Simulation hypothesis

The simulation hypothesis proposes that what one experiences as the real world is actually a simulated reality, such as a computer simulation in which humans are constructs. There has been much debate over this topic in the philosophical discourse.

Precursors include Zhuangzi's "Butterfly Dream" and René Descartes's "evil demon". In 2003, philosopher Nick Bostrom proposed the simulation argument suggesting that if a civilization becomes capable of creating conscious simulations, it could generate so many simulated beings that a randomly chosen conscious entity would almost certainly be in a simulation. This argument presents a trilemma:

either such simulations are not created because of technological limitations or self-destruction;

advanced civilizations choose not to create them;

if advanced civilizations do create them, the number of simulations would far exceed base reality and we would therefore almost certainly be living in one.

This assumes that phenomenal consciousness is not uniquely tied to biological brains but can arise on systems implementing the right computational structures and processes.

Variations on the idea have also been featured in science fiction, appearing as a central plot device in many stories and films, such as Simulacron-3 (1964), The Matrix (1999), and The Thirteenth Floor (1999).

Origins

Human history is full of thinkers who observed the difference between how things seem and how they might actually be, with dreams, illusions, and hallucinations providing poetic and philosophical metaphors. For example, the "Butterfly Dream" of Zhuangzi from ancient China, or the Indian philosophy of Maya, or in ancient Greek philosophy, where Anaxarchus and Monimus likened existing things to a scene-painting and supposed them to resemble the impressions experienced in sleep or madness. Aztec philosophical texts theorized that the world was a painting or book written by the Teotl.