This debate isn't about whether we live in a simulation, but rather why we live in a simulation. I propose nine possibilities.
1) Simulations are a great way to to avoid the potential consequences of experimentation. Let a simulation face base reality's problem. If it figures out a solution with no negative consequences, goody! Apparently our task is to resolve over population, a dying planet, poverty, homelessness, cruelty, hatred, nuclear holocaust, Taylor Swift, etc. ( I heard this from a comedian. I forgot her name though )
2) Sheer entertainment. People in base reality can amuse themselves with the misery of a particular simulation.This would explain why our simulation is particularly awful.
3 ) Aliens can study extinct civilizations by using its archeological remains, and the dna strands of its various fossils to program the simulation. Once again, apparently ours was awful!
4) Ai may run a simulation to study an extinct species, a living species, or perhaps a fictitious species. I don't know why it would do that. Seems improbable.
5) Base reality runs an absurd simulation to see if the ai is capable of realizing its in a simulation. This would explain the asinine quirks in ours: weird religions, preposterous scientific theories, countries with ridiculous governments, all species visually attracted to the defecatory region, etc.
6) People living in a simulation run a simulation of their own to determine if we reach the same conclusion as theirs, that we're indeed living in a simulation.
7) God created the univerese as a simulation, to determine if making a physical one has merit. Hopefully, its a no.
8) A simulation is ran of Utopia to know what it would be like. Definitely not us.
9) A simulation is ran and infected with a virus to test its virus protection. Apparently our simulation's cyber protection has failed.
Personally, I think # 5 is the best explanation. Let me know yours, and if I missed other possibilities
Either the Gospel works as advertised, or is fraudulent hocus-pocus!
Either Jesus is a real person who saves those who come to Him, or Christians are in bondage to legions of opposing theological factions, whereby the cross of Christ has no effect!!! 1 Corinthians 1:17,18
Is Christianity not proven false by its own claims?
"Sheer sophistry!" shouted Trurl, all the louder because he felt the force of his friend's argument. "Electrons meander not only in our brains, but in phonograph records as well, which proves nothing, and certainly gives no grounds for such hypostatical analogies! The subjects of that monster Excelsius do in fact die when decapitated, sob, fight, and fall in love, since that is how I set up the parameters, but it's impossible to say, Klapaucius, that they feel anything in the process-the electrons jumping around in their heads will tell you nothing of that!"
"And if I were to look inside your head, I would also see nothing but electrons," replied Klapaucius. "Come now, don't pretend not to understand what I'm saying, I know you're not that stupid! A phonograph record won't run errands for you, won't beg for mercy or fall on its knees! You say there's no way of knowing whether Excelsius's subjects groan, when beaten, purely because of the electrons hopping about inside-like wheels grinding out the mimicry of a voice-or whether they really groan, that is, because they honestly experience the pain? A pretty distinction, this! No, Trurl, a sufferer is not one who hands you his suffering, that you may touch it, weigh it, bite it like a coin; a sufferer is one who behaves like a sufferer! Prove to me here and now, once and for all, that they do not feel, that they do not think, that they do not in any way exist as being conscious of their enclosure between the two abysses of oblivion-the abyss before birth and the abyss that follows death-prove this to me, Trurl, and I'll leave you be! Prove that you only imitated suffering, and did not create it!"
"You know perfectly well that's impossible," answered Trurl quietly. "Even before I took my instruments in hand, when the box was still empty, I had to anticipate the possibility of precisely such a proof-in order to rule it out. For otherwise the monarch of that kingdom sooner or later would have gotten the impression that his subjects were not real subjects at all, but puppets, marionettes. Try to understand, there was no other way to do it! Anything that would have destroyed in the littlest way the illusion of complete reality would have also destroyed the importance, the dignity of governing, and turned it into nothing but a mechanical game. . . ."
"I understand, I understand all too well!" cried Klapaucius. "Your intentions were the noblest-you only sought to construct a kingdom as lifelike as possible, so similar to a real kingdom, that no one, absolutely no one, could ever tell the difference, and in this, I am afraid, you were successful! Only hours have passed since your return, but for them, the ones imprisoned in that box, whole centuries have gone by-how many beings, how many lives wasted, and all to gratify and feed the vanity of King Excelsius!"
Without another word Trurl rushed back to his ship, but saw that his friend was coming with him. When he had blasted off into space, pointed the bow between two great clusters of eternal flame and opened the throttle all the way, Klapaucius said:
"Trurl, you're hopeless. You always act first, think later. And now what do you intend to do when we get there?" -
"I'll take the kingdom away from him!"
"And what will you do with it?"
"Destroy it!" Trurl was about to shout, but choked on the first syllable when he realized what he was saying. Finally he mumbled:
"I'll hold an election. Let them choose just rulers from among themselves."
"You programmed them all to be feudal lords or shiftless vassals. What good would an election do? First you'd have to undo the entire structure of the kingdom, then assemble from scratch . . ."
"And where," exclaimed Trurl, "does the changing of structures end and the tampering with minds begin?!" Klapaucius had no answer for this, and they flew on in gloomy silence, till the planet of Excelsius came into view.
From The Mind's I chapter 18 The Seventh Sally or How Trurl's Own Perfection Let to No Good
Douglas Hofstader and Daniel Dennet
#2 seems the most probable, simply because it seems like once a species gets to the point where it can do something like this, it is likely to be fixated on entertaining itself.
