Get me out then.

I don't disagree; I've had the same thought myself -- my life might be a mobile phone game played by some kid on his way to school in a more advanced civilization.

Conversely, if the multiverse hypothesis is correct, then there are unimaginable numbers of parallel universes, many containing different versions of me.

But whatever it is, it's not going to change how I'm going about my life, as it's virtually certain I'll spend my life in ignorance of it.

Does God exist?
Does it matter?

I like the Douglas Adams explanation that the population of the universe is exactly zero and anyone you happen to meet is a figment of your deranged imagination.

of the stoner gibberish of Donald Sutherland's character in "Animal House".
Don't get me wrong, it's great fun and makes your head tingle but i feel it can distract from the real issues in this world/hologram/robot's dream/chicken curry.
No real original ideas either, just sifted through modern technology.
When i was young i thought everyone turned into a monster/alien when i looked round. No one offered me a book deal or a guest slot on "Thinking Allowed".
Probably because they were monsters, right??

Light entertainment for the heavy duty.

ergo sum.

believing I am part of some Truman Show type existence. Nothing would surprise me because none of it makes any sense in my tiny mind, I've given up caring where we came from as I can barely cope with where we are.

he should be on telly more. He has a lot of striking ideas. Quite a few seem barmy, but aren't...

His virtual reality idea has been taken further by others. The argument goes why bother with processor time on constructing a whole world of sims when you could produce one individual sim who thinks they are interacting with the world.....so maybe I am the ONLY full construct in this game and you are just here to keep me from noticing The Man Behind The Curtain....or maybe not, eh?

There is a strong tendency to explain things in terms of computers. Just because we humans invented them, and they are ace, we have a tendency to project our own 'little god' persona onto everything we also think is ace. The number of times I have heard the human brain explained in terms of a computer just staggers me. It's completely wrong.

Nevertheless it is an interesting 'koan' I suppose.

I’m not speaking from any sort of qualified perspective but...
1) Simple probability theory is a red herring. Just because one thing is likely, does not mean something else isn’t likely too. I get this all the time in my other life: I read analyses that say “There’s a 70% likelihood that “x” will happen” which sounds likely; but then they say “ah, but there’s also a 65% likelihood that a quite different “y” will happen, and a 40% probability that ‘z’ will happen. Simple probability doesn’t sit very well with my brain. So yes, this might be likely; but it’s also equally likely we are all fish, something very nasty will happen somewhere in the world today (let’s hope it doesn’t), that I am Danny Baker etc etc. Which leads me onto
2) Many years ago a dearly loved, hugely intelligent friend of mine had a very troubled time in his teens wrapping himself round with this kind of stuff. I feel the author is trying to make a point, allowing the publicity machine to roll unchecked, and not overtly taking responsibility for the people making ‘misfiring compliments’ (his words on the front page of his site)

Usual waivers apply: I could be wrong, I’ve only had a quick look at the site, a quick look at the article, I know nothing...

runs the Matrix anyway ?

Shouldn't we just ask him ...

I take the opposite interpretation of the original article - not that we must now be in a simulation, but that such simulations are not possible. This from the very final sentence:

"Unless we are now living in a simulation, our descendants will almost certainly never run an ancestor-simulation"

It's similar to the argument for the impossibility of time-travel: if it were possible, then our descendants would be travelling back to tell us about it.

Yes.

Does it matter whether life is real or a computer game or an abstract concept or anything else if I'm happy?

No.

(Is this a rather selfish approach? Yes, but I can't cure cancer or solve global poverty and I'm trying to lead a decent life.)

believes the world revolves around them.

How did you get from a mildly diverting intellectual theory to 'We do not actually exist: Official'?

Many scientists today believe our universe is a computer programme. Many more believe every possibility opens a new universe. There is a range of views in the Deterministic school and at the hardcore end some of our finest minds will tell you that the thing you call 'free will' is an illusion. But none of these hypotheses are really scientific being neither testable nor capable of being disproved. And irrespective of which, if any, is correct the next time you stub your toe it will hurt as much as it ever did.
Using the computer as a paradigm in these times is inevitable. Newton's universe was like a clockwork mechanism that a God had set working and the laws of thermodynamics were a product of the steam age. But a lot of ground is being gained by thinking of things as fundamentally information. You can consider the DNA molecule as a gloop of organic gunge or as an information storage system. Superposition (the cat's neither alive or dead until you check) can be seen as reality being created by the unlocking of information.
And then there is (cough) "The Code" - the extent to which mathematical laws describe and govern the reality in which we live. This fact alone is a powerful reinforcement of the notion that we are just an app on some cosmic kid's iphone. (Incidentally, not only do the laws of physics work irrespective of the direction of time, but if time stopped everywhere in the universe and was restarted the next morning - in cosmic kid time - we would not notice as the physical universe would be unchanged and there would be no possibility of finding evidence that this had happened). As with Determinism there is a whole spectrum of opinion on the place of maths. At one end are those who believe it is just a tool created by humans while way down the other end are those who believe maths exists independently of the universe and, in fact, the universe couldn't have come into being had maths not already been there. (And any 'omnipotent' creator would be a slave to its laws when designing the universe).
Good for you if you're happy without all of this hoopla but it's this kind of headfuckery that perks me up of a rainy afternoon...

And the software. And who is running the thing and why?

we should be be profoundly dismayed that our technologically-advanced decendants have such a monumentally piss-poor grasp of ethics. This profound dismay will inevitably snowball as people gradually come to understand the implications of the simulations such that by the time we are technologically capable, our extremely advanced and universally-adopted ethical standards will prevent us from ever implementing them.

Sorted.

Who wants a pint?

If our existence is merely a reflection of the Book of Jobs, is the counter-personality Bill Gates of Hell? We should be wary of plucking the Apple from our iTree of iLife. Samsung in church will surely continue, even if all we have to look forward to is iReboot.

Try Ken MacLeod's The Restoration Game for a contemporary sci-fi take on whether or not we're all living in a big sim

to conceive of this dastardly set-up? Surely they'd make sure we could never come up with the idea ourselves?

CTRL+ALT+DELETE...

....the belief that we were created by a higher being out there (the subject of other previous threads).

as the great Lemmy nails that particular theory in his lucid and entertaining memoirs: "I mean, you teach people that the Messiah was the offspring of a vagabond's wife (who is a virgin) and a ghost? and this is a basis for a worldwide religion? I'm not so sure. I figured if Joseph believed that one he deserved to live in stables".

f...er that's controlling my life then. Some sloppy Chinese kid at a 24hr internet cafe in another dimension who keeps falling asleep on the job.

When you think about it 'reality' exists for a fraction of a second at a time - rthe past is gome ie when I started writing this message, never to return, the future merely a range of possibilities contingent on the consequences of my actions and those beyond my control ie that fat chinese kid asleep in the 'black hole' arcade.

It has been suggested - glances nervously from side to side, lowers voice - that our universe is simply a holographic image of some kind. In fact that theory is the only thing that makes sense of the 'black hole' enigma where 'nothing exists'...

I've actually suspected the simulation theory for a long time...pre-Matrix even. Maybe we're just some wort of mundane metafiction for superpowerful godlike beings that marvel at how ordinary our lives are...

If we are just a figment of someone's or something's imagination, how come we have free will? Or is that an illusion too? Bit troubling that, coz if we don't then why bother with anything at all...

I recall a long discussion I had with an old friend called Tony when, under the influence of certain things, we determined that we didn't exist.Imagine our surprise when there came a knock on the door and it was my Mum telling me to "Turn the music down, it's three o'clock in the morning. Hasn't he got a home to go to?"

any number of 'possible' situations, but theorizing doesn't translate into an actuality.

As for accepting the notion that 'we don't exist', the next logical step is to conclude our actions have no meaning. So, go ahead and do anything you want to anyone you want - you aren't actually harming a real person.

Any takers?