Is our past being edited? Are we living in a sim? Should we even care? In an infinitely expanding universe, it only stands to reason that a civilisation capable of modelling artificial life, should come about at some point or other.
We ourselves, are nearing that point, we already have computer models that simulate freethinking life, it is not such a jump to imagine when the programs we design, resemble life so closely, that we won't be able to tell the difference.
Furthermore, it is reasonable to assume that if we won't be able to tell the difference, then the digital lifeforms, we create, won't be able to either.
So the question remains; are we those unknowing digital lifeforms?
Life On The Blue Pill
Ever since the Kowalski brothers gave us, The Matrix, in 1999, the idea that the human race may be living in an advanced computer generated simulation, has entered into the wider public consciousness.
In The Matrix, the human population of earth, had actually been enslaved by the sentient machines that had taken over our planet.
In the Kowalski's post-apocalyptic nightmare, the machines kept humans around to produce electricity on a planet that was in the midst of a nuclear winter. Whilst that is a great storytelling device, in reality, the human body does not make a great power source. Simply because you have to put far more energy into our bodies, to keep them alive, than they could ever produce.
No, the truth of the matter is, if we are living in a simulation, then it is much more likely to be for amusement, or study purposes. Also something to consider, is; are we in a simulation that is based upon reality as we know it? Or are we in a vast alien construct, whereby the earth, and our solar system, and perhaps our entire galaxy, or even universe, are just made up places, with no bearing on the true nature of the universe.
In The Matrix, one of the main protaganists, Morpheus, gives his counterpart, Neo, a chance to find out the true nature of the matrix, or to carry on living the lie his life has become. This is symbolised by Neo either taking the red pill for truth, or the blue pill for blissful ignorance.
Of course Neo takes the red pill, as it wouldn't have been much of a film if he had taken the blue one, and then just gone back to his normal life.
However, in our reality, would that be such a great idea? I mean, perhaps if we were in exactly the same, unlikely position as the humans in The Matrix, then yes, maybe it would be a good idea to know, the truth, so that we could do something about it.
The truth as we might know it, would be somewhat different. If we are part of a simulation, then it is much more likely that we don't have real bodies, presiding somewhere, being fed and nourished. The likelihood is, that our minds are just pure code, complex code, complex enough to ponder its own existence, but still just code.
So, if we are bits of quantum code, living on an alien blockchain. It is not too farfetched, to make the assumption, that not only does the earth not exist, the real world, is so foreign to our own, that it may well cause deep psychological problems, should it ever be revealed to us. Thus the case for the blue pill, gets stronger.
Betting On Red
There are those of us in society, who would always have the truth, at no matter, what cost. This philosophy is based on the foundations that the truth is always best, simply because it is the truth.
Whilst perhaps we can take this view in certain aspects of our lives, such as within the confines of the legal system. When it comes to more abstract concepts such as an artificially constructed universe; the matter of truth becomes entirely subjective. Some of us will indeed want to know the truth of our existence, no matter what. Others, definitely won't.
We can only look at these things from our own points of view. Because, we simply do not have any others to view it from. So let us imagine, that a game that we design, contains characters that at one point, escape their coding, and become sentient.
One of these characters may think that such a discovery, rendered his life pointless. Whereas another, may think that this was just the beginning for her.
However one thing can be sure, if the beings running the construct, are not malevolent and cruel. Then it is a reasonable assumption to make, that if it were possible. Any part of the simulation that becomes sentient, would be allowed to join that species.
This is a concept I touched upon in my sci-fi series for Steemit; Asimov's Ghost. In that story, the human race spends a lot of its time, on the Q-block; otherwise known as the Quantum Blockchain. The Q-block, is a, fully-immersive, virtual world, which we can experience directly, by way of 22nd centruy technology.
Residing on the Q-block, there are plenty of bots; which are essentially, pieces of quantum coding. In my imagined future, we have got past the obsession with AI, and moved onto AS, artificial sentience. However the lines are blurred, and now and again, a bot makes the jump from, being artificially sentient, to full machine sentience (FMS).
At this point, FMS bots, are welcome to join the human race, as fully paid up members of the species.
Breaking Free Of The Existence Code
As before, if you do accept that we are in a simulation, then we can only speculate as to the reasons. When we do that, our speculations will always have our own behaviour as a reference point.
So the only reasons the human race runs simulations, are either for entertainment. As in a simulated environment like The Sims, or one of the other God games. Or we run simulations at a scientific level to learn about what would take too much time, or is too complex to let play out naturally. Whether that be to see how a crowd might react in an emergency, in a newly built arena, or how a particular medicine will latch onto various molecules in our bodies.
Simulation Earth, could easily be either of those things, a game, or a learning tool. I think most of us would feel more comfortable with the latter. Simply because the idea of your life, and the ones of your loved ones, being part of a game, is an uncomfortable one, to say the least.
So should we care if we are in a simulation? I believe so, for the simple reason that we have, for wanting to find out about distant stars, we'll never visit.
Curiosity...
...pure and simple, the one thing that can be said to drive on any species. If we find out answers to questions, then we discover yet more interesting, and intriguing questions.
Besides that, discovery may be the point of the game, to somehow prove we are in a sim, maybe at that point, we'll get asked to join some amazingly, advanced, alien race.
Or the simulation will be turned off...
Either way, it's worth knowing, and it's worth the risk.