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Simulation is a presentation of a real world in virtual realm. Is the reality that we know, is just a simulation? Of late many popular movies and even scientists have created the hype that may be the world in which we are living is just a simulation. But why people think that they are living in simulation? Some of the popular arguments are as follows.
Firstly, just think of it from an individual's perspective. He can perceive the world surrounding him or concerning him but what about the world beyond? Maybe there is nothing beyond. But he will never know because the simulation will always create a world around him. And he will think that the world is real.
Secondly, Deja Vu. I guess many people have experienced Deja Vu. Deja Vu is the experience in which one feel that the things that are happening now has happened before. Why do we look at Deja Vu with such suspicion? Just think of it in this way. Suppose everything was a computer simulation and due to some glitch, the computer was restarted. So everything is playing again only minus the previous problematic glitch. Then why we remember it anyways? Maybe the coding is not that perfect after all and a malware has developed that has made us retain certain memories of before restart events.
Thirdly, the world can be understood with mathematics. Everything in the world can be understood with mathematics which make it similar to the computers we use. Just think of the computers that we use. It uses 0 and 1 i.e. absence and presence of electricity respectively. And with this, it does all sort of computation and problem solving. Everything in this world can be derived mathematically before it is proved with proper experimentation. Don't this make you doubt as well?
Fourthly, just look how much video games have developed. From the bricks game to today's high resolution graphic games, video games have changed a lot. If video games have developed so much that it becomes indistinguishable from reality, that how could we ever tell what is real and what is virtual? And if everything that we know is just a part of this virtual world, then how will we ever know? This made many believe that we are in a virtual game which is very advance and realistic.
Fifthly, popular memories. Many people from around the world have certain memories or ideas of the world, which seems to them to be true but the reality is quite different. Just take the example of the monopoly game. Many believe that the person in the monopoly game wore monocle on one eye but the reality is he neither wears spectacles nor monocle. Then there is this coca cola symbol, where many believe that coca and cola words had nothing in between them, but in reality a dash is between the words coca and cola. Many will disagree to this as coincidence but how can so many people have the same memory or ideas?
Now does it really matter whether we live in simulation or not ? Maybe it won't matter much but what if a story like Matrix is real ? The thing is nobody can really say whether we live in a simulation or not. But if we do live in simulation then what is the reality of our existence. If we are just some random computer codes then it will change our perception regarding us. But what if the Matrix story is true? Then shouldn't we fight back for our freedom? Nothing can be said for sure and if the programme is good enough it will never let the bug (i.e. we knowing about our real existence) to proliferate. Rather an anti malware programme will destroy the bug. So the final inference is we don't know whether we are in simulation or not. But whatever is the truth, it will change our perception about ourselves for good.
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