I think the hypothesis that we are living in a computer "system" as opposed to a "simulation" is more plausible. In the Occam's razor sense. Similar to a computer we're all wired together in some great interconnected economy - there is nearly nowhere on earth now that you can't be instantly contactable if you want to be. The Internet joins us all together, with our phones, laptops and TVs as NICs for our consciousness. I don't think its far fetched to think that some global consciousness is emerging - in fact a few different consciousness - that are now vying for supremacy.
Some want to eat the whole cake, others just want to be left alone. Some for integration, others for separation. The fact that all these "weird" things are all happening could well be linked at some systemic level that will maybe be obvious to future historians. Like how we theorize that ocean going vessels enabled the days of colonialism or the development of fossil fuels led to the industrial revolution. The discovery of semiconductor material made the IT revolution possible.
What we could very well be experiencing now is some kind of singular behaviour due to the development of these new globally linked consciences - that are elbowing for space, and resources - annoying each other and squabbling in the process. Of course to us it looks like bizarre behaviour but perhaps no more bizarre than the random bits and bytes flying through a link appear to something like a network switch (had it the sense to ponder itself).
When I run too many programs on my computer weird things start to happen. Ghosts appear on my screen, leaving a trailing residue. The screen blanks. Sometimes the mouse pointer won't respond and a strange chugging starts to come from the box under my monitor. It's not so far fetched to expect that a tightly integrated system such as the modern global economy might exhibit other equally frustrating and odd (though explainable) phenomena when put under stress.
Just as you were writing this, my WinBook Pro [1] locked up solid, for the first time ever. And it happened while I was cropping a photo of myself and blew it up on the second display. I think the self-referentiality of this was too much for the poor thing to bear.
After a hard reset, Windows 10 gave its very first BSOD. I knew it must be bad memory, a failing SSD, or corrupted software.
But one more boot and the machine is humming along as if nothing ever happened. A disk check shows no errors.
Truly, something strange is in the air.
I quickly made a backup, of course. I just hope the backup drive is in a different universe, because I'm not sure how much I trust this one any more.
[1] A WinBook Pro is a MacBook Pro running Windows 10 under Boot Camp, with one of these stickers on the back of the display to make it official:
tldr: what if we assume independent events are connected, then it must be computers, because they are connected too and bugs can explain low probabilistic events happening (seemingly more frequently). Betteridge's law applies.
If you're interested in simulation theories, I recommend reading "The Simulation Argument" by Nick Bostrom [0] or watching his interview on Youtube [1].
An interesting take on this is in the Culture series from Iain M. Banks. The AI minds, who for all intents run the Culture civilisation, constantly spawn virtual universes to test hypothesises.
Some shut them down after running the sim, some feel morally obliged to keep them running...
Also, if someone's suddenly jerking the strings in a game, it usually means they're bored and it's only a matter of time before they press one of the "godzilla invades", "aliens attack", "mass-tornados" buttons.
Urgh... There goes 5 minutes of my life that I'm never getting back. Seriously, don't bother reading this, as it's a whole lot of nonsense. To boil it down:
- Unexpected things are happening, like Trump being elected president and some long-odds movie winning an Oscar.
- If we are living in a simulation, this behaviour is easily explained as some kind of glitch.
- Therefore, we are living in a simulation.
Betteridge's law of headlines applies here: "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no."
Thanks for saving us the click. Sounds like a whole lot of obliviousness if serious (did Borowitz write the article?), almost as if they could have unironically included 'our readership has declined' and/or 'our authorial quality has reached an all-time low' among their examples.
Didn't know that I was already warned about political comments. But why on earth is political comments not allowed, when political submissions (Such as OP) clearly are?
Isn't this called bigotry? If I called nazis or conservatives "bat shit insane" would you ban me for that too?
But alas, I'll refrain from using inflamatory terms such as 'batshit insane' in the future. I'd just like to know wether ANY political substance is banned on HN, or if its just a certain political view you wish to hinder...
It's not about political views. You need to be civil, which includes not being inflammatory, not calling names, and generally respecting others; and you can't use HN primarily for political or ideological arguments.
It's an interesting narrative. But isn't it more likely that normalcy and predictability that we are so used to for the past few decades is the actual illusion? World is inherently chaotic and unpredictable. On top of that, human history does go through tumultuous periods where established systems are uppended.
21 comments
[ 4.2 ms ] story [ 61.3 ms ] threadSome want to eat the whole cake, others just want to be left alone. Some for integration, others for separation. The fact that all these "weird" things are all happening could well be linked at some systemic level that will maybe be obvious to future historians. Like how we theorize that ocean going vessels enabled the days of colonialism or the development of fossil fuels led to the industrial revolution. The discovery of semiconductor material made the IT revolution possible.
What we could very well be experiencing now is some kind of singular behaviour due to the development of these new globally linked consciences - that are elbowing for space, and resources - annoying each other and squabbling in the process. Of course to us it looks like bizarre behaviour but perhaps no more bizarre than the random bits and bytes flying through a link appear to something like a network switch (had it the sense to ponder itself).
When I run too many programs on my computer weird things start to happen. Ghosts appear on my screen, leaving a trailing residue. The screen blanks. Sometimes the mouse pointer won't respond and a strange chugging starts to come from the box under my monitor. It's not so far fetched to expect that a tightly integrated system such as the modern global economy might exhibit other equally frustrating and odd (though explainable) phenomena when put under stress.
After a hard reset, Windows 10 gave its very first BSOD. I knew it must be bad memory, a failing SSD, or corrupted software.
But one more boot and the machine is humming along as if nothing ever happened. A disk check shows no errors.
Truly, something strange is in the air.
I quickly made a backup, of course. I just hope the backup drive is in a different universe, because I'm not sure how much I trust this one any more.
[1] A WinBook Pro is a MacBook Pro running Windows 10 under Boot Camp, with one of these stickers on the back of the display to make it official:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014I1ICX8/
[0] http://www.simulation-argument.com/
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnl6nY8YKHs
Some shut them down after running the sim, some feel morally obliged to keep them running...
Also, if someone's suddenly jerking the strings in a game, it usually means they're bored and it's only a matter of time before they press one of the "godzilla invades", "aliens attack", "mass-tornados" buttons.
Just curious, you have experience with knowingly running in a virtual universe?
- Unexpected things are happening, like Trump being elected president and some long-odds movie winning an Oscar.
- If we are living in a simulation, this behaviour is easily explained as some kind of glitch.
- Therefore, we are living in a simulation.
Betteridge's law of headlines applies here: "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no."
!!
Did you real the headline before reading it. It was exactly what it makes out to be :)
Im actually beginning to suspect that american liberals are batshit insane.
You've been posting many inflammatory political/ideological comments. We've already asked you not to do this. If you keep doing it, we will ban you.
Also, please don't make it look like you're quoting someone when you're not actually quoting them.
Isn't this called bigotry? If I called nazis or conservatives "bat shit insane" would you ban me for that too?
Here is at least 100 instances of users calling conservatives insane, without you comming for them with your pitchfork or ban hammer: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=insane%20conservatives&sort=by...
But alas, I'll refrain from using inflamatory terms such as 'batshit insane' in the future. I'd just like to know wether ANY political substance is banned on HN, or if its just a certain political view you wish to hinder...
Btw that link doesn't at all demonstrate what you claim, and the recent cases are even clearer: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=insane%20conservatives&sort=by....