Your Virtual Reality
You are not going to like this, however the itâs likely that uncomfortable high that your physical reality isn't physical at all, but virtual. Basically, you don't exist with the substance and structure you think you exhibit. Even though you might play various simulation or video games, you in turn are being played, or at the very least programmed, by persons or things unknown. So here is You can find out more , otherwise known as the Simulated (Virtual Reality) Universe scenario, in review.
Premise: There exists technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilizations (the precise number is of no consequence) and/or our descendants qualify as having constructed an advanced terrestrial civilization, way in advance of that in the early 21st Century.
Premise: Such civilizations, ours or theirs, not merely possess advanced technology, but have and do experience exponential grown in those and ever newer technologies.
Premise: Such civilizations do not become extinct.
Premise: Such civilizations construct and run simulations, in the same way we in the first 21st Century do. The reasons are numerous. There are simulations for research purposes, fun and profit, educational training, etc.
Premise: There are vastly more simulated worlds and beings than you can find real worlds and beings if our own here and today is anything to put into practice given the ever proliferation of video games, etc.
Premise: Consciousness or awareness can be simulated. Consciousness or awareness is what you are, but you are simply information, a code, an alphabet constructed out of letters that form words that form sentences that form paragraphs that form chapters that ultimately form you - you're a book in human form. You can reduce any life form right down to its genetic code - information. Information can be coded as bits and bytes. In essence your uniqueness is a barcode and your consciousness or awareness is just the interactions of your barcode with all the rest of the sets of software that comprise the Simulation (Virtual Reality) Universe scenario.
If the above six are granted, then your conclusion is that it is highly likely that we are 'living' in a simulation. The logic is sound. In the event that you reject the conclusion, you need to reject a number of of the six initial premises and there could be no if, ands or buts about your objection. There could be no possible counter objections or exceptions to your objection or rejection of anybody or more of the premises. For example, you may object and say that such civilizations do go extinct before developing advanced simulation technologies, but that would have to apply 100% across the board.
Let's focus on the assumption you do not really exist in an extremely real reality. Instead, you're virtual reality, a creation (along with the rest of life, the Universe and everything) by a flesh-and-blood fallible Supreme Programmer that created software that resulted in our Simulated (Virtual Reality) Universe. What sorts of things might follow from such a scenario?
In case that idea freaks you out, reflect that even though you have just existed as bits and bytes (rather than a collection of elementary particles and forces), it doesn't alter one jot anything you did or didn't do in your past, whether you are happy with anything you have or haven't accomplished. Whatever runs you have on the board are still there.
Being a virtual being won't alter one jot anything about your future. Because the software controls life, the Universe and everything, after the initial parameters were set, everything became deterministic, even though not predictable to mortals (of which the Supreme Programmer is one). The Universe, of which you are a component, is unfolding as it should. The point that the results isn't predictable must not be surprising since that is the point of doing a simulation. What's the point to do a simulation in the event that you already know what the outcome will likely be?
Free Will: A software generated universe wouldn't give you the option of free will. Even for quite different reasons, lots of people believe that they don't have any free will and yet they still go through life quite quite happy with whatever their deterministic runs are on the board happen to be, so a sudden find that you do not have free will as you are pre-programmed bits and bytes shouldn't unplug your heating pad. If you stop and think about things, even though you do have free does it is indeed constrained by physics, chemistry and biology and by society that you might as well stuff the majority of it in a box and bury it.
If you are still freaked out, does it ultimately matter whether your chair is made of tiny strings; electrons, neutrons and protons; a quantum wave function; or bits and bytes? It is possible to still sit in it! That's your bottom's line! If your simulation is as good (or better) that basically real reality, what's the difference?
Billions and billions of people have come and gone never even conceiving of the chance of a virtual reality world, and though none the wiser, their virtual reality had absolutely no bearing on what they thought they were, what sort of life they thought they had led, and everything they accomplished and patted themselves on the back for.
So what are a number of the outcomes of the Simulation (Virtual Reality) Universe scenario?
To begin with, you have an explanation of why there's something instead of nothing - a philosophical quandary that ranks right up there with the Big Questions of reality. Software is really a something and you also can't have a virtual reality or perhaps a simulation without those bits and bytes.
Ageing: Right now of your conception your ageing process began yet there seems to be no theoretical reason behind the ageing process Regardless, there is apparently nothing that can be done relating to this or its inevitable conclusion. Your health will decline with ageing and soon you die. Although you may spent your existence in a few type of 'safe house' free from accidents and deliberate acts of malice against you; even though all of the air you breathed was filtered clear of harmful bacteria and viruses and pollutants; even though you ate a perfectly balanced diet of three meals a day with all foods free from artificial colors, flavors and ingredients and everything was 100% 'organic' with lots of fruits and vegetables; even though your water was distilled and absolutely pure; although you may took no drugs like caffeine or nicotine or alcohol; even though every moment of each day was absolutely stress free; even if you got your eight hours of sleep each day; even if you got plenty of exercise, both mental and physical, you will still age and go downhill towards that bucket that you will kick. You cannot prevent that complex biochemical ageing time bomb that's inherently inside you and which emerged from the simplicity of your conception. As I said, there doesn't appear to be any physical, chemical or biological reasons why you should age. However, that could be considered https://blogfreely.net/queenyard50/virtual-reality-the-boon-to-gaining-real-world-experience of the consequences or subroutines of your software program
Death: If life is an emergent property of the cosmos, then death can be an emergent property of life, though if you can stay clear of accidents, murder, or disease, there seems to be little reason behind someone to kick the bucket since there is no theoretical reason a living organism has to die an all natural death providing the body continually receives a satisfactory way to obtain all resources necessary for life (food, oxygen or carbon dioxide (if a plant), water, etc.). However, entropy will never be denied and there is nothing you can do (at the very least in the here and now) about it regardless of how well you follow doctor's orders. Again, perhaps death is merely one of those programmed in subroutines of your software programming.
Afterlife: Although many people have confidence in an afterlife, or at the very least would like to, they might be hard-pressed to come with logical or scientific reasons how it could actually come to pass other than God says so. However, in the Simulated (Virtual Reality) Universe, an afterlife is just a software program away, as 'easy' as constructing as your normal programmed virtual 'life'. It's just end software subroutine Jane Doe's 'life'; begin software subroutine Jane Doe's 'afterlife'. The other interesting possibility here is that the sort of afterlife your culture instilled into you can be the one that you receive, even though concepts of the afterlife differ widely from culture to culture.
God: The Simulated (Virtual Reality) Universe scenario does not have any impact on theological belief systems. If you believe in God, then you argue that God created the Supreme Programmer. If Click here to find out more is flexible, you can believe that the Supreme Programmer is really a 'god' or passes for a deity. If you are an atheist, you still have your faith contrary to the existence of a supernatural being, which the Supreme Programmer isn't - supernatural that's. You can give God the big thumbs down while acknowledging ET having some fun with a software program. But you've got to wonder how the major organized trilogy of monotheistic religions are going to react when they find that their God is actually some teenage computer geek who virtually created our life, the universe and, well, virtual everything as a science project!
External Reality: There would relatively little effect on what you perceive about your external reality. It would apparently be a reflection of really real reality (RRR). That's unless you came across an anomaly or perhaps a miracle, something that most would say "it can not be therefore it isn't" to counter your "I know what I saw". After all witnessing such out of the ordinary things as crop circles, Sasquatch (Bigfoot), the Loch Ness Monster or a sea serpent, a ghost or a host of other paranormal or pseudoscientific mysteries which are unexplained phenomena.
Quantum Physics: Quantum physics is throughout (and inside) of you, and contains to be counted in your really real reality (RRR). Quantum physics would need to qualify as one of those 'paranormal' anomalies. Any physicist who tells you with a straight face that quantum physics isn't highly anomalous is an extremely good actor and superb liar. However, you are unlikely to detect the anomalies unless you are conversant with quantum physics and look for the anomalies as a matter needless to say. Everything appears normal, but looks can be quite deceiving.
Fine-Tuning: It's been noted by many that quite a few of the laws, principles and relationships of physics, and chemistry too, have values in a way that if those values varied by a good tiny amount, biology wouldn't be possible. In fact, sometimes chemistry wouldn't be possible, nor even a lot of physics. This calls for an explanation. The foremost is that it's all blind luck - sometimes you get dealt a royal flush on the 1st hand of your very first poker game. The next explanation is that there exists a Multiverse - thousands, millions, billions, even trillions of universes each with a differing set of those laws, principles and relationships of physics. 99.999% of these universes will not be suitable for biology (once we know it) as well as chemistry or a lot of physics for example, but just predicated on sheer probability, a little few will turn out to be a Goldilocks (bio-friendly) universe. The initial objection I have is not with the concept of a Multiverse, but with the theory that the laws, principles and relationships of physics changes in each of the various universes. There is no explanation of why this should be so. Of course that doesn't alter why our Universe is bio-friendly, and that's what matters, otherwise we wouldn't be here, would we? Explanation number three is needless to say God and intelligent design. We're here because God designed initially a bio-friendly Universe and a bio-friendly Planet Earth. The idea of God has so much baggage that I've plenty of trouble accepting that explanation. But I really do just like the variation on the theme - the Supreme Programmer. If you are going to design software for a simulation or perhaps a video game, etc. you must intelligently design that software to help keep those inconsistencies or oops to a complete minimum, or even ideally zero. The simulation or video game has to be a viable simulation or gaming, or basically, a Goldilocks simulation or a bio-friendly video game.
SETI: Why can't radio or other astronomers find any evidence for ET? - Perhaps because extraterrestrials were never programmed into the VR software.
THE FINISH: Computers (or CD and DVD players which run 'software' in the form of CDs or DVDs) come with all manner of controls. It is possible to hit the 'pause' bottom to freeze the action in time or the 'stop' button to recycle the action back to the beginning. It is possible to hit 'enter' or 'play' to unfreeze the action or to start or restart the action. In many cases you can hit the 'delete' button. If our simulated world is embedded in software in an average computer (we're unlikely to be encoded on a CD or DVD but who knows) then 'The End' can come at any moment (sort of like what Christians keep saying about their Second Coming, the apocalypse or Armageddon).
The Supreme Programmer could hit 'pause' which means life, the Universe and everything just freezes before Supreme Programmer hits 'play' again. We'd never be familiar with that 'missing time' any more than the characters in a DVD film know about the time lapse in the event that you hit the pause button to go answer the phone while you're watching their film. The Supreme Programmer could hit the 'stop' button to recycle everything back again to the start. We wouldn't be aware of that until perhaps such time as our recycled moment in the sun came around again and we got that feeling of d�j� vu. The Supreme Programmer could quite possibly tweak his software with a downloadable update which can also serve to wipe our memories of 'before the tweak' in order that we wouldn't notice any discrepancies between your 'before' and the 'after'. Or, if our virtual memory wasn't wiped with the upgrade, then that might account for why a few of our physical 'constants' don't seem to be quite so constant in the end. Rewritten over software might also account for phantoms, both animate (like ghosts) and inanimate. Lastly, the Supreme Programmer is finished and the program ends. Of course the Supreme Programmer could now rerun this program, or tweak/upgrade it and rerun it. It's interesting to notice how many cosmologies, especially ancient ones just like the Maya and Hindus, have a recycling cosmology: cosmic Birth - cosmic existence - cosmic death; cosmic birth - cosmic existence - cosmic death. Even Christianity promises a fresh heaven and a fresh earth after those 'end of days' or the 'end times'. Of course the Supreme Programmer could just hit the 'delete' button and that is just The End of our virtual life, the virtual Universe and the virtual everything; or perhaps accidentally drop the computer smashing it to smithereens; or spill his coffee on the keyboard; or maybe the hard-drive crashes; or maybe the Supreme Programmer just turns the computer off and dies before ever turning it back on. This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but with a fade-to-black.