor speed, and that consciousness has no evolutionary purpose so it must exist for the benefit of the people watching or playing in the simulation.
To the latter point I say theism is another good explanation; indeed this simulation hypothesis is a kind of theism, probably polytheism or something like Hinduism. Doesn't Hinduism teach that the universe is Brahma's dream?
Our reality does seem to be designed to be as interesting as possible, with a lot of human happiness being sacrificed to make history more fun to observe. Since I believe in life after death and am basically universalist I think we'll all benefit from being able to look back on all the interesting history we've lived through.

 

[A_Thinker]

Confirmed! We Live in a Simulation
I am not at all convinced by this article that suggests our whole universe is a program on some kind of computer; it's two reasons for believing we are in a simulation are that the speed of light is a limit caused by the computer's processor speed, and that consciousness has no evolutionary purpose so it must exist for the benefit of the people watching or playing in the simulation.
To the latter point I say theism is another good explanation; indeed this simulation hypothesis is a kind of theism, probably polytheism or something like Hinduism. Doesn't Hinduism teach that the universe is Brahma's dream?
Our reality does seem to be designed to be as interesting as possible, with a lot of human happiness being sacrificed to make history more fun to observe. Since I believe in life after death and am basically universalist I think we'll all benefit from being able to look back on all the interesting history we've lived through.

Off the top of my head, it seems to me that creating a simulation of life ... would be much harder than creating life ...

 

[Hans Blaster]

I'll note that the article was published on April 1.

If the author is serious about this, I should note that those who propose such things (simulation universe) don't seem to be very well versed in actually simulating things with computational devices. If so, they'd probably not be so inclined to make such claims.

 

[Goonie]

April 1st. I almost fell for the guardian article about building a second Suez canal.

 

[Strathos]

I've always said that the simulation hypothesis is just a scientific - sounding version of the God hypothesis.