Random philosophical sci-fi thoughts from a software engineer... while he is waiting for his application to finish compiling. Although I am not fully conviced that we live in a programmed reality; I find it entertaining to think about the possibilities. Allowing my imagination to run completely wild...

Subject for sci-fi thoughts: 'Why do I exist in a programmed reality?'

Sci-Fi 1.) Because life is unbearable on my home world. Most of my world has been destoyed by war and our bodies suffer from various complications. We decided to integrate ourself into the latest version of Earth 3.0 which is mostly bug-free and provides complete independence and realism. It is one of the most popular virtual realities in which we live out our existenz. I have heard that version 4 will be released soon in which we will be able to create simulated realities from within the simulated reality using the new 'Universe SDK'.

Sci-Fi 2.) Because I am an omnipotent being and will never die. I have infinite access to all knowledge and all space. Nothing is ever new for me and I find that my existence is extremely boring. After existing for billions of years and experiening absolute boredom I discovered a way to alleviate my suffering by compartmentalizing my consciousness into (ULLONG_MAX)18,446,744,073,709,551,615 separate enties. Millions of years as existing as various dinosaurs was very entertaining indeed. The sensations associated with death and violence was enough to keep me occupied. Life is now more entertaining because my simulated reality allows me to interact with billions of copies of myself each with a varying degree of intelligence and consiousness. I have recently designed better containers with a higher intelligence. So far this new source code is looking very promising.

Sci-Fi 3.) I do not exist here by choice. My home planet was destoyed by the great war. Billions died and millions of us survived. Our astronomers discovered a new planet but the distance was too great to travel there within a single lifetime but rather thousands of years. The biologists and engineers have designed a new stasis/hypersleep device in which we live out most of our lives in a simulated reality while we travel to the distant planet. I like it here... not sure I want to wake up.

Sci-Fi 4.) I am in prison because I broke the law. I am currently serving 32,767 cycles within the virtual prison reality. I hate it here... I am forced to exist as various enties such as insects and animals. There is so much violence here... the prisoners sometimes hunt and eat each other to continue existing in their current form. I had chicken tonight and now realize that it was another prisoner existing as a lower form. I'm having fish tomorrow. We are prevented from learning the true nature of the prison while we serve the sentence. I have really learned my lesson and when I get out of here I will not break anymore universal laws.

Sci-Fi 5.) I am in special forces military training. If I pass the tests here I could be one of the 144,000 chosen to lead our forces in the coming multidimensional battle. There are so many distractions here... I am not sure that I have the willpower to pass the tests. Sex, drugs, greed and all of the other sensations I am experiencing here are preventing me from obtaining a passing grade. I forgot to read the small print when I signed up so I'm not sure what will happen if I fail. :)



heh, well I had fun writing all of that but my compiler has finished and I must get back to work.

-TheArchitect

Hi,

I have read the paper by Professor Bostrom a few times over the last few years. However the ancestor-simulation hypothesis seems very human-centric to me. It reminds me of Ptolemy's Earth centered Universe. I'm not convinced that humans are interesting enough to be the sole reason for a simulation to exist. If such a simulation actually exists at all.

Here is another philosophical sci-fi thought. This one comes with a reason to perform a simulation from an engineers perspective. It makes no assumptions about the organism responsible.

Sci-Fi 6.) After many years we finally reverse engineered all of the deoxyribonucleic acid nucleotides. The data stored at the chemical levels took several decades but the real breakthrough occurred when we found the sequences stored at the quantum level. We created the simulation to perform permutations on the DNA language and to see what forms of life were generated by the evolutionary algorithms. After several years of debate by the supreme council it was decided that it was morally acceptable to perform the simulation of life. The computers are able to simulate millions of years within a few days. There were a total of 255 simulations which generated life with a high level of intelligence. We are currently investigating the relationships between violent tendencies as associated with high creativity levels. This research will be be used to improve the genetic code of our species. There are some very interesting things occurring on several of the simulations... the simulated life forms are generating high level technologies within the simulation. The supreme council has scheduled a hearing for next week to determine the course of action we should follow due to this development. One of my colleagues has suggested that we should allow some of the intelligent life from separate simulations to intermingle. A total of 7 simulations produced intelligent life that explored beyond their celestial body.

heh, maybe I should give up my day job as a software engineer and become a published sci-fi author! :D

-TheArchitect

I love your thinking Architect. You're basically asking the question "why are we here?" And with all the normal people on earth, they get their reasons from money, materialism, power, ego or any number of basic things that don't really add up to much. If we look at some examples of the greatest humans, you might think Gandhi, Buddha, MLK or someone like....(I was trying to think of a great "pioneer or our modern society" and they all seemed evil, so I'm just going to leave the first group I mentioned.)

MLK and Gandhi were trying to get everyone else to believe something, which is good, but for some reason, when you try and change global thinking, your name is taken and corrupted into what the establishment wants.

Buddha however wasn't really interested in changing the world(at first.) I think he's like Jim and you(Architect.) He just wanted to know "why." Why does the world work the way it does. I heard Jim say once that the more we discover about the world, the more complicated it gets. There can be only one explanation for that to happen and for the world to be set up the way it is.

Fear.

The Why, isn't as important in regards to our lives, as the what. What are the things we're most afraid of. It varies from every human, but when you step back and look at it from a grand scale, you see that all these fears kind of blend in together. It keeps us from happiness, peace, love and compassion. It is worse than violence and death(you ever hear a football player say "it looks a lot worse than it feels?") The fear of something is much worse than the actual thing itself. Why does death hurt no matter which way it happens? The fear, is what keeps people from wanting to die and go on, but it's also the thing that prevents us from achieving what we really want here.

That's it. Nothing more complicated than that. I think the reason people get Alzheimer's when they get older, is because they're getting rid of all the crap that's not really important in regards to their existence. Blind, deaf and mentally handicapped people have an advantage over everyone else, because they don't have to develop the visual fears we all see, or the auditory fears we all hear, or how complicated the world is/is made.

If we can overcome these fears, I think we can go on to the next level of existence...alien/spiritual...but if we're stuck on these fears we have to keep living these lives again and again.

Or we could be sent here as a crime we committed on an alien world. (Sci Fi 4) That's my favorite.

---

"The only true wisdom exists in knowing that you know nothing."
- The Mighty Socrates (Not the fake Socrates Plato wrote about in "The Republic.")

Probably i would mostly go with 2

but how about #8

We are just momentary conscience individual beings. Meaning our conscience dies along with the physical sim body. Combined the human mass represents the earth mind. The idea being our planet itself if conscience. It knows it's own existance is finite. It has evolved humans in an attempt to spread itself throughout the universe. Using us as a sort of seed pods. So while we may not be eternal as individuals, we are as one. We are parts of a biological sim which is controled by the earth mind itself.

These are all interesting examples to ponder & the universe continues to reveal more clues to explore.

Hi Nothing. Welcome to the forums. Nice to see a newcomer.



Really? Can you elaborate please or give us a clue. :o)

heres your clue

a clue? hmmmmm , puppet, lol, lol ,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,

all right heres your final clue, dont believe everything you read, and mr architect, who ive been told is me, knows. Thats not speculation, thats deviation from the truth.

OK, so what's the truth?...

Well said, MO.