Simulation Theory

 Do We Live in a Simulation?

I was recently asked if I think we could live in a simulation. As a semi-avid sci fi reader, I find this question, and others like it intriguing. And fertile soil for a good conversation.

So do I? 

Yes. Kind of. In a way. Like 95%. 

Do I believe that we live in a designed universe, of a certain size (albeit unfathomably huge), with some hard-wired parameters, and a designer who oversees the functions taking place in that designed universe? Yes. 

The idea of a simulation is a way for some people to grasp the notion that we were created- to put it into terms they are more comfortable with. It's trying to make the truth of God make sense in a technical or humanistic worldview. I think the idea and thought process to get there is very good, while still missing the point entirely. 

Simulation theory tries to explain the fact that the world is just too complex, just too ordered, just too… perfect (see Goldilocks Zone) to happen by accident. Agree. Agree. Agree. Why is there beauty? Why does it seem the world is thoughtfully put together?  Why is Jupiter precisely at the right distance to suck up asteroids? Why is the moon precisely the right size to blot out the sun  for amazing eclipses? Why does it seem like there are too many coincidences? Great questions. I love it. So, the answer must be aliens. Aliens with quantum organic computers (more on that in a second). It’s like being Aaron Judge: Home run after home run after home run, and then, in the World Series where it counts, a huge whiff (sorry Yankee fans). 

Computer science is fascinating, and I’m terrible at it. But I can see why some people may think that a computer runs everything, or we are programs. Computers now fly planes, design buildings, write your work emails, and decipher language. Not only that, the world of quantum computers (This is where my terrible computer understanding comes in: computing at an impossibly fast speed by breaking problems down to little sub problems using lots and lots of very small, very fast processors), can do in seconds what traditional computing may take months, or even years to accomplish. Information that would take years to decipher and is impossibly long (hmmmm- DNA? ) gets interpreted in a fraction of time and some result is spit out. And now, a next horizon in computers is organic, or wet computing- computers that are much better at processing information than silicon-based systems (sound familiar?).  The world we are creating is beginning to model the complexity we observe in ourselves and our world. That could lead to the conclusion that this has happened before, and we are the game inside that other occurrence.

The theory breaks down, however. To put it into Enrico Fermi’s paradoxical inquiry- if the universe is so huge, and complexity has developed here, there must be other complex life out there. If so, where is everyone at? There’s no evidence, anywhere, of any life other than ours. 

It seems to me that simulation theory is reverse engineering what is plainly evident. Yes, we were created. Masterfully so. Yes, our world is designed. Yes, the Creator interacts with us. 

It’s the conclusion that still needs work.