Simulated reality is the idea that reality could be simulated — often computer-simulated — to a degree indistinguishable from 'true' reality. It could contain conscious minds which may or may not know that they are living inside a simulation. In its strongest form, the "Simulation hypothesis" claims we actually are living in such a simulation. It has been suggested that simulation software be merged into this article or section. ... For other uses, see Reality (disambiguation). ... The Simulation Hypothesis contends that reality is in fact a simulation (most probably a computer simulation), of which we, the simulants are totally unaware. ...

This is different from the current, technologically achievable concept of virtual reality. Virtual reality is easily distinguished from the experience of 'true' reality; participants are never in doubt about the nature of what they experience. Simulated reality, by contrast, would be hard or impossible to distinguish from 'true' reality. This article is about the simulation technology. ...

The idea of a simulated reality raises several questions:

• Is it possible, even in principle, to tell whether we are in a simulated reality?
• Is there any difference between a simulated reality and a 'real' one?
• How should we behave if we knew that we were living in a simulated reality?

Types of simulation

Brain-computer interface

In a brain-computer interface simulation, each participant enters from outside, directly connecting their brain to the simulation computer. The computer transfers sensory data to them and reads their desires and actions back; in this manner they interact with the simulated world and receive feedback from it. The participant may even receive adjustment in order to temporarily forget that they are inside a virtual realm (e.g. "passing through the veil"). While inside the simulation, the participant's consciousness is represented by an avatar, which could look very different from the participant's actual appearance. // A brain-computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a direct neural interface or a brain-machine interface, is a direct communication pathway between a human or animal brain (or brain cell culture) and an external device. ... Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and ones environment. ... An avatar (abbreviations include AV, ava, avie, avy, avi, avvie, avis, and avvy) is an Internet users representation of himself or herself, whether in the form of a three-dimensional model used in computer games,[1] a two-dimensional icon (picture) used on Internet forums and other communities,[2...

The Cyberpunk genre of fiction contains many examples of brain-computer interface simulated reality. Berlins Sony Center reflects the global reach of a Japanese corporation. ...

Virtual people

In a virtual-people simulation, every inhabitant is a native of the simulated world. They do not have a 'real' body in the 'outside' reality. Rather, each is a fully simulated entity, possessing an appropriate level of consciousness that is implemented using the simulation's own logic (i.e. using its own physics). As such, they could be downloaded from one simulation to another, or even archived and resurrected at a later date. It is also possible that a simulated entity could be moved out of the simulation entirely by means of mind transfer into a synthetic body (an example of this in fiction is when SID 6.7 escapes his simulated reality in the movie Virtuosity). Another way of getting an inhabitant of the virtual reality out of its simulation would be to "clone" the entity, by taking a sample of its virtual DNA and create a real-world counterpart from that model. The result would not bring the "mind" of the entity out of its simulation, but its body would be born in the real world (Just like in the novel Loop, from the Ring series). In transhumanism and science fiction, mind transfer (also referred to as mind uploading or mind downloading, depending on ones point of reference), whole body emulation, or electronic transcendence refers to the hypothetical transfer of a human mind to an artificial substrate. ... Virtuosity is a 1995 science fiction movie telling the story of a virtual villains successful attempt to escape into the real world. SID 6. ... Virtuosity is a 1995 science fiction movie directed by Brett Leonard. ... The structure of part of a DNA double helix Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is a nucleic acid molecule that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms. ... // A loop is generally something that closes back on itself such as a circle or ring. ... Look up ring in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

This category subdivides into two further types:

• Virtual people-virtual world, in which an external reality is simulated separately to the artificial consciousnesses;

and Artificial consciousness (AC), also known as machine consciousness (MC) or synthetic consciousness, is a field related to artificial intelligence and cognitive robotics whose aim is to define that which would have to be synthesized were consciousness to be found in an engineered artifact. ...

• Solipsistic simulation in which consciousness is simulated and the "world" participants perceive exists only within their minds.

Emigration

In an emigration simulation, the participant enters the simulation from the outer reality, as in the brain-computer interface simulation, but to a much greater degree. On entry, the participant uses mind transfer to temporarily relocate their mental processing into a virtual-person. After the simulation is over, the participant's mind is transferred back into their outer-reality body, along with all new memories and experience gained within. In transhumanism and science fiction, mind transfer (also referred to as mind uploading or mind downloading, depending on ones point of reference), whole body emulation, or electronic transcendence refers to the hypothetical transfer of a human mind to an artificial substrate. ...

Intermingled

Morpheus teaches Neo inside a small simulated reality

An intermingled simulation supports both types of consciousness: players from the outer reality who are visiting (as a brain-computer interface simulation) or emigrating, and virtual-people who are natives of the simulation and hence lack any physical body in the outer reality. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (852x480, 35 KB) Screen-shot from movie The Matrix, for use in the Simulated reality article which makes many references to the movie. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (852x480, 35 KB) Screen-shot from movie The Matrix, for use in the Simulated reality article which makes many references to the movie. ...

The Matrix movies feature an intermingled type of simulation: they contain not only human minds (with their physical brains remaining outside), but also the 'agents', who are sovereign software programs indigenous to the computed realm. This article is about the 1999 film. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Arguments

We are living in a simulation

Nick Bostrom's argument

The philosopher Nick Bostrom investigated the possibility that we may be living in a simulation.^[1] A simplified version of his argument is: Nick Bostrom (Boström in the original Swedish) is a philosopher at the University of Oxford, and known for his work on the anthropic principle. ...

i. It is possible that a civilization could create a computer simulation which contains individuals with artificial intelligence.

ii. Such a civilization would likely run many – say billions – of these simulations (just for fun; for research, etc.)

iii. A simulated individual inside the simulation wouldn’t know that it’s inside a simulation – it’s just going about its daily business in what it considers the “real world”.

Then the ultimate question is – if one accepts that points 1-2-3 are at least possible, which of the following is more likely?

a. We are the one civilization out there in the universe that will eventually develop the ability to run AI simulations? Or,

b. We are one of the billions of simulations that has run? (Remember point iii.)

In greater detail, his argument attempts to prove the trichotomy, that: A trichotomy is a splitting into three parts, and, apart from its normal literal meaning, can refer to: trichotomy (mathematics), in the mathematical field of order theory trichotomy (philosophy), for the idea that man has a threefold nature In taxonomy, a trichotomy is speciation of three groups from a common...

either

1. intelligent races will never reach a level of technology where they can run simulations of reality so detailed they can be mistaken for reality; or
2. races who do reach such a level do not tend to run such simulations; or
3. we are almost certainly living in such a simulation.

Bostrom's argument uses the premise that given sufficiently advanced technology, it is possible to simulate entire inhabited planets or even larger habitats or even entire universes as quantum simulations in time/space pockets, including all the people on them, on a computer, and that simulated people can be fully conscious, and are as much persons as non-simulated people.

If we then assume that the human race could reach such a technological level without destroying themselves in the process (i.e. we deny the first hypothesis); and that once we reached such a level we would still be interested in history, the past, and our ancestors, and that there would be no legal or moral strictures on running such simulations (we deny the second hypothesis) - then

• it is likely that we would run a very large number of so-called ancestor simulations;
• and that, by the same line of reasoning, many of these simulations would in turn run other sub-simulations, and so on;
• and that given the fact that right now it is impossible to tell whether we are living in one of the vast number of simulations or the original ancestor universe, the likelihood is that the former is true.

Assumptions as to whether the human race (or another intelligent species) could reach such a technological level without destroying themselves depend greatly on the value of the Drake equation, which gives the number of intelligent technological species communicating via radio in a galaxy at any given point in time. The expanded equation looks to the number of posthuman civilizations that ever would exist in any given universe. If the average for all universes, real or simulated, is greater than or equal to one such civilization existing in each universe's entire history, then odds are rather overwhelmingly in favor of the proposition that the average civilization is in a simulation, assuming that such simulated universes are possible and such civilizations would want to run such simulations. The Drake equation (rarely also called the Green Bank equation or the Sagan equation) is a famous result in the speculative fields of exobiology, astrosociobiology and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. ...

Frank Tipler's Omega Point

Physicist Frank Tipler envisages a similar scenario to Nick Bostrom's argument: a hypothetical cosmological scenario where, as the Universe comes to an end in a Big Crunch, the computational capacity of the Universe is capable of increasing at a sufficient rate that this computation rate is accelerating hyperbolically faster than time runs out. In principle, a simulation run on this Universe-computer can thus continue forever in its own terms, even though the external Universe lasts only a finite time. Frank J. Tipler is a professor of mathematical physics at Tulane University, New Orleans, physicist, theologian and cornucopian philosopher. ... Nick Bostrom (Boström in the original Swedish) is a philosopher at the University of Oxford, and known for his work on the anthropic principle. ... This article is about the cosmological theory. ...

The implication of this theory for present-day humans is that this ultimate cosmic computer will essentially be able to resurrect everyone who has ever lived, by recreating all possible quantum brain states within the master simulation. This would manifest as an "emigration" or "virtual person" simulated reality. From the perspective of the inhabitant, the Omega Point represents an infinite-duration afterlife, which could take any imaginable form due to its virtual nature. At first glance, Tipler's hypothesis requires some means by which the inhabitants of the far future can recover historical information in order to reincarnate their ancestors into a simulated afterlife. However, if they really have access to infinite computing power, that is no problem at all -- they can just simulate "all possible worlds". (This line of thought is continued in Platonic simulation theories). Omega point is a term invented by French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to describe the ultimate maximum level of complexity-consciousness, considered by him the aim towards which consciousness evolves. ... For other uses, see Afterlife (disambiguation). ... Infinity is a word carrying a number of different meanings in mathematics, philosophy, theology and everyday life. ... In philosophy and logic, the concept of possible worlds is used to express modal claims. ... Simulated reality is the idea that reality could be simulated — often computer-simulated — to a degree indistinguishable from true reality. ...

However, recent observations suggesting an accelerating universe mean that the Big Crunch, on which the theory was originally predicated, is now thought an unlikely scenario.

Computationalism & Platonic simulation theories

Computationalism is a philosophy of mind theory stating that cognition is a form of computation. It is relevant to the Simulation Hypothesis in that it illustrates how a simulation could contain conscious subjects, as required by a "virtual people" simulation. For example, it is well known that physical systems can be simulated to some degree of accuracy. If computationalism is correct, and if there is no problem in generating artificial consciousness from cognition, it would establish the theoretical possibility of a simulated reality. However, the relationship between cognition and phenomenal consciousness is disputed. It is possible that consciousness requires a substrate of "real" physics, and simulated people, while behaving appropriately, would be philosophical zombies. This would also negate Nick Bostrom's simulation argument; we cannot be inside a simulation, as conscious beings, if consciousness cannot be simulated. A computer is a device or machine for processing information from data according to a program — a compiled list of instructions. ... A Phrenological mapping of the brain. ... Look up Cognition in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up computation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Simulated reality is the idea that reality could be simulated — often computer-simulated — to a degree indistinguishable from true reality. ... Unsolved problems in cognitive science: How is it possible to resolve the Hard Problem? The term hard problem of consciousness, coined by David Chalmers[1][2], refers to the hard problem of explaining why we have qualitative phenomenal experiences. ... Artificial consciousness (AC), also known as machine consciousness (MC) or synthetic consciousness, is a field related to artificial intelligence and cognitive robotics whose aim is to define that which would have to be synthesized were consciousness to be found in an engineered artifact. ... Redness is the canonical quale. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and ones environment. ... A philosophical zombie or p-zombie is a hypothetical being that is indistinguishable from a normal human being except that it lacks conscious experience, qualia, sentience, or sapience. ... Nick Bostrom (Boström in the original Swedish) is a philosopher at the University of Oxford, and known for his work on the anthropic principle. ...

Some theorists^[2][3] have argued that if the "consciousness-is-computation" version of computationalism and mathematical realism (also known as mathematical Platonism) are both true our consciousnesses must be inside a simulation. This argument states that a "Plato's heaven" or ultimate ensemble would contain every algorithm, including those which implement consciousness. Platonic simulation theories are also subsets of the multiverse theories and theories of everything. A computer is a device or machine for processing information from data according to a program — a compiled list of instructions. ... Philosophy of mathematics is that branch of philosophy which attempts to answer questions such as: why is mathematics useful in describing nature?, in which sense, if any, do mathematical entities such as numbers exist? and why and how are mathematical statements true?. The various approaches to answering these questions will... Platonic idealism is the theory that the substantive reality around us is only a reflection of a higher truth. ... The Ultimate Ensemble is a speculative possible feature of theories of everything (TOEs), suggested by Max Tegmark. ... For other uses, see Multiverse (disambiguation). ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

Dreaming

In order to demonstrate the possibility that what we accept as reality is a simulation there should be some evidence that we could point to in order to extrapolate that it is in fact an illusion. Dreaming is one such example where ordinary people are fooled into believing a simulated reality (a dream) is the "true" reality. However, given practice or even chance, it is possible for one to realize that they are dreaming whilst they dream, thus entering a lucid dream. For other uses, see illusion (disambiguation). ... Hypnos and Thanatos,Sleep and His Half-Brother Death by John William Waterhouse Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Lucid dreaming A lucid dream is a dream in which the person is aware that he or she is dreaming while the dream is in progress. ...

The existence of dreams resolves the questions of whether simulations indistinguishable from "true" reality are possible and if humans are too intelligent to be easily fooled by them. As a result the "dream hypothesis" cannot be ruled out, although it has been argued that common sense and considerations of simplicity rule against it.^[4] For other uses, see Common sense (disambiguation). ... Simulated reality is the idea that reality could be simulated — often computer-simulated — to a degree indistinguishable from true reality. ...

The philosophical underpinnings of this argument begin with Descartes, who was one of the first philosophers to question the distinction between reality and dreams. In Meditations on First Philosophy, he states "... there are no certain indications by which we may clearly distinguish wakefulness from sleep",^[5] and goes on to conclude that "It is possible that I am dreaming right now and that all of my perceptions are false".^[5] This same dream argument is posed by Zhuangzi in which Chuang Chou dreamed he was a butterfly and woke up wondering how to tell the difference between the real world and the dream. René Descartes René Descartes (IPA: , March 31, 1596 – February 11, 1650), also known as Cartesius, worked as a philosopher and mathematician. ... For other uses, see Reality (disambiguation). ... Dreaming is the subjective experience of imaginary images, sounds/voices, thoughts or sensations during sleep, usually involuntarily. ... While people dream, they usually do not realize they are dreaming (in non-lucid dreams). ... Zhuangzi (Traditional: 莊子; Simplified: 庄子, Pinyin: Zhuāng Zǐ, Wade-Giles: Chuang TzÅ­, lit. ...

Chalmers (2003) discusses the dream hypothesis, and notes that this comes in two distinct forms:

• that he is currently dreaming, in which case many of his beliefs about the world are incorrect;
• that he has always been dreaming, in which case the objects he perceives actually exist, albeit in his imagination.^[6]

Both the dream argument and the Simulation hypothesis can be regarded as skeptical hypotheses; however in raising these doubts, just as Descartes noted that his own thinking led him to be convinced of his own existence, the existence of the argument itself is testament to the possibility of its own truth. While people dream, they usually do not realize they are dreaming (in non-lucid dreams). ... A skeptical hypothesis is a hypothetical situation that raises doubts about knowledge. ... René Descartes René Descartes (IPA: , March 31, 1596 – February 11, 1650), also known as Cartesius, worked as a philosopher and mathematician. ...

Another state of mind in which an individual's perceptions have no physical basis in the real world is called psychosis. Psychosis is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a loss of contact with reality. Stedmans Medical Dictionary defines psychosis as a severe mental disorder, with or without organic damage, characterized by derangement of personality and loss of contact with reality and causing deterioration...

Quasi-religious arguments

Prayers. A simulation may have been built for the purpose of its inhabitants, and so it may respond to their wishes if properly expressed. (This is the secular version of having one's prayers answered if delivered using the correct ritual.) If any sort of prayer or wishing is found to be effective, and is verified to be scientifically inexplicable, then it is grounds to suspect that reality is being simulated.

Interventions. The director of the simulation may choose to intervene from time to time in a way that violates the simulation's normal rules. The director may even choose to manifest him/her/itself to the inhabitants. (This is another secular version of a common religious meme.) For other uses, see Meme (disambiguation). ...

Past lives. The inhabitants may have entered the simulation after living for a period of time in an outer world or in a previous simulation, and so they may possess recoverable "past life" memories. If such memories can be proven to be both accurate and inexplicable, then reality may be simulation which inhabitants can visit multiple times. Déjà vu is a similar concept such inhabitants may experience for the same reasons. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... For other uses, see Déjà vu (disambiguation). ...

All three arguments suffer from the same two problems.

• The evidence for the religious phenomena appealed to is debatable
• If true, these phenomena can be also explained theologically. They are not evidence for simulated reality over and above other hypotheses. However, such explanations are not necessarily contradictory with simulated reality.

Theology finds its scholars pursuing the understanding of and providing reasoned discourse of religion, spirituality and God or the gods. ... Look up Hypothesis in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

We are not living in a simulation

Computability of physics

Further information: Computational universe theory

A decisive refutation of any claim that our reality is computer-simulated would be the discovery of some uncomputable physics, because if reality is doing something no computer can do, it cannot be a computer simulation. In fact, known physics is held to be computable.^[7] Computational Universe Theory is a subset of an interrelated group of theories maintaining that in some form the universe is a computer. The computational universe theory is based upon one or more of the following assumptions. ... Computability theory is that part of the theory of computation dealing with which problems are solvable by algorithms (equivalently, by Turing machines), with various restrictions and extensions. ...

The objection could be made that the simulation does not have to run in "real time"^[8]. But it misses an important point: the shortfall is not linear, rather it is a matter of performing an infinite number of computational steps in a finite time.^[9] These objection do not apply if the hypothetical simulation is being run on a hypercomputer, a machine more powerful than a Turing machine^[10]. Unfortunately, there is no way of working out if computers running a simulation are capable of doing things that computers in the simulation cannot do. No one has shown that the laws of physics inside a simulation and those outside it have to be the same, and simulations of different physical laws have been constructed.^[11] The problem now is that there is no evidence that can conceivably be produced to show that the universe is not any kind of computer, making the Simulation Hypothesis unfalsifiable and therefore scientifically unacceptable, at least by Popperian standards.^[12] It has been suggested that Real-time computing be merged into this article or section. ... Hypercomputation is the law of methods for the computation of non-computable functions. ... This page discusses how a theory or assertion is falsifiable (disprovable opp: verifiable), rather than the non-philosophical use of falsification, meaning counterfeiting. ... Sir Karl Raimund Popper, CH, FRS, FBA, (July 28, 1902 – September 17, 1994), was an Austrian and British[1] philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics. ...

CantGoTu Environments

The concept of a CantGoTu Environment takes the ideas embedded in the Diagonal Argument of George Cantor, the Undecidability theorems of Kurt Gödel, and the limits of computability highlighted by Alan Turing, and applies them to Virtual Reality environments. The argument is set out in The Fabric of Reality (1997) by David Deutsch, and runs thus: Cantors diagonal argument, also called the diagonalisation argument, the diagonal slash argument or the diagonal method, was published in 1891 by Georg Cantor as a proof that there are infinite sets which cannot be put into one-to-one correspondence with the infinite set of natural numbers. ... Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor (March 3, 1845 – January 6, 1918) was a mathematician who was born in Russia and lived in Germany for most of his life. ... In logic, a decision problem is determining whether or not there exists a decision procedure or algorithm for a class S of questions requiring a Boolean value (i. ... Kurt Gödel (IPA: ) (April 28, 1906 Brünn, Austria-Hungary (now Brno, Czech Republic) – January 14, 1978 Princeton, New Jersey) was an Austrian American mathematician and philosopher. ... Computation can be defined as finding a solution to a problem from given inputs by means of an algorithm. ... Alan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS (23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, logician, and cryptographer. ... This article is about the simulation technology. ... The Fabric of Reality is a 1997 book by physicist David Deutsch, which expands upon his views of quantum mechanics and its meanings for understanding reality. ... David Deutsch (born 1953) is a physicist at Oxford University. ...

Imagine a computer built to render every possible Virtual Reality. Suppose all possible environments produced by this generator can be laid out sequentially, as Environment 1, Environment 2, etc. Take time slices through each of these of equal duration. (Deutsch specifies one minute, but this could, in principle be anything, e.g. Planck time.) Now construct a new environment as follows. In the first time-period, generate in the environment anything which is different from Environment 1, and in the second time period, anything different from Environment 2, and so on. This new environment cannot be found in the sequential layout of environments specified earlier, as it differs from all possible environments by what happens in one particular time-slice. Hence this means that no such universal VR generator can be created, and there are environments which effectively can never be rendered by any means.^[13]

However, later on in the book, Deutsch goes on to argue for a very strong version of the Turing principle, namely: "It is possible to build a virtual reality generator whose repertoire includes every physically possible environment." This article is about the simulation technology. ... In physics, the Planck time (tP), is the unit of time in the system of natural units known as Planck units. ... Alonzo Church, Alan Turing, and David Deutsch contributed to the Church–Turing–Deutsch principle, also known as the CTD principle, of computer science. ...

However, in order to include every physically possible environment, the computer would have to be able to include a full simulation of the environment containing itself. Even so, a computer running a simulation need not have to run every possible physical moment to be plausible to its inhabitants.

Computational load

Virtual people

As of 2007, the computational requirements for Molecular dynamics are such that it takes several months of computing time on the world's fastest computers to simulate 1/10th of one second of the folding of a single protein molecule. ^{[14] [15]} Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... Molecular dynamics (MD) is a form of computer simulation wherein atoms and molecules are allowed to interact for a period of time under known laws of physics, giving a view of the motion of the atoms. ...

To simulate an entire galaxy would require more computing power than can presently be envisioned, assuming that no shortcuts are taken when simulating areas that nobody is observing.

In answer to this objection, Bostrom calculated that the whole of human history would require roughly 10³³ to 10³⁶ calculations to simulate.^[1] He further calculated that a planet-sized computer built using known nanotechnological methods would perform about 10⁴² calculations per second -- and a planet-sized computer is not inherently impossible to build, (although the speed of light could severely constrain the speed at which its subprocessors share data). In any case, a simulation need not compute every single molecular event that occurs inside it; it may only process events that its participants can actively percieve. This is particularly the case if the simulation contained only a handful of people; far less processing power woudl be needed to make them believe they were in a "world" much larger than was actually the case.

Brain-computer interface

Some ^{[attribution needed]} have argued that a dream is a reality being simulated by certain parts of the dreamer's brain by other parts of the dreamer's brain - possibly showing that a 'computer' less powerful than a whole human brain can simulate oft-believable realities for the senses. Similar arguments would apply to vivid recollections, imaginings, and especially hallucinations. However, all of these things are usually less vivid and do not have to consistently obey the laws of physics, which our world does and which constraint presumably requires more computational power. (Another point some ^{[attribution needed]} have made about hallucinations is that the hallucination cannot be interracted with in a rich, vivid way requiring simulation of multiple senses, possibly because the brain knows it does not have the computing power to support such interraction.)

Validity of the arguments

In any case, it is perhaps erroneous to apply our current sense of feasibility to projects undertaken in an outer reality, where resources and physical laws may be very different. It also assumes designers would need to simulate reality beyond our natural senses.

Also, a simulated reality need not run in realtime. The inhabitants of a simulated universe would have no way of knowing that one day of subjective time actually required much longer to calculate in their host computer, or vice-versa. Isaac Asimov pushed the limits of this by claiming that, unbeknownst to the inhabitants, the simulation could even run backwards, or in pieces on different computers, or with a million generations of monks working weekends on abacuses - all without the simulation missing a beat 'in simulation time'. Simulated reality is the idea that reality could be simulated — often computer-simulated — to a degree indistinguishable from true reality. ... It has been suggested that Abax be merged into this article or section. ...

Irrelevance

The existence of simulated reality is unprovable in any concrete sense: any "evidence" that is directly observed could be another simulation itself. In other words, there is an infinite regress problem with the argument. Even if we are a simulated reality, there is no way to be sure the people running the simulation are not themselves a simulation, and the operators of that simulation are not a simulation, ad infinitum. Given the premises of the simulation argument, any reality, even one running a simulation, has no better or worse chances of being a simulation than any other. Look up Ad infinitum in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Occam's razor

It has been noted that there is no definitive way to tell whether one is in a simulation. It is generally the case that any number of hypotheses can explain the same evidence^[16]. This situation often prompts the use of a heuristic rule called Occam's razor, which prefers simpler explanations over more complex ones, and is often implicated in skeptical criticisms of far-fetched hypotheses.^{[17][18][19][20]} Look up Heuristic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For the House television show episode called Occams Razor, see Occams Razor (House episode) Occams razor (sometimes spelled Ockhams razor) is a principle attributed to the 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham. ... This article is about the psychological term. ...

Since it is a heuristic rule, and not a natural law, it is not an infallible guide as to what is ultimately the truth, but only what is usually best to believe, all other things being equal. If we assume Occam's Razor applies, then it would tell us to reject simulated reality as being too complex, in favor of reality being what it appears to be.

Moral license

Widespread acceptance of the idea of simulated reality may create a hazardous situation: if everyone believes that reality is an illusion, then they may feel free to commit crimes and atrocities. Released from the empathetic restraint of their knowledge that life is precious and irreplaceable, would-be criminals might run rampant. They might even feel virtuous in doing so, thinking that they are simply making the game more interesting for the other players.

A similar moral shakeup is instigated by the idea that some or most of the other people inside the simulation may actually be bots. Simulated reality is the idea that reality could be simulated — often computer-simulated — to a degree indistinguishable from true reality. ...

However, if we assume that a simulation may consist of multiple participants in a world that is totally indistinguishable from the 'real' world, then some concept of ethics and morality may still apply. For example, if during a simulation a participant picks up a hammer and smashes the hand of another participant, resulting in pain that is identical in all ways neurologically to 'real' pain, then there may still be negative consequences if and when they awake, albeit the hand would not actually have been smashed. (Although if the person was not a 'real' person but also a simulation, then to all intents and purpsoes the hand would have been smashed).

In addition, the behavior of children and adults playing video games who are aware that it is a virtual environment seem to point toward ethics and moral codes still applying. Although anecdotal at best, game designers go to great lengths to control player killers who do precisely what is outlined earlier in this section: wantonly killing other players, breaking social norms already established among players, etc. Player versus player, or PvP, is a type of combat in MMORPGs, MUDs and other computer role-playing games pitting a players skill against anothers, where the goal is ultimately the death of the opponents player character. ...

When examining the possibility of an afterlife, Bostrom points out, "Your fate in that afterlife could be made to depend on how you behaved in your present simulated incarnation." ^[21] Therefore, the possibility of "higher levels" may result in a situation where it is in the best interest of participants to behave ethically for fear of reprisals from those existing in those higher levels. In other words, simply because you're living in a simulation does not necessarily mean there will not be negative consequences for actions once outside of the simulation.

Scientific and technological approaches

Software Bugs

A void in a holodeck simulation, as seen in the movie "Star Trek Insurrection".

A computed simulation may have voids or other errors that manifest inside. If one can be found and tested, and if the observers survive its discovery, then it may reveal the underlying computational substrate. However, lapses in physical law could be attributed to other explanations, for instance divine intervention, or inherent instability in the nature of reality. Also, certain bugs could be explanations for odd every-day experiences, such as Déjà vu, explained in The Matrix as a glitch in the program when something is changed. A software bug is an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program that prevents it from behaving as intended (e. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (852x480, 45 KB) A void in a holodeck simulation, illustrating the sort of bug which if discovered would imply that one is inside a simulation. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (852x480, 45 KB) A void in a holodeck simulation, illustrating the sort of bug which if discovered would imply that one is inside a simulation. ... A holodeck on the Enterprise-D; the arch and exit are prominent. ... Star Trek: Insurrection (Paramount Pictures, 1998) is the ninth Star Trek feature film. ... A software bug is an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program that prevents it from behaving as intended (e. ... For other uses, see Déjà vu (disambiguation). ... This article is about the 1999 film. ...

In fact, bugs could be very common. An interesting question is whether knowledge of bugs or loopholes in a sufficiently powerful simulation are instantly erased the minute they are observed since presumably all thoughts and experiences in a simulated world could be carefully monitored and altered. Of course, if this is the case we would never be able to act on discovery of bugs. In fact, any simulation significantly determined to protect its existence could erase any proof that it was a simulation whenever it arose.

Hidden messages or "Easter eggs"

The simulation may contain secret messages or exits, placed there by the designer, or by other inhabitants who have solved the riddle, in the way that computer games and other media sometimes do. People have already spent considerable effort searching for patterns or messages within the endless decimal places of the fundamental constants such as e and pi. In Carl Sagan's science fiction novel Contact, Sagan contemplates the possibility of finding a signature embedded in pi (in its base-11 expansion) by the creators of the universe. The first easter egg. ... e is the unique number such that the value of the derivative of f (x) = ex (blue curve) at the point x = 0 is exactly 1. ... When a circles diameter is 1, its circumference is Ï€. Pi or Ï€ is the ratio of a circles circumference to its diameter in Euclidean geometry, approximately 3. ... Insert non-formatted text here Carl Edward Sagan (November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer and astrobiologist and a highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics, and other natural sciences. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Contact is a science fiction novel written by Carl Sagan and published in 1985. ... A positional notation or place-value notation system is a numeral system in which each position is related to the next by a constant multiplier, a common ratio, called the base or radix of that numeral system. ...

However, such messages have not been found, and the argument relies on the messages being truthful. As usual, other hypotheses could explain the same evidence. In any case, if such constants are in fact infinite, then at some point an apparently meaningful message will appear in them (this is known as the infinite monkey theorem), not necessarily beause it was placed there. Given enough time, a chimpanzee typing at random will allegedly type out a copy of one of Shakespeares plays. ...

The Easter Egg Theory also assumes that a simulation would want to inform its inhabitants of its real nature; it may not.

Processing power

A computer simulation would be limited to the processing power of its host computer, and so there may be aspects of the simulation that are not computed at a fine-grained (e.g. subatomic) level. This might show up as a limitation on the accuracy of information that can be obtained in particle physics.

However, this argument, like many others, assumes that accurate judgments about the simulating computer can be made from within the simulation. If we are being simulated, we might be misled about the nature of computers.

Taken one step further, the "fine grained" elements of our world could themselves be simulated since we never see the sub-atomic particles due to our inherent physical limitations. In order to see such particles we rely on other instruments which appear to magnify or translate that information into a format our limited senses are able to view: computer print out, lens of a microscope, etc. Therefore, we essentially take on faith that they're an accurate portrayal of the fine grained world which appears to exist in a realm beyond our natural senses. Assuming the sub-atomic could also be simulated then the processing power required to generate a realistic world would then be greatly reduced.

Heisenberg uncertainty principle

German physicist, Werner Heisenberg, discovered that in the quantum world observers cannot obtain perfect information about every aspect of a system: “The more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely momentum is known in this instant, and vice versa.” Werner Karl Heisenberg (December 5, 1901 – February 1, 1976) was a celebrated German physicist and Nobel laureate, one of the founders of quantum mechanics and acknowledged to be one of the most important physicists of the twentieth century. ... For a less technical and generally accessible introduction to the topic, see Introduction to quantum mechanics. ...

This is often, but inaccurately, stated as meaning that "the observer has an effect on the observed". In quantum physics, the outcome of even an ideal measurement of a system is not deterministic, but instead is characterized by a probability distribution, and the larger the associated standard deviation is, the more uncertain we might say that that characteristic is for the system. ... Observer Effect is the name of the 87th episode from the television series Star Trek: Enterprise. ...

This "disturbance" interpretation of the uncertainty principle is similar to how scenes are sometimes rendered in video games, where computational resources are limited. Some areas of the simulation may not be rendered until a participant looks at them. This might resemble "observer effect" to a participant. In quantum physics, the outcome of even an ideal measurement of a system is not deterministic, but instead is characterized by a probability distribution, and the larger the associated standard deviation is, the more uncertain we might say that that characteristic is for the system. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Observer Effect is the name of the 87th episode from the television series Star Trek: Enterprise. ...

However, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and observer effect can be explained without assuming that we are currently living in a simulation. The universe could just be that way. In quantum physics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, sometimes called the Heisenberg indeterminacy principle, expresses a limitation on accuracy of (nearly) simultaneous measurement of observables such as the position and the momentum of a particle. ... Observer Effect is the name of the 87th episode from the television series Star Trek: Enterprise. ...

Digital physics and cellular automata

In theoretical physics, digital physics holds the basic premise that the entire history of our universe is computable in some sense. The hypothesis was pioneered in Konrad Zuse's book Rechnender Raum (translated by MIT into English as Calculating Space, 1970), which focuses on cellular automata. Juergen Schmidhuber suggested that the universe could be a Turing machine, because there is a very short program that outputs all possible programmes in an asymptotically optimal way. Other proponents include Edward Fredkin, Stephen Wolfram, and Nobel laureate Gerard 't Hooft. They hold that the apparently probabilistic nature of quantum physics is not incompatible with the notion of computability. A quantum version of digital physics has recently been proposed by Seth Lloyd. None of these suggestions has been developed into a workable physical theory. Theoretical physics employs mathematical models and abstractions of physics, as opposed to experimental processes, in an attempt to understand nature. ... Digital physics holds the basic premise that the entire history of our universe is computable, that is, the output of a (presumably short) computer program. ... For other uses, see Universe (disambiguation). ... Computability theory is that part of the theory of computation dealing with which problems are solvable by algorithms (equivalently, by Turing machines), with various restrictions and extensions. ... Statue in Bad Hersfeld Konrad Zuse (June 22, 1910 Berlin - December 18, 1995 Hünfeld) was a German engineer and computer pioneer. ... Calculating Space is the title of MIT´s English Translation of Konrad Zuse´s book Rechnender Raum (published in Germany in 1969), the first book on digital physics. ... Calculating Space is the title of MIT´s English Translation of Konrad Zuse´s book Rechnender Raum (published in Germany in 1969), the first book on digital physics. ... Jürgen Schmidhuber (born 1963 in Munich) is a computer scientist and artist known for his work on machine learning, universal Artificial Intelligence (AI), artificial neural networks, digital physics, and low-complexity art. ... An artistic representation of a Turing Machine . ... In computer science, an algorithm is said to be asymptotically optimal if, roughly speaking, for large inputs it performs at worst a constant factor worse than the best possible algorithm. ... Edward Fredkin was an early pioneer of digital physics (in recent work he uses the term digital philosophy (DP)). His main contributions include his work on reversible computing and cellular automata. ... Stephen Wolfram (born August 29, 1959 in London) is a scientist known for his work in theoretical particle physics, cellular automata, complexity theory, and computer algebra, and is the creator of the computer program Mathematica. ... Gerard t Hooft at Harvard University Gerardus (Gerard) t Hooft (born July 5, 1946) is a professor in theoretical physics at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. ... The word probability derives from the Latin probare (to prove, or to test). ... Fig. ... Seth Lloyd is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. His research area is the interplay of information with complex systems, especially quantum systems. ...

It can be argued that the use of continua in physics constitutes a possible argument against the simulation of a physical universe. Removing the real numbers and uncountable infinities from physics would counter some of the objections noted above, and at least make computer simulation a possibility. However, digital physics must overcome these objections. For instance, cellular automata would appear to be a poor model for the non-locality of quantum mechanics. Computational Universe Theory is a subset of an interrelated group of theories maintaining that in some form the universe is a computer. The computational universe theory is based upon one or more of the following assumptions. ... Look up continuum in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A magnet levitating above a high-temperature superconductor demonstrates the Meissner effect. ... In mathematics, the real numbers may be described informally as numbers that can be given by an infinite decimal representation, such as 2. ... In mathematics, an uncountable set is a set which is not countable. ... A physical theory is said to exhibit nonlocality if, in that theory, it is not possible to treat widely separated systems as independent. ... For a less technical and generally accessible introduction to the topic, see Introduction to quantum mechanics. ...

Other issues

Non-player characters or "bots"

Some of the people in a simulated reality may be automatons, philosophical zombies, or 'bots' added to the simulation to make it more realistic or interesting or challenging. Indeed, it is conceivable that every person other than oneself is a bot. Bostrom called this a "me-simulation", in which oneself is the only sovereign lifeform, or at least the only inhabitant who entered the simulation from outside. The Canard Digérateur of Jacques de Vaucanson, hailed in 1739 as the first automaton capable of digestion. ... A philosophical zombie or p-zombie is a hypothetical being that is indistinguishable from a normal human being except that it lacks conscious experience, qualia, sentience, or sapience. ... A bot, most prominently in the first person shooter PC game types (FPS), is a robotic computer controlled entity that simulates an online or LAN multiplayer human deathmatch opponent, team deathmatch opponent or a cooperative human player. ...

Bostrom further elaborated on the idea of bots:

In addition to ancestor-simulations, one may also consider the possibility of more selective simulations that include only a small group of humans or a single individual. The rest of humanity would then be zombies or “shadow-people” – humans simulated only at a level sufficient for the fully simulated people not to notice anything suspicious. It is not clear how much [computationally] cheaper shadow-people would be to simulate than real people. It is not even obvious that it is possible for an entity to behave indistinguishably from a real human and yet lack conscious experience.^[1]

The idea of "zombies" may have been borrowed from the video game industry where computer generated characters are known as Non-Player Characters ("NPCs"). The term 'bots' is short for 'robots'. The usage originated as the name given to the simple AI opponents of modern video games. A non-player character is a fictional character in a role-playing game whose role is generally created and performed by the gamemaster. ... // This disambiguation page covers alternative uses of the terms Ai, AI, and A.I. Ai (as a word, proper noun and set of initials) can refer to many things. ...

Subjective time

A brain-computer interface simulated reality may be required to progress at a rate that is near realtime; that is, time within it may be required to pass at approximately the same rate as the outer reality which contains it. This might be the case because the players are interacting with the simulation using brains which still reside in the outer reality. Therefore, if the simulation were to run faster or slower, those brains could notice because they were not contained with it. Simulated reality is the idea that reality could be simulated — often computer-simulated — to a degree indistinguishable from true reality. ... In computer science, real-time computing (RTC) is the study of hardware and software systems which are subject to a real-time constraint—i. ...

It is possible that time passes slower or quicker for brains in a dream state (i.e. in a brain-computer interface trance); however, the point is that they still function at a finite, biological speed, and the simulation must track with them. Unless those interacting with the simulation are augmented and capable of processing information at the same rate as the simulation itself. For the linguistic concept, see augment (linguistics). ...

A virtual-people or emigration simulated reality, on the other hand, need not. This is because its inhabitants are using the simulation's own physics in order to experience, think, and react. If the simulation were slowed down or sped up, so also would the inhabitants' own senses, brains, and muscles, as well as every other molecule inside. The inhabitants would perceive no change in the passage of time, simply because their method of measuring time is dependent on the cosmic clock that they are seeking to measure. (They could perform the measurement only if they had some access to data from the outer reality.) Simulated reality is the idea that reality could be simulated — often computer-simulated — to a degree indistinguishable from true reality. ... Simulated reality is the idea that reality could be simulated — often computer-simulated — to a degree indistinguishable from true reality. ...

For that matter, they could not even detect whether the simulation had been completely halted: a pause in the simulation would pause every life and mind within it. When the simulation was later resumed, the inhabitants would continue exactly as they were before the pause, completely unaware that (for example) their cosmos had been paused and archived for a billion years before being resumed by a completely different director. A simulation could also be created with its inhabitants already possessing memories as though they had already lived part of their lives before; said inhabitants would not be able to tell the difference unless informed of it by the simulation. (Compare with the five minute hypothesis and Last Thursdayism). The five-minute hypothesis was an idea put forth by the philosopher Bertrand Russell that claims the universe sprang into existence five minutes ago from nothing, with human memory and all other signs of history included. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

One practical implication of this is that a virtual-people or a hybrid simulation does not require a computer powerful enough to model its entire cosmos at full speed. Per the Turing completeness theorem, a simulation can progress at whatever speed its host computer can manage; it would be constrained by available memory but not by computation rate. In computability theory, an abstract machine or programming language is called Turing complete, Turing equivalent, or (computationally) universal if it has a computational power equivalent to a universal Turing machine (a simplified model of a programmable computer). ...

Recursive simulations

A simulated reality could contain a computer that is running a simulated reality. The 'parent' simulator would be simulating all of the atoms of the computer, atoms which happen to be calculating a 'child' simulation. By way of illustration: imagine that a human is playing a game of The Sims in which one of the player's Sims (simulated people) is playing a computer game in the game. For games with Sim in the title, see List of Sim games. ...

This recursion could continue to infinitely many levels -- a simulation containing a computer running a simulation containing a computer running a simulation and so on. The recursion is subject only to one constraint: each 'nested' simulation must be:

• smaller than its parent reality, because its own memory must be a subset of the parent's;

...and must be at least one of the following:

• slower than its parent reality, because its own calculations must be a subset of the parent's; or
• less complex than its parent reality, via simplifications of processes that are computationally intensive in the parent reality; or
• less complete than its parent reality, via approximations of objects that nobody is observing.

The latter is the basis of the idea that quantum uncertainties are circumstantial evidence that our own reality is a simulation. However, this assumes that there is a finite limitation somewhere in the chain. Assuming an infinite number of simulations within simulations, there need not be any noticeable difference between any of the subsets.

Simulated reality in fiction

Simulated reality is a theme that pre-dates science fiction. In Medieval and Renaissance religious theatre, the concept of the world as a theater is frequent. Works, early and contemporary, include: Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ...

Literature

• Accelerando (2005) by Charles Stross
• The Cookie Monster (2004), by Vernor Vinge
• Darwinia (1998) by Robert Charles Wilson
• Diaspora (1997) by Greg Egan
• Discourse on Method (1637) by René Descartes
• Eternity (1988) by Greg Bear, in particular his introduction of the Taylor algorithms as a means of determining the simulated nature of an artificial environment.
• Feersum Endjinn (1994) by Iain M. Banks (his later novel, The Algebraist, posits a religion that believes our universe is virtual)
• Flight: a Quantum Fiction novel (1995) by Vanna Bonta, posits that our universe is a virtual metaverse whereby collective and individual consciousness creates reality on the quantum level
• Forever Free (1999) by Joe Haldeman
• Get Real: A Philosophical Adventure in Virtual Reality (1998) by Philip Zhai
• The Girl Who Was Plugged In (1974) by James Tiptree Jr.
• Illusions (1977) by Richard Bach
• Jorge Luis Borges' many short stories (and essays)
• Killer App (2007) by Kenneth Brown
• The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect (1994) by Roger Williams
• Neuromancer (1984) and Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988) by William Gibson
• Otherland (1998) by Tad Williams
• Permutation City (1994) by Greg Egan
• Loop (1998) by Koji Suzuki
• Riverworld (1979) by Philip José Farmer
• Simulacron 3 (1964) by Daniel F. Galouye
• Snow Crash (1992) by Neal Stephenson
• Sophie's World (1991) by Jostein Gaarder
• The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965) by Philip K. Dick
• Time Out of Joint (1959) by Philip K. Dick
• Ubik (1969) by Philip K. Dick
• Valis (1981) by Philip K. Dick
• Vurt (1993) by Jeff Noon
• The Wonderland Gambit (1995) by Jack L. Chalker

Accelerando (ISBN 0441012841) is a 2005 science fiction novel by British author Charles Stross. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Charles David George Charlie Stross (born Leeds, October 18, 1964) is a writer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. ... The Cookie Monster is a 2004 Hugo Award winning novella by Vernor Vinge. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Vernor Steffen Vinge (IPA: ) (born February 10, 1944) is a mathematician, computer scientist and science fiction author who is best known for his Hugo award-winning novels A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky, as well as for his 1993 essay The Technological Singularity, in which... Darwinia is a science fiction novel written by Robert Charles Wilson in 1998. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... Robert Charles Wilson (born 1953) is a contemporary science fiction author. ... Diaspora is a Hard SF, 1997 novel by Australian writer Greg Egan. ... For the band, see 1997 (band). ... Greg Egan (August 20, 1961, Perth, Western Australia) is an Australian computer programmer and science fiction author. ... The Discourse on Method is a philosophical and mathematical treatise published by René Descartes in 1637. ... Events February 3 - Tulipmania collapses in Netherlands by government order February 15 - Ferdinand III becomes Holy Roman Emperor December 17 - Shimabara Rebellion erupts in Japan Pierre de Fermat makes a marginal claim to have proof of what would become known as Fermats last theorem. ... “Descartes” redirects here. ... While in the popular mind, eternity often simply means existing for an infinite, i. ... Gregory Dale Bear (born August 20, 1951) is a science fiction author. ... The Taylor algorithms are a set of fictional mathematical algorithms that allow intelligent programs or agents in a simulated reality to determine the true nature of their environment, and even to change it. ... Feersum Endjinn is a science fiction novel by Iain M. Banks; unlike most of his science fiction, it does not feature the Culture. ... Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) The year 1994 was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by the United Nations. ... Iain Menzies Banks (born on February 16, 1954 in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland) writes mainstream novels as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks. ... The Algebraist, a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first appeared in print in 2004. ... For other uses, see Universe (disambiguation). ... Vanna Bonta is an American novelist, poet, and actress. ... The virtual is a concept applied in many fields with somewhat differing connotations, and also denotations. ... Collective can also refer to the collective pitch flight control in helicopters A collective is a group of people who share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together on a specific project(s) to achieve a common objective. ... As commonly used, individual refers to a person or to any specific object in a collection. ... Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and ones environment. ... For other uses, see Reality (disambiguation). ... In physics, a quantum (plural: quanta) is an indivisible entity of energy. ... Forever Free can refer to: Forever Free (novel), a science fiction novel by Joe Haldeman, published in 1999 Forever Free (Saxon album), an album by heavy metal band Saxon, released in 1992 Forever Free (tribute album), a tribute album to the band Sublime, released in 2006 Forever Free (W.A... This article is about the year. ... Joseph William Haldeman is an American science fiction author. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... Philip Zhai (also known as Zhenming Zhai 翟振明）is a philosopher who writes in both English and Chinese. ... The Girl Who Was Plugged In is a science fiction short story by James Tiptree, Jr. ... Year 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. ... James Tiptree, Jr (August 24, 1915 – May 19, 1987) was the pen name of science fiction author Alice Sheldon. ... Illusions is a 1989 book by Richard Bach that questions our views on reality. ... Also: 1977 (album) by Ash. ... Richard David Bach (b. ... Jorge Luis Borges (August 24, 1899 – June 14, 1986) was an Argentine writer. ... A killer application (commonly shortened to killer app) is a computer program that is so useful that people will buy a particular computer hardware, gaming console, and/or an operating system simply to run that program. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect is a 1994 novel by Roger Williams. ... Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) The year 1994 was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by the United Nations. ... For the 1988 video game, see Neuromancer (video game). ... This article is about the year. ... NAKAYUBI (ナカユビ; Middle Finger) Buster Zangai -Shape2- (残骸 -Shape2-; Wreck -Shape2-) Limbo Mona Lisa Girl (Shape 2) Sid Vicious on the Beach Black Cherry Genzai (原罪; Original Sin) Monster Ai no uta (愛ノ歌; Love Song Continuous Information Mona Lisa OVERDRIVE was named after the 1989 novel Mona Lisa Overdrive, by William Gibson. ... Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ... For other persons named William Gibson, see William Gibson (disambiguation). ... Otherland is a four-volume science fiction epic by Tad Williams. ... Robert Paul Tad Williams (born March 14, 1957) is the author of several fantasy and science fiction novels, including Tailchasers Song, the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series, the Otherland series, and The War of the Flowers. ... Permutation City is a science fiction novel (ISBN 1-85798-218-5) by Greg Egan which explores quantum ontology via the various philosophical aspects of artificial life and simulations of intelligence. ... Greg Egan (August 20, 1961, Perth, Western Australia) is an Australian computer programmer and science fiction author. ... This article or section seems not to be written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia entry. ... Kōji Suzuki (born May 13, 1957) is a Japanese writer currently lives in Tokyo. ... Riverworld is a fictional universe and the setting for a series of science fiction books written by Philip José Farmer. ... Also: 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins. ... Philip José Farmer (born January 26, 1918) is an American author, principally known for his science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories. ... The science fiction novel Simulacron-3 was first published in 1964 by Daniel F. Galouye in the United States. ... Also Nintendo emulator: 1964 (emulator). ... Daniel F. Galouye (1920-1976) was an American science fiction writer. ... Snow Crash is Neal Stephensons third science fiction novel, published in 1992. ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ... Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer, known primarily for his science fiction works in the postcyberpunk genre with a penchant for explorations of society, mathematics, currency, and the history of science. ... Sophies World (Sofies verden in the original Norwegian) is a novel by Jostein Gaarder, published in 1991. ... Year 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the 1991 Gregorian calendar). ... Jostein Gaarder (born August 8, 1952 in Oslo) is a Norwegian intellectual and author of several novels, short stories and childrens books. ... The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is a typically complex novel by the science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. ... Year 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the 1965 Gregorian calendar. ... Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982) was an American writer, mostly known for his works of science fiction. ... Cover of 1977 Belmont paperback edition. ... Year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982) was an American writer, mostly known for his works of science fiction. ... Cover of the 1970 Dell paperback edition of Ubik Ubik is a 1969 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. ... Also: 1969 (Stargate SG-1) episode. ... Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982) was an American writer, mostly known for his works of science fiction. ... VALIS is a 1981 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. ... Year 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 Gregorian calendar). ... Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982) was an American writer, mostly known for his works of science fiction. ... Jeff Noon Jeff Noon (born in 1957 in Droylsden, Manchester, England) is a novelist, short story writer and playwright whose works make extensive use of wordplay and fantasy. ... Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar). ... Jeff Noon Jeff Noon (born in 1957 in Droylsden, Manchester, England) is a novelist, short story writer and playwright whose works make extensive use of wordplay and fantasy. ... Jack Laurence Chalker (December 17, 1944 - February 11, 2005) was an American science fiction author. ... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ... Jack Laurence Chalker (December 17, 1944 - February 11, 2005) was an American science fiction author. ...

Film, plays & TV series

• .hack//SIGN, an anime series about a person whose mind is trapped in an online computer role-playing game
• Avalon by Mamoru Oshii
• Better Than Life and Back to Reality in Red Dwarf, by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor
• The Big O by Hajime Yatate and Chiaki J. Konaka NB the reality in question has not been confirmed as simulated, but it is extremely likely
• Brainscan by John Flynn
• "The Cage" and "The Menagerie", the unaired pilot and later episodes (respectively) of Star Trek, screenplays by Gene Roddenberry
• The Gamekeeper, an episode of Stargate SG-1.
• Danger Room A training simulator from the (X-Men) universe.
• Dark City by Alex Proyas
• "The Deadly Assassin," an episode of Doctor Who written by Robert Holmes
• eXistenZ by David Cronenberg
• Good Bye Lenin!, by Wolfgang Becker, a Berlin family tries to make the feeble mother believe that East Germany did not fall.
• Impostor, based on a story by Philip K. Dick
• The Island, directed by Michael Bay
• The Truman Show, directed by Peter Weir
• La vida es sueño (Life is a Dream), a Spanish play by Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681) that evolved from the legends of the early years of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha
• The Matrix trilogy by the Wachowski brothers
• In the Doctor Who universe.
• Paranoia Agent by Satoshi Kon
• Possible Worlds, both the play and the 2000 film adaptation of that play
• "The Sentence", an episode of The Outer Limits television series
• Serial Experiments Lain by Chiaki J. Konaka
• "Ship in a Bottle" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, in which the fictional Professor Moriarty of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories is allowed to exist in a simulation of the world
• In the Star Trek fictional universe, particularly in and since the series Star Trek: The Next Generation, holodecks are simulators aboard starships and other facilities used for training and recreation
• The 13th Floor by Josef Rusnak
• Total Recall by Paul Verhoeven, based on a Philip K. Dick's story
• Tron (1982) by Walt Disney Pictures
• "The Twilight Zone" has featured a number of episodes involving false or simulated realities of some sort.
• Vanilla Sky by Cameron Crowe (a remake of Abre los ojos by Alejandro Amenábar)
• "The X-Files" has featured a number of episodes involving simulated realities of some sort.
• "Welt am Draht" a 1973 German film adaptation of Simulacron-3 from Rainer Werner Fassbinder
• Cube 2: Hypercube (2002) written by Sean Hood
• Harsh Realm the short lived TV Series created by Chris Carter which took place in a Virtual world.

Original run 2002-04-04 – 2002-09-25 No. ... “Animé” redirects here. ... An image from World of Warcraft, one of the largest commercial MMORPGs as of 2004, based on active subscriptions. ... 2003 North American DVD release. ... Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer Mamoru Oshii (押井守 Oshii Mamoru; born August 8, 1951 in Tokyo) is a Japanese animation and live-action film writer and director famous for his philosophy-orietned storytelling. ... Better Than Life is a major concept in the Red Dwarf canon. ... Back to Reality was the sixth epsiode to air in the fifth series of Red Dwarf. ... For the type of star, see Red dwarf. ... Rob Grants novel, Colony. ... Doug Naylor is a British comedy writer who was born in Manchester, England. ... Original run October 13, 1999 – January 19, 2000 No. ... Hajime Yatate (矢立 肇 Yatate Hajime), also known as Hajime Yadate, is a pen name for the collective contributions of the Sunrise animation staff. ... Chiaki J. Konaka (小中千昭 Konaka Chiaki) (April 4, 1961 - ) is a Japanese scriptwriter who works predominantly on anime. ... Brainscan is a 1994 horror film starring Edward Furlong, Frank Langella, and T.Ryder Smith. ... John Flynn could refer to one of several people: The Reverend John Flynn, founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia John Flynn, the director of a number of Hollywood movies such as Rolling Thunder. ... The Cage is the original pilot episode of the original Star Trek science fiction series and resulting franchise. ... The Menagerie is the first and only two-part episode of the Star Trek: The Original Series. ... The starship Enterprise as it appeared on Star Trek Star Trek is a culturally significant science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry in the 1960s. ... Eugene Wesley Roddenberry (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American scriptwriter and producer. ... Episode chronology The Gamekeeper is an episode from Season 2 of the science fiction television series Stargate SG-1. ... Stargate SG-1 (often abbreviated as SG-1) is a science fiction television series, part of the Stargate franchise. ... The Danger Room is a fictional training facility built for the X-Men of Marvel Comics. ... The X-Men are a group of comic book superheroes featured in Marvel Comics. ... Dark City is a 1998 movie written and directed by Alex Proyas. ... Alex Proyas (born September 23 , 1963) is an Australian film director, writer, and producer. ... The Deadly Assassin is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from October 30 to November 20, 1976. ... For other uses, see Doctor Who (disambiguation). ... This entry is about the television scriptwriter. ... eXistenZ is a 1999 psychological thriller/science fiction film by Canadian director David Cronenberg. ... David Paul Cronenberg OC, FRSC (born May 15, 1943[2]) is a Canadian film director and occasional actor. ... Good Bye, Lenin! is a German tragicomedy film, released internationally in 2003. ... Wolfgang Becker was born in 1954 in Hemer/Westphalia and studied German, History and American Studies at the Free University in Berlin. ... Anthem Auferstanden aus Ruinen Capital East Berlin Language(s) German Government Socialist republic Head of State  - 1949 – 1960 Wilhelm Pieck  - 1960 – 1973 Walter Ulbricht  - 1973 – 1976 Willi Stoph  - 1976 – 1989 Erich Honecker  - 1989 Egon Krenz  - 1989 - 1990 Manfred Gerlach Head of Government  - 1949 – 1964 Otto Grotewohl  - 1964 – 1973 Willi Stoph... German reunification (Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) refers to the reunification of Germany from its constituent parts of East Germany and West Germany under a single government on October 3, 1990. ... Impostor is based upon a short story written by Philip K. Dick in 1953. ... Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982) was an American writer, mostly known for his works of science fiction. ... The Island is a 2005 science fiction film directed by Michael Bay and starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. ... Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American film director and producer. ... The Truman Show is a 1998 film directed by Peter Weir, written by Andrew Niccol, and starring Jim Carrey and Ed Harris. ... Peter Lindsay Weir (born August 21, 1944) is an Australian film director. ... La vida es sueño (Life is a Dream) is a comedy written by Spanish playwright Pedro Calderón de la Barca; it is perhaps his most well-known work. ... Pedro Calderón de la Barca. ... Standing Buddha, ancient region of Gandhara, northern Pakistan, 1st century CE. Gautama Buddha was a South Asian spiritual leader who lived between approximately 563 BCE and 483 BCE. Born Siddhartha Gautama in Sanskrit, a name meaning descendant of Gotama whose aims are achieved/who is efficacious in achieving aims, he... Media:Example. ... The Matrix series spans major motion pictures, Japanese-style animation, and video games in an attempt to tell a story thats part science fiction, part modern myth, with elements of cyberpunk, computer science, philosophy of mind, Hinduism, Christianity, Gnosticism, Buddhism, classical mythology, and other influences. ... Laurence Larry Wachowski (born June 21, 1965) and Andrew Andy Wachowski (born December 29, 1967) are American film directors and writers most famous for creating The Matrix series. ... The Matrix, in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, is a massive computer system on the planet Gallifrey that acts as the repository of the combined knowledge of the Time Lords. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Satoshi Kon (今敏 Kon Satoshi, born 12 October 1963 in Kushiro,Hokkaido,Japan) is a highly-regarded director of anime films Perfect Blue (1997), Millennium Actress (2001) and Tokyo Godfathers(2003). ... Possible Worlds, written by John Mighton, is an unusual play. ... Year 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full 2000 Gregorian calendar). ... Possible Worlds is a 2000 film adaptation of the play of the same name. ... The Sentence is an episode of The Outer Limits television series. ... The Outer Limits is an American television series. ... Original run July 6, 1998 – September 28, 1998 No. ... Chiaki J. Konaka (小中千昭 Konaka Chiaki) (April 4, 1961 - ) is a Japanese scriptwriter who works predominantly on anime. ... Moriarty and Picard in Ship in a Bottle Ship in a Bottle is the 138th episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. ... Professor Moriarty, illustration by Sidney Paget which accompanied the original publication of The Final Problem. Professor James Moriarty is a fictional character who is the best known antagonist (and archenemy) of the detective Sherlock Holmes. ... Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (May 22, 1859 - July 7, 1930) is the British author most famously known for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction. ... A portrait of Sherlock Holmes by Sidney Paget from the Strand Magazine, 1891 Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who first appeared in publication in 1887. ... The current Star Trek franchise logo Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment series and media franchise. ... The title as it appeared in most episodes opening credits. ... A holodeck on the Enterprise-D; the arch and exit are prominent. ... One of the fictional ships called the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek, one of the most famous fictional starships. ... Movie Poster The Thirteenth Floor is a 1999 film released to cinemas in Germany and the United States (as The 13th Floor). ... Total Recall is an American science fiction film released on June 1, 1990, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Ronald Shusett, Dan OBannon, Jon Povill and Gary Goldman. ... Paul Verhoeven (IPA: [pÊŒul vÉ›rhuvÉ™n]) (born July 18, 1938 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch film director, screenwriter, and film producer. ... Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982) was an American writer, mostly known for his works of science fiction. ... Tron is a 1982 science fiction film starring Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn (and his counterpart inside the electronic world, Clu), Bruce Boxleitner as Alan Bradley (and Tron), Cindy Morgan as Lora Baines (and Yori) and Dan Shor as Ram. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Twilight Zone title. ... Vanilla Sky is a 2001 film which has been variously characterized by published film critics as an odd mixture of science fiction, romance, and reality warp [2], part Beautiful People fantasy, part New Age investigation of the Great Beyond[3] a love story, a struggle for the soul, or an... Cameron Bruce Crowe (born July 13, 1957) is an Academy Award winning American writer and film director. ... Open Your Eyes redirects here. ... Alejandro Fernando Amenábar Cantos (born March 31, 1972 in Santiago, Chile) is a Spanish film director, widely considered one of the most important Spanish directors working today even though he has directed only four films. ... The X-Files is a Peabody- and Emmy Award-winning science fiction television series created by Chris Carter, which first aired on September 10, 1993, and ended on May 19, 2002. ... Welt am Draht (World on Wires), originally aired in 1973, is a two part made-for-TV science fiction movie by German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, based on the novel Simulacron Three by Daniel F. Galouye, later remade in 1999 as The Thirteenth Floor. ... The science fiction novel Simulacron-3 was first published in 1964 by Daniel F. Galouye in the United States. ... Rainer Werner Fassbinder (May 31, 1945 – June 10, 1982) was a German movie director, screenwriter and actor, one of the most important representatives of the New German Cinema. ... Categories: Movie stubs | 2002 films | Science fiction films ... Harsh Realm is a science fiction television series about humans trapped inside a virtual reality simulation. ...

Interactive fiction

• A Mind Forever Voyaging by Steve Meretzky

A Mind Forever Voyaging (AMFV) is an interactive fiction game designed and implemented by Steve Meretzky and published by Infocom in 1985. ... Steve Meretzky Steven Eric Meretzky (born May 1, 1957) is an American computer game designer, with dozens of titles to his credit. ...

Video games

• Final Fantasy X by Yoshinori Kitase
• Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time by Minato Koio
• Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
• Silent Hill
• The Fatal Frame series.
• Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater by Hideo Kojima
• .hack series.
• Custom Robo
• Kingdom Hearts II
• The Sims
• The Sims 2
• The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
• There.com
• Planescape: Torment
• Gateway, a computer game based on the novel of the same name.

The fictional events of the Square Enix role-playing video games Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2 take place in a world called Spira ). As befitting its name, Spira is characterized by cycles and repetition, such as the spiral of death that the world endures, the many spheres... Square Enix producer Yoshinori Kitase has been credited on the following games: Final Fantasy X-2 Kingdom Hearts Final Fantasy X Final Fantasy Anthology Final Fantasy VIII Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring Final Fantasy VII Chrono Trigger Final Fantasy VI Final Fantasy V Final Fantasy Adventure He is currently working... Introduction Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is the third game in the Star Ocean video game series. ... “SMAC” redirects here. ... There are currently five Silent Hill games available with three under production (although one title, Silent Hill: Play Novel, was released exclusively in Japan), all of which were released to strong sales and critical acclaim. ... Miku Hinasaki has an ability that allows her to sense the supernatural. ... Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (commonly abbreviated MGS2) is a stealth-based game that was developed and published by Konami for the PlayStation 2 in 2001. ... Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (commonly abbreviated MGS3) is a stealth-based game directed by Hideo Kojima, developed and published by Konami for the PlayStation 2. ... Hideo Kojima 2007 at the Games Convention in Leipzig / Germany Hideo Kojima , born August 24, 1963) is a Japanese video game designer originally employed at Konami. ... .hack is a Japanese franchise that encompasses two multimedia projects: Project . ... This article or section seems not to be written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia entry. ... Kingdom Hearts II ) is an action role-playing game developed by Square Enix Co. ... For games with Sim in the title, see List of Sim games. ... This article is about the computer game. ... There logo There is a MMOG created by Will Harvey and Jeffrey Ventrella in 1998. ... Planescape: Torment is a computer role-playing game (CRPG) that takes place in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Planescape setting. ... Gateway has several meanings. ...

See also

Artificial consciousness (AC), also known as machine consciousness (MC) or synthetic consciousness, is a field related to artificial intelligence and cognitive robotics whose aim is to define that which would have to be synthesized were consciousness to be found in an engineered artifact. ... Artificial Life, (commonly Alife or alife) is a field of study and art form that examines systems related to life, its processes and its evolution through simulations using computer models, robotics, and biochemistry [1] (called soft, hard, and wet approaches respectively[2]). Artificial life complements traditional Biology by trying to... Artificial reality was the term Myron W. Krueger used to describe his interactive immersive environments, based on video recognition techniques, that put a user in full, unencumbered contact with the digital world. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... In philosophy, the brain in a vat is any of a variety of thought experiments intended to draw out certain features of our ideas of knowledge, reality, truth, mind, and meaning. ... Computational sociology is a recently developed branch of sociology that uses computation to analyze social phenomena. ... Computational Universe Theory is a subset of an interrelated group of theories maintaining that in some form the universe is a computer. The computational universe theory is based upon one or more of the following assumptions. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Social constructionism. ... Berlins Sony Center reflects the global reach of a Japanese corporation. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Ernst Stavro Blofeld in You Only Live Twice, a textbook example of an evil genius. ... The Fabric of Reality is a 1997 book by physicist David Deutsch, which expands upon his views of quantum mechanics and its meanings for understanding reality. ... A holodeck on the Enterprise-D; the arch and exit are prominent. ... In semiotics and postmodern philosophy, the term hyperreality characterizes the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from fantasy, especially in technologically advanced postmodern cultures. ... Infosphere is a term used since the 1990s to speculate about the common evolution of internet, society and culture. ... Lucid dreams occur during REM sleep after the person becomes conscious and aware of dreaming within the dream. ... In transhumanism and science fiction, mind transfer (also referred to as mind uploading or mind downloading, depending on ones point of reference), whole body emulation, or electronic transcendence refers to the hypothetical transfer of a human mind to an artificial substrate. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Augmented reality. ... This article is about the 1999 film. ... The Omega Point is a term used by Tulane University professor of mathematics and physics Frank J. Tipler to describe what he maintains is a necessary cosmological state in the far future of the universe. ... The philosophy of information (PI) is a new area of research, which studies conceptual issues arising at the intersection of computer science, information technology, and philosophy. ... For other uses, see Reality (disambiguation). ... In Buddhism the perceived reality is considered unreal (according to the Buddha: Mañjushri, dreams appear but do not exist. ... Second Life (abbreviated as SL) is an Internet-based virtual world launched in 2003, developed by Linden Research, Inc (commonly referred to as Linden Lab), which came to international attention via mainstream news media in late 2006 and early 2007. ... Simulacrum (plural: simulacra), from the Latin simulare, to make like, to put on an appearance of, originally meaning a material object representing something (such as a cult image representing a deity, or a painted still-life of a bowl of fruit). ... Social simulation is the modelling, or simulation, normally performed using a computer, of social phenomena (e. ... This article is about the simulation technology. ... Nick Bostrom (Boström in the original Swedish) is a philosopher at the University of Oxford, and known for his work on the anthropic principle. ... “Descartes” redirects here. ... David Deutsch (born 1953) is a physicist at Oxford University. ... Edward Fredkin was an early pioneer of digital physics (in recent work he uses the term digital philosophy (DP)). His main contributions include his work on reversible computing and cellular automata. ... Raymond Kurzweil (pronounced: ) (born February 12, 1948) is a pioneer in the fields of optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology, and electronic keyboard instruments. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... Seth Lloyd is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. His research area is the interplay of information with complex systems, especially quantum systems. ... PLATO was one of the first generalized Computer assisted instruction systems, originally built by the University of Illinois (U of I) and later taken over by Control Data Corporation (CDC), who provided the machines it ran on. ... Frank J. Tipler (born in 1947 in Andalusia, Alabama) is a professor of mathematical physics at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. ... Zeno of Elea (IPA:zÉ›noÊŠ, É›lɛɑː)(circa 490 BC? – circa 430 BC?) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of southern Italy and a member of the Eleatic School founded by Parmenides. ... // The Person Zhuāng Zǐ (pinyin), Chuang Tzu (W-G), or Chuang Tse (Chinese 莊子, literally meaning Master Zhuang) was a famous philosopher in ancient China who lived around the 4th century BC during the Warring States Period, corresponding to the Hundred Schools of Thought philosophical summit of Chinese thought. ... Statue in Bad Hersfeld Konrad Zuse (June 22, 1910 Berlin - December 18, 1995 Hünfeld) was a German engineer and computer pioneer. ...

Bibliography

• Copleston, Frederick [1946] (1993). "XIX Theory of Knowledge", A History of Philosophy, Volume I: Greece and Rome. New York: Image Books (Doubleday), 160. ISBN 0-385-46843-1. 
• Copleston, Frederick [1960] (1994). "II Descartes (I)", A History of Philosophy, Volume IV: Modern Philosophy. New York: Image Books (Doubleday), 86. ISBN 0-385-47041-X. 
• Deutsch, David [1997] (1997). The Fabric of Reality. London: Penguin Science (Allen Lane). ISBN 0-14-014690-3. 
• Lloyd, Seth (2006). Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes On the Cosmos. Knopf. ISBN 978-1400040926. 
• Tipler, Frank [1994] (1994). The Physics of Immortality. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-46799-0. 
• Lem, Stanislaw (1964). Summa Technologiae. 

Frederick Charles Copleston, (April 10, 1907, Taunton, Somerset, England – February 3, 1994, London, England) was a Jesuit priest and writer on philosophy. ... Frederick Charles Copleston, (April 10, 1907, Taunton, Somerset, England – February 3, 1994, London, England) was a Jesuit priest and writer on philosophy. ... David Deutsch (born 1953) is a physicist at Oxford University. ... Seth Lloyd is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. His research area is the interplay of information with complex systems, especially quantum systems. ... Frank J. Tipler is a professor of mathematical physics at Tulane University, New Orleans, physicist, theologian and cornucopian philosopher. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ...

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Are You Living in a Computer Simulation? by Nick Bostrom. July 2002. Accessed 21 December 2006
2. ^ Bruno Marchal
3. ^ Russel Standish
4. ^ "There is no logical impossibility in the supposition that the whole of life is a dream, in which we ourselves create all the objects that come before us. But although this is not logically impossible, there is no reason whatever to suppose that it is true; and it is, in fact, a less simple hypothesis, viewed as a means of accounting for the facts of our own life, than the common-sense hypothesis that there really are objects independent of us, whose action on us causes our sensations." Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy
5. ^ ^{a b} René Descartes, Meditations on the First Philosophy, from Descartes, The Philosophical Works of Descartes, trans. Elizabeth S. Haldane and G.R.T. Ross (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911 – reprinted with corrections 1931), Volume I, 145-46.
6. ^ Chalmers, J., The Matrix as Metaphysics, Department of Philosophy, University of Arizona
7. ^ PHYSICS, PHILOSOPHY AND QUANTUM TECHNOLOGY
8. ^ Subjective Time
9. ^ " But ordinary computing systems, such as Turing Machines (TM), can only take a finite number of states. Even if we combine the internal states of a TM with the content of the machine’s tape to increase the number of possible states, the total number of states that a TM can be in is only countably infinite. Moreover, TMs can only follow a countable number of state space trajectories. The same point applies to any ordinary computing system of the kinds used in scientific modelling. So ordinary computational descriptions do not have a cardinality of states and state space trajectories that is sufficient for them to map onto ordinary mathematical descriptions of natural systems. Thus, from the point of view of strict mathematical description, the thesis that everything is a computing system in this second sense cannot be supporte"Computational Modelling vs. Computational Explanation: Is Everything a Turing Machine, and Does It Matter to the Philosophy of Mind?
10. ^ Hypercomputation, Toby Ord
11. ^ "The Cosmology Machine takes data from billions of observations about the behaviour of stars, gases and the mysterious dark matter throughout the universe and then calculates, at ultra high speeds, how galaxies and solar systems evolved. By testing different theories of cosmic evolution it can simulate virtual universes to test which ideas come closest to explaining the real universe."Cosmology Machine creates the Universe
12. ^ Popper, K. Science as Falsification
13. ^ Deutsch, D. (1997), The Fabric of Reality, Penguin Books: in particular see pages 123-131
14. ^ IBM Blue Gene Team, "Blue Gene: A vision for protein science using a petaflop supercomputer", IBM Systems Journal 40 (2), <http://researchweb.watson.ibm.com/journal/sj/402/allen.html>
15. ^ Pande, Vijay & et al. (January), "Atomistic protein folding simulations on the submillisecond timescale using worldwide distributed computing", Biopolymers 68 (1): 91-109, <http://folding.stanford.edu/papers/Pande_review_2003biopoly.pdf>
16. ^ Undeterdetermination
17. ^ Skeptic report on Occam's razor
18. ^ Skepticwki on Occam's razor
19. ^ 'There is no shred of evidence in my experience, or in my memory that would justify a belief that I am a "brain in a vat". To the best of my determination, it makes no practical difference to the way in which I need to react to my experiences of this reality I experience. So I choose to employ Ockham’s Razor and reject the hypothesis that this "reality" I experience is not in fact the "real" Reality'.[1]
20. ^ "But several things convince us that we are not being deceived about the external world. For a start, it seems an entirely superfluous suggestion" Ash, T. The Existence of the Physical World
21. ^ Nick Bostrom (May 16, 2003). The Simulation Argument: Why the Probability that You Are Living in a Matrix is Quite High.. www.nickbostrom.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-04.

This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... is the 355th day of the year (356th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970), was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, advocate for social reform, and pacifist. ... Simulated reality is the idea that reality could be simulated — often computer-simulated — to a degree indistinguishable from true reality. ... Vijay S. Pande is currently an Associate Professor in the Chemistry Department at Stanford University. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... is the 155th day of the year (156th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Anthropic-principle.com'' Website maintained by Nick Bostrom with a collection of papers on SR and related topics.
• The Big Brother Universe
• Computer Universes and an Algorithmic Theory of Everything by Jürgen Schmidhuber
• The Computational Requirements for the Matrix discussion on Slashdot.
• Computationalism: The Very Idea, an overview of computationalism by David Davenport.
• The Cutting Edge of Haptics, an article in MIT's Technology review on touch illusion technology by Duncan Graham-Rowe.
• God Is the Machine Wired article by Kevin Kelly.
• "That Mysterious Flow"". Davies, Paul, (Sept. (2002) Scientific American 287 (3): 40-45. 
• Philosophy & "The Matrix" Related to the Warner Brothers movie; including papers by David Chalmers and other philosophers.
• The Simulation Argument Website by Nick Bostrom, Director, Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford University. Inlcudes his original paper.
• Simulation, Consciousness, Existence by Hans Moravec.
• Simulism, a wiki devoted to the possibility that our reality is a simulation.
• What We Still Don't Know, Channel 4 documentary by British Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees.
• Zombies - Philosophical zombie article by Robert Kirk in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.