Cosmic Musings – Are we living in a simulation?

Are we living in a simulation? The idea is not a new one. It’s been a sci-fi staple for years. But more and more scientists are taking it seriously. This is an attempt to understand the implications of this question.

Show Notes

1. Are You Living In A Computer Simulation?, by Nick Bostrom: https://www.simulation-argument.com/simulation.html

2. Are You In A Simulation?, Vsauce3: https://youtu.be/3d9i_0Ty7Cg

3. Is Reality Real? The Simulation Argument, Kurzgesagt — In a Nutshell: https://youtu.be/tlTKTTt47WE

More Show Notes

After this episode was published, our friend Nisansa de Silva kindly pointed out a series of interesting considerations we had missed. They are linked below for further reference.

You can find Nisansa’s lengthy thread on Twitter here. Below is a list of all the external sources he had cited.

On The Matrix:

1. Was executive meddling the cause of “humans as batteries” in The Matrix?, StackExchange: https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/19817/was-executive-meddling-the-cause-of-humans-as-batteries-in-the-matrix

On the “non-interaction by the creator”:

1. Prime Directive (Star Trek), Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Directive

2. Dynasties: should nature documentary crews save the animals they film?, The Convesation: http://theconversation.com/dynasties-should-nature-documentary-crews-save-the-animals-they-film-107539

3. Outraged BBC viewers: ‘Why didn’t you save baby elephant?’, The South African: https://www.thesouthafrican.com/outraged-bbc-viewers-why-didnt-you-save-baby-elephant/

On the ethics of allowing conscious beings to suffer:

1. Isu, Assassin’s Creed Wiki: https://assassinscreed.fandom.com/wiki/Isu

On the possibility of modeling an entire universe:

1. Turing Machine, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_machine

2. On creating a Turing Machine that runs on itself, Stanford University lecture notes: https://web.stanford.edu/class/archive/cs/cs103/cs103.1132/lectures/21/Small21.pdf

On personal realities

1. මගේ ලෝකය (Mage Lokaya, translation: My Own World), by Nalin de Silva: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22728192