Last week on The Crooked Key Podcast, Jenni and I looked at The Simulation Theory. I’d never given a lot of thought to the idea we could be a creation of a future generation of computer programmers. The theory is strengthened by the knowledge that we are quickly advancing technology in the area of gaming. . Remember when Pong came out? Probably not, but I do, and I remember how cool we thought it was. Now we are playing around with virtual reality. That’s quite a jump in a little less than fifty years.
The argument is that if we believe that one day we will be able to recreate our world in a simulation, then why not assume we are a simulation now?
Nick Bostrom from Oxford University presents a good case for this in a 2003 paper.
And I get all that (sort of) but I don’t understand why we would want to recreate this world. And if we could, why not leave out some of the less appealing parts of this world?
But then, I thought about the games we are creating now.
Many people love a bit of brutality in their games. For the record, I play adventure, puzzle games. I need a game where moving at a fast-pace is not required.
I guess on a spiritual level, and if I’m in a game, does a spiritual level really matter?
But on a spiritual level, I like to believe we will get to a point where we won’t need shoot ’em up games. Our entertainment might be aimed at bettering the world. I hope future generations are enlightened in a way that evolves into the technology being created.
Maybe I’m just a dreamer, but I’m banking on my current life being reality because I believe simulations are going to be so much kinder than this world.