Simulation Argument
Reality. Such an easy and simple word but yet far too complex and relative in its meaning.” The state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them”, the textual meaning of reality is often misunderstood and misinterpreted.
Dreams are very real until we wake up. In short, it is not out of reach that the whole world we see is just a simulation created by a civilization which may have surpassed a type 3 civilization with ease.
To explain the simulation argument to an average person is really hard because people often believe an event or incident is real if they can be perceived by any of the 5 senses of a human being. An argument that can be made is that it is impossible for a computer to simulate the whole universe from massive galaxies to the smallest of subatomic particles as it would require an inconceivable amount of processing speed approaching a googolplex. The thing is that for a successful simulation the rendering of the environment comes secondary, the most important thing is to fool the residents within the simulation into thinking that it is real. For example galaxies and stars need not be rendered every single time, it only needs to be rendered when one is looking specifically at it, same goes for cells, atoms etc, there is no need to simulate the trillions of atoms inside the chair you are sitting because we are not looking at it when we start to look what’s inside the chair the atoms can be instantly rendered into existence. The human brain has the capacity perceive 10¹⁷ operations per second, so in order to simulate all of humanity, let us consider the alien civilization has to at least simulate 100 billion humans with an average life expectancy of 60 years, then the required computing power of the computer for doing such a herculean task will be in the range of 1.89*10³⁷ operations per second.
Now some people will find it hard to believe that such a computer can ever exist but the truth is it can and may exist in the future, an example is a theoretical computer, the matryoshka brain which can simulate several humanity with ease.
Another condition for this simulation argument to prove right would be that the technological advancements don’t stop and continue at a similar pace. In that case, we can take into consideration the existence of super-beings with bizarre technological capabilities who are basically indistinguishable from Gods. Such beings can have immense computing power which can simulate entire universes. This is based on the assumption that the post-human beings have cleared all barriers stated by the Fermi paradox.
The real difficulty in telling if our world is a simulation or not is that, Our brains can only comprehend up to a certain limit of reality, so even if we actually are in a simulation it would be impossible to know. Just like the character of a video game thinks its actions are it’s own but in reality, they are controlled by us, we may or may not be simulated beings that are being controlled by a higher technologically advanced civilization.
The only thing we can do is to hope we are not a simulation and by chance, if we are one then pray that the cables of the computer running us aren’t cut off.
Every day is just another reality.