Do we live in a simulation?
- Filed under
- Tech
- Type
- Background entry
- Sources
- 11
Image: academic.oup.com
The simulation hypothesis: advanced posthuman civilizations could be running vast conscious ancestor-simulations.
Summary
The evidence does not establish that reality is simulated. Mainstream scientific caution focuses on the hypothesis’s dependence on speculative premises and the absence of a confirmed empirical test. Analyses also question whether a civilization could simulate the information content and conscious observers required, especially recursively. The argument is best treated as a philosophical conditional rather than an observation-based discovery.
- EvidenceNo confirmed measurement currently distinguishes a simulated universe from a non-simulated one.
- ProbabilityNumerical estimates are highly sensitive to assumptions and should not be treated as observations.
- Bostrom’s argument does not identify which of its three alternatives is true, so it does not by itself show that we live in a simulation.
- A 2021 analysis argues that reasonable assumptions produce lower probabilities than earlier literature reported, particularly when simulations are recursive.
- Some scientific commentary concludes that the hypothesis currently lacks an objective way to be tested and may never be knowable.
Source mix
5 of 11 institutional
- 5 Journals & institutions
- 1 Early research (not yet peer-reviewed)
- 4 News reporting
- 1 Reference & archives
Deeper Insight
If anyone ever runs ancestor simulations at scale, the odds say you're one of the copies, not the original.
The philosopher Bostrom's argument fits on a napkin. Either civilizations die before they can build worlds, or they lose interest, or they build lots of them. If they build lots, simulated minds outnumber real ones, and you should bet on being simulated. The comfort is that a good simulation keeps your life true and meaningful. The itch is that physicists are already hunting for its signature.
- What it could changeA confirmed signature in physics would turn the oldest question about reality into an engineering problem: who runs it, and why?
- How it touches todayEvery leap in our own simulated worlds makes the argument's first step look less like science fiction.
- Our futureWe may end up building the very kind of world that would make us the copies.
- If posthuman civilizations create many conscious ancestor-simulations, the simulated population could vastly exceed the population of base reality.
- The simulation argument is conditional: it points toward simulation only if extinction and disinterest in simulations are sufficiently unlikely.
- A perfect simulation need not make most ordinary beliefs false; simulated life could remain broadly good and epistemically coherent.
Sources · 11
- 5 Journals & institutions
- 1 Early research (not yet peer-reviewed)
- 4 News reporting
- 1 Reference & archives
What do these mean?
- Journals & institutions. Published in a peer-reviewed journal, or from a university, government body, court or other institution.
- Early research (not yet peer-reviewed). A research paper posted publicly before independent experts have reviewed it (a preprint). Real researchers, but not yet checked.
- News reporting. Journalism: newspapers, magazines and news sites.
- Reference & archives. Encyclopedias and web archives: a place to look something up or a stored copy, not an original source.
Featured · Primary source · arxiv.org
Do we live in a [quantum] simulation? Constraints, observations, and experiments on the simulation hypothesis
Early research · not yet reviewed
# Do we live in a [quantum] simulation? Constraints, observations, and experiments on the simulation hypothesis Published: 2022-12-07. ## Abstract The question "What is real?" can be traced back to the shadows in Plato's cave. Two thousand years later, Rene Descartes lacked knowledge about arguing a
Read sourceAnalysis · academic.oup.com
Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? | The Philosophical Quarterly | Oxford Academic
Journal · peer-reviewed
Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? | The Philosophical Quarterly | Oxford Academic ## Article Contents - Abstract # Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? Nick Bostrom Nick Bostrom Oxford University Google Scholar Published: 28 April 2003 ## Abstract I argue that at least one of the following
Read sourceAnalysis · oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk
The Simulation Argument: some explanations | Oxford Martin School
Institution
The Simulation Argument: some explanations | Oxford Martin School ### The Simulation Argument: some explanations 14 June 2009 ##### Nick Bostrom Analysis (2009) DOI: 10.1093/analys/anp063 View Journal Article / Working Paper Anthony Brueckner, in a recent article, proffers ‘a new way of thinking abo
Read source