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What do you think about the idea that we're in a simulation? (feddit.nl)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

113 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I don't think that we're in a simulation, but I do find myself occasionally entertaining the idea of it.

I think it would be kinda funny, because I have seen so much ridiculous shit in my life, that the idea that all those ridiculous things were simulated inside a computer or that maybe an external player did those things that I witnessed, is just too weird and funny at the same time lol.

Also, I play Civilizations VI and I occasionally wonder 'What if those settlers / soldiers / units / whatever are actually conscious. What if those lines of code actually think that they're alive?'. In that case, they are in a simulation. The same could apply to other life simulators, such as the Sims 4.

Idk, what does Lemmy think about it?

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

That just sounds like creationism with extra steps. Many people have the belief that a god created the universe and then life evolved spontaneously.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Again, you're reversing the order.

The steps in simulation theory pretty much mean that 'God' evolved too. Which is again, a very big difference.

There's not a lot of religions that have beliefs even tangentially like that. I can only think of two off the top of my head, which were slightly related and both long dead.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It would still imply that an external being had created the simulation in the first place, which would fall under creationism. Lots of religions try to claim they're completely different from one another. The way I see it, it's two sides of the same coin.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

There are degrees of similarity. But arguably it would be better to term it 'recreationism' as the original framework isn't necessarily created by any intentioned being.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I don't see similarity. I see people using different words to describe the same thing while being purposefully vague about how it's supposedly different from creationism.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

So if you draw a picture from scratch, and if an AI sees your picture and draws nearly the same thing on its own, you think those two things are effectively the same situation?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

This isn't a thread to discuss drawing. It doesn't matter if there's a million simulations between us and "base reality", the original simulation that started it all would've been created by someone. If the universe we are observing was the result of someone's creation, that someone is no different from a god. What simulation theory is doing is replacing the old bearded man in the sky with the great computer nerd in the sky.

Just to clarify, I'm not dunking on creationism or religion in general. I just find it slightly amusing how a lot of the people who dunk on creationism and otherwise do not believe in a god think that simulation theory is completely different because it's describing the same type of belief but with different wording.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Yeah, right. What could a thread about simulation possibly have to do with things like Plato's analogy of the form of a bed, the physical bed, and a drawing of the physical bed?

"Doesn't look like anything to me."