Are we really what we are?

[Iggypoppin']

Check this out: http://www.washington.edu/news/2012/...can-be-tested/

I love stuff like this it's very interesting.

[Yellow_Festiva]

I walked to a wall and called out 'Computer, end program' but nothing happened?

Interesting theory none the less.

[creative]

Released a few years after the first Matrix film...... someone wanted an easy grad paper! Lol

[Vincenzo]

Since I started to think for myself, I have always believed that Hollywood (generically speaking) in an unwitting spokesperson for an Underground Government. Or in this case a set of computer protocols if you want to think about it as a computer program.

Good Lord I'm gunna have nightmares tonight for sure.

Cheers Vincenzo

[b0son]

The entire premise is a fail. They argue that the simulation shortcuts we would take to run such a simulation would be evident in a future simulation.

If you can simulate a human to the point of self-awareness, and everything they interact with, you can simulate the universe without the need for assumptions.

[pottery beige]

we are all just ants in an alien ant farm..

[XR6_661]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

we are all just ants in an alien ant farm..

ANNIE ARE YOU OK? ARE YOU OK ANNIE?

[XP6]

C'mom guys you know at the end its going to equal 42

[Papa Smurf]

Use the Force Luke and subdue the Paradox.

[Crazy Dazz]

His hypothesis is flawed.
For there to be a simulation, then one of two circumstances exist: Either I (and maybe others) are part of the simulation or, we are not. I would break the latter possibility down further into two sub possibilities: that we exist in the corporeal form we perceive, living in a simulated environment, or we exist in some other form but perceive this simulated reality due to some stricture placed upon us. (I never really followed it, but I believe that was the concept of the original Matrix? That humans “lived” in pods, and experienced some virtual reality?)

If, as the author posits, we are part of a simulation being run by the descendants of humanity, then the point is moot. If I am simply a computer program (and if so my programmer should get the sack) then this is reality for me. I am programmed to interpret my reality in a specific way, but since my perception of that interpretation (or the interpretation of the perception) is also programed, it is not in any way false.

If we are in fact real corporeal beings, living in a simulated environment, is it not as “real” as we perceive it to be? I suppose it is possible that the laws of physics in the real world are different to what we know, and in fact allow sufficient manipulation of energy and matter to create an artificial environment in which only a subset of those laws is apparent.
Perhaps that would explain all the odd socks and missing underpants?
Although personally I believe the existence of “underpants gnomes” to be a more plausible explanation.

The final idea, that we exist somewhere and in some form, and the world we know is a virtual reality, is perhaps the most intriguing.
eg that we are actually “living” in pods, and/or aren’t even “human,” or perhaps exists in a completely different (eg non-corporeal) form.
For that to work, our ability to perceive our “true reality” must be completely extinguished. In which case I would again ague that our perceived reality is as good as it gets. Even a person content to live their whole life in one town is aware that other towns and countries exist. If I have no knowledge of an “outside world” beyond this universe, and no way to obtain such knowledge, is my perception of reality truly false?

[Mickxr8]

Absolutely no relavance to to this but Onya Pottery lol , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDl9ZMfj6aE

[Madaya]

Thankfully this is, after all a car forum, and religion is verboten. But this is what I love about my FF.com.au
I don't do Facebook and etc. I visit a couple of HiFi and Astronomy sites which have 'general' forums, but they are generally more constrained. In other words, this is my FB and maybe it is what FB is meant to be.
And unlike FB, there are a huge number of experienced, deep thinkers here and I enjoy these amazing threads and learn so much from reading them. Stuff that makes me think, makes me smile or frown. Mostly chuckle (in a good way).
President Obama has just announced a 'new' frontier, basically, the understanding of the mind.
Watch out!
Just as the decoding of the human genome (started in the 1980's) was completed years ahead of time (at least the essential 'ingredients'), this new project, with the availability of greater computing power, might happen within the decade.
My opinion of the human brain (limited) is that it is a link. In other words, I am talking about Soul Theory. That is to say, there is a bit of you, that exists in a realm outside of your present frame of reference.
I read an article (darn, didn't save it) where researchers were actually able to monitor individual nerve cells in a 'test tube', in fact, not just the cells, but the organelles (the 'organs' that make up a cell - mitochondria, nucleus etc). We are talking about things of an extremely small nature. They measured that at this scale, quantum physics holds sway. Using the description of a simple switch, the switch can be either on, or off, or both on and off at the same time. In other words, the firing of the nerve cell is produced not solely by external stimulation but by events that are at a quanta (sub atomic) level.

[XR6_661]

Originally Posted by Papa Smurf

Use the Force Luke and subdue the Paradox.

Use the force, Harry.
- Gandalf

[Madaya]

Originally Posted by XR6_661

ANNIE ARE YOU OK? ARE YOU OK ANNIE?

Gotcha man = huge

[Madaya]

Hell, here is a typical FB post...
The garbos just picked up my rubbish.

Dead set, it's exactly 12:00 my WAST time.

I'm gonna monitor him

Cheers. I gotta go to bed, just finished NS, but I love awake, same as some people love asleep.

[grandpa_spec_F6]

"BUT THEN WHO CREATED THE PROGRAMMER?, DID A PROGRAMMER PROGRAM THE PROGRAMMER?? AND THE PROGRAMMERS PROGRAMMER PROGRAMMED THE PROGRAMMER???"

[ford man xf]

Originally Posted by grandpa_spec_F6

"BUT THEN WHO CREATED THE PROGRAMMER?, DID A PROGRAMMER PROGRAM THE PROGRAMMER?? AND THE PROGRAMMERS PROGRAMMER PROGRAMMED THE PROGRAMMER???"

image

Infinite regress.....
technically your denying your own existance...

[wodahs]

im not !

[Ben73]

Originally Posted by Vincenzo

Since I started to think for myself, I have always believed that Hollywood (generically speaking) in an unwitting spokesperson for an Underground Government. Or in this case a set of computer protocols if you want to think about it as a computer program.

Good Lord I'm gunna have nightmares tonight for sure.

Cheers Vincenzo

What like the illuminati?
The secret Hollywood underworld that tries to brain wash us with movies, tv and songs.
Apparently some celebrities sell their souls to the Illuminati, then they are killed when they try to escape like 2pac & MJ

It's amazing what some people come up with. Youtube it. It's a funny and entertaining conspiracy theory.
It's about as likely as we are living in a computer simulation.

[Trump]

Moderate thread mine in progress...

http://www.space.com/30124-is-our-universe-a-fake.html

Another article about the simulation hypothesis.