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CuriouslyCyesterday at 12:34 PM4 repliesview on HN

The simulation hypothesis takes something reasonable, that reality is "virtual," and runs it into absurdity.

If the universe isn't "real" in the materialist sense, that does not imply that there's a "real" universe outside of the one we perceive, nor does it imply that we're being "simulated" by other intelligences.

The path of minimal assumptions from reality not being "real" is idealism. We're not simulated, we're manifesting.


Replies

EdgeCaseExistyesterday at 12:47 PM

Exactly, it's paradoxical; how would you define the universe as a simulation, without being on the same substrate! The title should have focused more on the computability of the universe, as we know it.

brapyesterday at 1:45 PM

I think the underlying assumption is that we are “real”, meaning our existence is grounded in some undisputed “reality”. So if what we perceive as the universe isn’t real, then there has to be some other real universe that is simulating it in some way.

empiricusyesterday at 1:56 PM

Sorry, I don't understand what you are saying. What do you mean by "something reasonable, that reality is virtual"? In many ways, by definition, reality is what is real not virtual. I have other questions, but this is a good start :)

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senkorayesterday at 3:36 PM

Yep, might as well go straight to the Mathematical Universe Hypothesis:

> Tegmark's MUH is the hypothesis that our external physical reality is a mathematical structure. That is, the physical universe is not merely described by mathematics, but is mathematics — specifically, a mathematical structure. Mathematical existence equals physical existence, and all structures that exist mathematically exist physically as well. Observers, including humans, are "self-aware substructures (SASs)". In any mathematical structure complex enough to contain such substructures, they "will subjectively perceive themselves as existing in a physically 'real' world".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_universe_hypothes...