If we are a simulation, our reality could have the same constraints a software developer would run into when programming a game universe. For example, if a programmer created our universe, they would make sure it was physically impossible for us to travel past the programmed boundaries of our reality. And sure enough, the physical laws of our so-called reality make it impossible to travel fast enough to reach our outer boundaries.
The core argument for our reality being a simulation is that as soon as any advanced species—including humans—develops the skill to create such a simulation, they would surely make more than one. Maybe millions. And the simulations themselves would evolve to make their own simulations. So the odds of us being the one original species and not one of the millions or trillions of simulations are low.
I’m a believer that we live in a simulated environment. I don’t believe it because I’m convinced it’s true. I have no way to know what even is true. It would be more accurate to say I find The Simulation a useful filter on life because it answers all my questions and gives me extra, special strategies for success. I’ll explain that part shortly.
As crazy as The Simulation Hypothesis is, some smart people find it credible. Elon Musk is the most famous among them, but the idea comes from American cognitive scientist and author Donald Hoffman. Spend some time on the Internet reading about The Simulation, and you might get hooked. But remember, it’s not about what is true. It’s about which filters and strategies of mind get you the best result.
I won’t ask you to believe we’re living in a simulation. I won’t ask you to believe it’s a rational hypothesis. I won’t ask you to believe there is evidence or science or any solid argument to support that world view. But I will ask you to see The Simulation as one of many filters you can put on life to predict and explain. Like any of the simpler reframes, the only test it must pass is that you find it useful. I’ll show you how to make it so.
Usual Frame: Reality is objective, and science helps us understand it.
Reframe: Our so-called reality is a simulation created by a higher intelligence.
Alternate: You are in a video game, and you have certain problems to solve to get to the next level.
If we are in a simulation, what is the point of it? I can think of several. The one that explains the most observations is that we’re testing different strategies for success on a wide variety of challenges—as stated earlier—so our creators know what solutions they can try in their world.
Have you ever noticed some people have the same odd problem over and over, but others will never once have that sort of problem? I call it a theme. One of my themes is that no matter where I live, I have continuous plumbing problems—the bad kinds. The odds of one person having so many continuous plumbing emergencies over several decades seem insanely low. That’s why it looks programmed. It seems as if I’m A/B testing different ways to approach residential plumbing catastrophes. I’m getting good at it!
Or maybe we’re an afterlife of some long-deceased species, looping through this same history for infinity. I expect to leave my digital personality in something like that before I go. Wouldn’t my hypothetical creator—if humanlike—do the same?
Or maybe we are avatars (characters) in some sort of massive video game in which the way one wins is by producing the most kids, making the most money, or creating the most positive change.
Or maybe we’re a reality show. That would explain why we seem to encounter one absurd situation after another.
The point is that we can imagine several reasons a simulated world would exist. But if we’re simulated, what benefits would we get from knowing that?
I like to think that being aware you are simulated allows you to author the game as you go. In other words, you can focus intensely on what you want—and that alone will hack the simulation to produce the change. As noted in the Introduction, some call that affirmations. Some call it positive thinking. Others call it the Law of Attraction. All I know for sure is that the people who believe we live in a Simulation seem to get a lot of what they want compared to those who have other filters on reality. Case in point, Elon Musk has done okay. I can pay my rent, too.
Author Versus Audience
If you believe you can author the simulation with your intentions, you’re likely to experience a reality in which that seems to be exactly what is happening. That’s how I experience life. Even my bad luck seems eerily similar to things I had been thinking about too much, as if I created it by mistake. Many people who practice affirmations tell me about their experiences—they, too, feel as if they’re authoring their own destiny.
The possibility of authoring your future—or even feeling as if you are—is why The Simulation Hypothesis is a powerful reframe. If your view of reality is limited to the common view of cause and effect, you might feel relatively helpless to change anything in your life. But if you use affirmations and your dreams appear to come true against the odds, you open up to new possibilities. Or it feels as if you do. And that can be just as satisfying.
My current view of reality is that I am in some sort of simulated environment, and I am projecting a subjective bubble of reality everywhere I go just in time to make me think it all seems real. If you and I meet, we can have two different realities and later leave with two different memories of the event. The discrepancies in our realities will never be obvious because we’re unlikely to compare our memories of it in any detail. If for some reason we ever did compare our memories, we would conclude that one or both of us had a faulty memory and that alone explains the discrepancy.
This is how we all live in our own bubble realities, unconcerned that our stories do not sync with the bubble next to us. Importantly, it’s also how the computing device running our simulation can handle the nearly infinite complexity of a simulated universe—it doesn’t. It just convinces us it did, and we imagine we see it.
Usual Frame: We have different memories.
Reframe: We created different subjective realities.
One of the great comforts of this reframe is that I no longer feel stress when I can’t persuade someone that my view of events is the accurate one. Now I accept that two or more “realities” were running at the same time; there is no reason they need to match. It isn’t easy to get comfortable with that idea, but if you can pull it off, it pays for itself in reduced frustration.
Another advantage of living as though I’m in a simulation is that almost anything seems possible unless ruled out by observed past events. I never feel limited, and I think that attitude helps me take on tougher problems with enthusiasm.
If you will allow me to go full-weird, I speculate that imagining, planning, and predicting might have the same impact on reality. In each case, you visualize the future, and I suspect—without the support of science or facts—that the more accurately you imagine your future, the more you become the author of your reality. I wouldn’t bet my life on it, but it would explain a lot that has happened in my life.