could reality be simulated?

jasonbateman October 02, 2020 at 03:27 2775 views 9 comments

Say you had a body, and a nervous system, at your disposal. would it be possible to create and program a machine that could provide all the necessary pressures vibrations signals lights to that body, to simulate a reality indistinguishable from true reality? I would think you would need a super strong and fast computer, that could split reality into representations of its constituent parts, and present these parts to the body based on what the body is currently experiencing in their simulated reality. The program would need to be correct about just every aspect of true reality, or else the simulation would fall apart and eventually become noticeable to the subject. My main point of curiosity is whether such a program could be designed, not so much the actual machine outputting the signals or how it connects to the body.

Comments (9)

Gregory October 02, 2020 at 03:45 #458009 0 likes

Why would a Spinozian necessity make it "fall apart"?

jasonbateman October 02, 2020 at 04:06 #458011 0 likes

can you elaborate what a Spinozian necessity is? if you're saying what i'm thinking, as the subject learns more about his environment and the laws of physics, he would come to conclusions about the laws of physics that, if the computer did not have programmed it in, would lead to a sort of contradiction that the subject would have a hard time reconciling. he would live the rest of the simulation where the law of physics that he has arrived at through mathematics and reason are not congruent with the simulation, and he would always have a suspicion something was going on. because the subject would likely try to pinpoint the law in his environment and as he does, the computer would try to compute something that should exist but doesn't, and this causes the computer/program to break down.

Gregory October 02, 2020 at 04:46 #458016 0 likes

Reply to jasonbateman

How are you coming to the conclusion that a program can always be broken? You are putting a necessity on this as a rule

jasonbateman October 02, 2020 at 08:23 #458084 0 likes

this is under the condition that the program was on a computer within true reality and follows the same constraints. perhaps my conclusion is invalid due to the existence of machine/deep learning programming.

Philosophim October 02, 2020 at 09:59 #458090 0 likes

I think what you're asking is whether reality can be reproduced, not simulated. A simulation is an attempt to emulate reality within a certain degree, but it is not a 1 to 1 reproduction.

Since we would have to reproduce reality within reality, reproduction doesn't seem plausible and would lead into some infinite mirror issues. The accuracy of the simulation might vary, so yes, simulation is very much possible.

Gregory October 02, 2020 at 16:29 #458170 0 likes

Whether the program is numerically infinite or qualitatively infinite, I don't see why its necessary that it must be broken, or breakable

Gnomon October 03, 2020 at 00:39 #458295 0 likes

Quoting jasonbateman

My main point of curiosity is whether such a program could be designed, not so much the actual machine outputting the signals or how it connects to the body.

Such a cosmic computer, and evolutionary program, has already been designed. And you don't need any goggles to see its virtual reality all around you. But it's not a Matrix created by rogue AI machines. Instead, the computer I refer to is the Natural World "wherein we live & breathe and have our being". If you don't believe me, check-out the book below, by Don Hoffman. Of course, your question asks if humans can replicate the program of Reality in a man-made machine. Only time will tell. :joke:

The Case Against Reality : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NMRRJ48/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

The Evolution of Reality : https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-evolutionary-argument-against-reality-20160421/

Real Virtual Reality : http://bothandblog6.enformationism.info/page21.html

Relativist October 03, 2020 at 00:46 #458297 0 likes

Quoting jasonbateman

Say you had a body, and a nervous system, at your disposal. would it be possible to create and program a machine that could provide all the necessary pressures vibrations signals lights to that body, to simulate a reality indistinguishable from true reality?

It seems possible, in principle. It could be achieved by artificially stimulating the specialized portions of the brain that interpret sensory input (i.e. visual cortex, auditory cortex, etc). The simulation needn't be as fine-grained as reality (e.g. simulation at the level of atoms), it just needs to simulate at the granularity of perceptions.

jasonbateman October 03, 2020 at 01:09 #458301 0 likes

what about output? and how would the computer simulate the minds and actions of the others the subject interacts with inside of the simulation? when only having to simulate the granularity, the computer would be impinged to have to be able to simulate the other minds and bodies without simulating their actual atomic and molecular processes, etc. this by itself would require tons of computing power as well as information stored about exactly how organisms would behave inside a true realistic system.