# Do you believe it's possible the world is a simulation? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 24, 2016, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-its-possible-the-world-is-a-simulation/755543 "2016-05-24T13:34:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-its-possible-the-world-is-a-simulation/755543/1 "2016-05-24T13:34:48Z")
Also known as the “Brain in a Jar” question or “The Matrix”. Do you believe it is possible what you perceive as the world is not real? I think it is possible. I don’t believe that it is so (i.e. I think the world is real) but I think that it could be true and here is why: We have been a technological civilization for only a few hundred years and we are already very close to figuring out how to feed sensory information directly into a brain. It is probably only a decade or two away. The Universe is about 14 billion years old. It stands to reason that someone else already did this and if someone else already did this, it is possible we (or just me!) are the result of that. Like I said I am sure the world is real but can I honestly say I am 100% sure? No, not 100%. What do you think? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-its-possible-the-world-is-a-simulation/755543/2 "2016-05-24T14:13:16Z")
Nah. If I’d made it, it would work better. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-its-possible-the-world-is-a-simulation/755543/3 "2016-05-24T14:18:07Z")
I think it is possible I am a brain in a jar but I also think that functionally whether I am a brain in a jar thinking it’s a human moving and interacting with a world or just a human moving and interacting with a world is irrelevant, so I assume the latter is true and not the former. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-its-possible-the-world-is-a-simulation/755543/4 "2016-05-24T14:45:03Z")
Only when I mess up horribly. Damn programmers!! ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-its-possible-the-world-is-a-simulation/755543/5 "2016-05-24T14:50:59Z")
I finally just watched Matrix this weekend. What an incredibly boring and unbelievable movie. So, no. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-its-possible-the-world-is-a-simulation/755543/6 "2016-05-24T14:52:40Z")
I think you are conflating two distinct ideas. One is the “brain in a jar”, either in solipsistic or “Matrix” form, see here: > **[Brain in a vat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_in_a_vat)** > > In philosophy, the brain in a vat (BIV) is a scenario used in a variety of thought experiments intended to draw out certain features of human conceptions of knowledge, reality, truth, mind, consciousness, and meaning. It is a modernized version of René Descartes's evil demon thought experiment, originated by Gilbert Harman. Found in many science fiction stories, it outlines a scenario in which a mad scientist, machine, or other entity might remove a person's brain from the body, suspend it in The other is the simulation hypothesis, see here: > **[Simulation hypothesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_hypothesis)** > > The simulation hypothesis proposes that all of our existence is a simulated reality, such as a computer simulation. > The simulation hypothesis bears a close resemblance to various other skeptical scenarios from throughout the history of philosophy. The hypothesis was popularized in its current form by Nick Bostrom. The suggestion that such a hypothesis is compatible with all human perceptual experiences is thought to have significant epistemological consequences in the form of philosophical skept... In the latter link, note “Bostrom’s trilemma”. There is an idea that if any self-aware intelligent species develop technology, they will eventually be able to simulate many universes, and will do so. Therefore, we should expect many more simulated universes than real universes. Therefore, our own universe is more likely to be a simulation than real. The Planck length and quantization in general do kind of look like pixellation, right? ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-its-possible-the-world-is-a-simulation/755543/7 "2016-05-24T14:56:25Z")
Rarely but sometimes more the Poe version: Is all that we see or seem But a dream within a dream? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-its-possible-the-world-is-a-simulation/755543/8 "2016-05-24T14:58:21Z")
If it is a simulation, who made it? God? Why would God need to run a simulation? Simulations are for answering questions. That’s why we run them, to find out things we don’t know. Unless it’s for porn. We know how that stuff turns out. ---
**Author:** ![Totenfeier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@Totenfeier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Totenfeier)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-its-possible-the-world-is-a-simulation/755543/9 "2016-05-24T14:59:45Z")
> **[George Berkeley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Berkeley)** > > George Berkeley (/ˈbɑːrkli/; 12 March 1685 – 14 January 1753) – known as Bishop Berkeley (Bishop of Cloyne of the Anglican Church of Ireland) – was an Anglo-Irish philosopher whose primary achievement was the advancement of a theory he called "immaterialism" (later referred to as "subjective idealism" by others). This theory denies the existence of material substance and instead contends that familiar objects like tables and chairs are ideas perceived by the mind and, as a result, cannot ex In... Damnit, can’t link. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-its-possible-the-world-is-a-simulation/755543/10 "2016-05-24T15:04:09Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > Rarely but sometimes more the Poe version: > Is all that we see or seem > But a dream within a dream? Pft. I see your Poe and raise you a much, much earlier Calderón de la Barca (who I have long suspected of inventing emo way before its time). Segismundo’s [monologue](http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/barca/barca.html), from _La vida es sueño_. Partial translation mine. Of being king the king dreams, and he lives under this lie giving orders, requiring and organizing; … Dreams a rich man in his riches, which worry him as naught else; dreams the poor man as he suffers in his poverty and his worries; dreams he whose fortunes raise and those who work and toil, dreams he who insults and offends and in the world, at long last, everybody dreams they are although not one understands. I dream that I am here in this prison, by chains weighed, and I dreamed that in a better place I otherwise was. What is life? Frenzy it is. What is life? Illusion only, and the greater good be small; for life is all a dream, and dreams… only dreams are. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-its-possible-the-world-is-a-simulation/755543/11 "2016-05-24T15:05:24Z")
I think I heard right here on the SDMB that if you removed all the empty spaces between bits of matter all the matter in the universe would likey fit into a bucket. Things like this make me suspect that maybe we are just virtual but it doesn’t really matter if that is our reality. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-its-possible-the-world-is-a-simulation/755543/12 "2016-05-24T15:13:45Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > If it is a simulation, who made it? God? Why would God need to run a simulation? Simulations are for answering questions. That’s why we run them, to find out things we don’t know. An entity that arose in a real universe, and then developed the technology to simulate universes. Or an entity that arose in a simulated universe, and then developed the technology to run simulations within the simulation. The idea that our universe is a simulation run by such an entity either for some purpose or just for entertainment is the only notion of “God” that I think is worth entertaining a real possibility. To paraphrase Arthur C Clarke, any entity with sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a God with magical powers. A little tongue in cheek, obviously - this is a little like college students getting high and speculating about solipsism - but the underlying idea seems valid to me. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-its-possible-the-world-is-a-simulation/755543/13 "2016-05-24T15:16:24Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I think it is possible I am a brain in a jar but I also think that functionally whether I am a brain in a jar thinking it’s a human moving and interacting with a world or just a human moving and interacting with a world is irrelevant, so I assume the latter is true and not the former. Even if I were just a brain in a jar, I don’t think I’d be smart enough to imagine all _this_, much less make it make sense. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-its-possible-the-world-is-a-simulation/755543/14 "2016-05-24T15:17:42Z")
I hope not, because whoever made the universe, made it knowing there’d be suffering and death. All life on Earth eventually dies, and most living things die in unpleasant ways. Very few things die of old age, or peacefully. Our creator would have to be a dick of cosmic proportions. I think I prefer that no one did that on purpose. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-its-possible-the-world-is-a-simulation/755543/15 "2016-05-24T15:18:36Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > An entity that arose in a real universe, and then developed the technology to simulate universes. Or an entity that arose in a simulated universe, and then developed the technology to run simulations within the simulation. Endless recursive calls, all the way down. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-its-possible-the-world-is-a-simulation/755543/16 "2016-05-24T15:19:41Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Even if I were just a brain in a jar, I don’t think I’d be smart enough to imagine all _this_, much less make it make sense. _This_ makes sense to you?.. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-its-possible-the-world-is-a-simulation/755543/17 "2016-05-24T15:21:30Z")
If it’s a simulation, I’m hoping that the Creators tweak my parameters so that I don’t have to work out so damn hard to gain size! ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-its-possible-the-world-is-a-simulation/755543/18 "2016-05-24T15:27:23Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > _This_ makes sense to you?.. Yes, which is why I don’t trust it. 😉 But seriously… yes, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Eugene\_of\_Sandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c37758/32.png) [@Eugene\_of\_Sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eugene_of_Sandwich)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-its-possible-the-world-is-a-simulation/755543/19 "2016-05-24T15:29:08Z")
Nope. There’s room there in your question for a philosophical discussion about the meaning of life but if you’re having a hard time accepting the reality of this physical world and our existence within it you really need to see a shrink. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-its-possible-the-world-is-a-simulation/755543/20 "2016-05-24T15:34:30Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > I hope not, because whoever made the universe, made it knowing there’d be suffering and death. All life on Earth eventually dies, and most living things die in unpleasant ways. Very few things die of old age, or peacefully. Our creator would have to be a dick of cosmic proportions. I think I prefer that no one did that on purpose. Yeah, but, see, _you_ experience stuff, and if this is a simulation you’re not dying in an unpleasant way; by contrast, the living things that _do_ die in unpleasant ways could just be a framing device: they act like background characters in someone else’s story, but they’re just animated images going through the motions as if they’re suffering. (What? If it’s a simulation, the whole setting is up for grabs.) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-its-possible-the-world-is-a-simulation/755543.md?page=2)