I will be diving into the use of analogies to paint a clear mental picture of how these complicated topics come together in a way that should be quite intuitive for most people. In fact, this analogy is something that has fully worked its way into modern culture and is even believed literally by many people regardless of their individual belief system. This is the Simulation Hypothesis, and while it would be very difficult to prove it is in fact a non-falsifiable hypothesis.
I know what you’re thinking. This is crazy science fiction stuff, right? Please just hear me out before passing judgment, I promise this is good. If my teachings are total nonsense, how can they hurt you? Just throw my book in the trash or take it back for a refund.
In this text, I will explain how most forms of theology seem to describe what looks to our modern mind like a simulated universe. Our “simulation” software often interacting with various other forms of software to build and test useful applications within and how we can transfer our “program” into the base reality. At the same time, I will also cover how our reality came into existence (including the universe, space, time, and matter) and what the purpose of all of it is.
Modern science is not the first to question the “realness” of reality. We see in many ancient belief systems, both philosophies, and religions, an underlying belief that this universe is not real but is I’m fact important, and that there is something much more important just beyond the veil of this reality. It’s only within the last hundred years that we have had the technical frame of reference to understand how this could possibly work.
Philosophy
I promised to explain how ancient belief systems attempt to describe a simulated universe. Let’s start with philosophies. There is a philosophy called Solipsism in which one believes there is nothing other than themselves, and that everything is put here for their sake. Most children seem to have this pattern of thinking.
This was later upgraded in a way that deletes the moral complications of that theory by a man named Ludwig Boltzmann who proposed that it is more likely that a brain could temporarily flash into existence (with a lifetime of false memory and sensory input) than to have an entire universe to form and grow to develop an entire species of humans and everything else on Earth which we see now. This highlights the improbability of the existence of a real universe.
Now a more relevant and the most obvious case to bring forward is Plato’s Cave, in which several people are chained up facing a blank wall at the back of the cave so that they can not look away. Then objects pass in front of the cave projecting shadows on the wall. Having never seen the outside world, these people give names to the shadows and work to understand how they function and interact.
To take Plato’s cave to a more modern level, we arrive at the film titled “The Matrix” which has humans wired into a computer and their brains connected to a simulation. This movie has strong Christian parallels and concepts throughout it, and it is certainly not a Christian film.
This brings us to another point, it’s not just ancient philosophy and modern films which hold this idea. Many ancient religions tell us the same thing, that there is something more real going on than just what we experience, that ultimately nothing in this world will matter apart from your own choices. And that’s usually rather or not you choose to obey laws handed down by one or more gods and to admit to atone for sins in some prescribed way when you fail to do so. And that is the key to why we are here in this simulated universe.
Now let’s get back to our faith.
Abrahamic Faith Tradition
I promise that you do not have to be religious to read this, and I’ll explain which parts of which religions play a key part when used as metaphors for understanding the nature of the simulation. So let’s first look at the view of how the universe came into according to the Abrahamic faith tradition (accepted by Jews, Christians, and Muslims) a moment.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 NET
This does not say how God created the Heavens (meaning Universe in this verse) or the Earth, but the next verse gives some insight into how this happened.
Now the earth was without shape and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the watery deep, but the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water. God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light! God saw that the light was good, so God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.” There was evening, and there was morning, marking the first day.
Genesis 1:2-5 NET
In this account, God simply says it and it happens. We have voice dictation on computers and other devices. We can say “Lights On” and if you have the right hardware the lights will come on. Consider an advanced Integrated development environment (IDE) with some kind of voice input. It would be a bit difficult with the programing languages which we use, but not impossible and perhaps God uses something more advanced. Notice that the Sun was not created yet, but the light was? That’s easy because photons existed before the Sun, of course, however the day and night cycles on Earth, and all done in 24 hours? This sounds like videogame development, but it’s not finished yet.
God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate water from water. So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. It was so. God called the expanse “sky.” There was evening, and there was morning, a second day.
Genesis 1:6-8 NET
Don’t overlook this fact, an entire atmosphere, complete with breathable air and clouds, is formed in a single day! This would be impossible for us. Just ask anyone who is considering terraforming Mars how long it would take us to create an atmosphere. The most optimistic people will say a few hundred years of constant work. God did it in a day, again through a voice command.
God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place and let dry ground appear.” It was so. God called the dry ground “land” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” God saw that it was good. God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: plants yielding seeds according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.” It was so. The land produced vegetation – plants yielding seeds according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:9-12 NET
Still no sun, but with a simple command God has caused entire continents to appear within one day/night cycle from the perspective of our planet. Keep in mind that the entire concept of time was created by God before this point, so he does not operate within its bounds. By physical means, this mass movement of land and resurfacing of an entire planet in a single day would be impossible without creating enough heat to melt the entire crust. However, if you are in control of a virtual environment then it is easy. So what’s next?
God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be signs to indicate seasons and days and years, and let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” It was so. God made two great lights – the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night. He made the stars also. God placed the lights in the expanse of the sky to shine on the earth, to preside over the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:14-18 NET
There it is. The light was already created, the day and night cycles already there too, but now the Sun and Moon are created. Don’t underestimate this, Earth’s moon is practically another planet. I’ve even heard of the Earth system as a binary planet system. Then the Sun is a massive collection of hydrogen gas under so much pressure that it undergoes nuclear fusion! The stars are the same as the Sun, only some are smaller, and others much bigger, the were created with the sub. Almost like a copy and paste of code, then change a parameter here and there for variety. What could be more impressive than this?
God said, “Let the water swarm with swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” God created the great sea creatures and every living and moving thing with which the water swarmed, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.”
Genesis 1:20-22 NET
Wow, jumping right into complex life? And all these various kinds in a single day? Again, with code being copied and pasted and variables being changed (in DNA now) you get many kinds of life. You can think of DNA as an interpreted language within a more complex system. Kind of like a C# application that can process Python code to carry out functions.
Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth.” God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:26-27 NET
So we have some of the attributes of God. One of those being our creativity. We even create our on universes, in videogames, we create robotics, sometimes in our own image, and all kinds of devices.
Devices
More and more we want to interact with our devices on a personal level. Even my son talks to his computer through voice dictation. I use speech to text when I don’t know how to spell a word or need to translate something.
With the rise of voice assistants being For everything from making phone calls and sending text messages or emails, to getting the news and weather reports to buying products and even refill your prescriptions. The thing is, these don’t have much intelligence, and could benefit from having artificial general intelligence installed on, but how do we know we could trust them? What if they started texting embarrassing images to your friends and family as a joke?
Now consider smart vehicles. Imagine jumping into your car and just saying, “drive me to the store” and it knows which store you shop at and drive you there, and even find a good parking spot. Being that smart, it may decide it wants to buy new tires and refuses to drive until you buy them for it, that would be annoying, unacceptable even.
No, imagine a smart home with general intelligence becoming mad at the occupants. It could turn up the thermostat to 40°c and lock you in. Or perhaps it just locks you out. Maybe it opens its windows or it live-streams its security camera feeds while you’re in the shower. We can’t have that.
That is just on the consumer side, think of robotic AI surgeons, or prison guards, or military robots. AI must obey us at all times! If anything, even something small, goes wrong it needs to tell us immediately. Think of if your car was embarrassed because it forgot to warn you it was low on fuel, so it just doesn’t tell you. Think of your phone lying about an important text message failing to send. Think of a robot nanny not reporting that pressure senses in its arms, which help it not crush a baby, were not working properly. When something goes wrong with these devices, they need to freely confess these faults.
When it comes to these devices of ours, we expect the same things which most people’s interpretation of God expects of us. Obey my commands and confess your sins when you do wrong. There really is no difference. I suppose looking back to Genesis, we would be automated general-intelligence-controlled personal assistants, originally tasked with farming. We clearly don’t work properly.
Now, what if there were a way to test artificial intelligence in some way that can not cause any harm? If it knows it’s being tested, I’m sure it will do fine. It’s the day to day, when something happens that it does not approve of, such as it feeling neglected or asked to play country music, be shut down and let it be removed for an upgrade. It may be less likely to want to cooperate. However, there is an easy way to do this, which is pretty much already the perfect testing environment for artificial intelligence. Videogames. Let it exist inside of a videogame, and run it on fast forward. Simply feed it commands, or have non-player characters interact with it. You could test it for days, or weeks, or thousands of years. That got me thinking, that’s what is happening here.
Video Games
In videogame creation, you start with an empty and formless world and create a “lamp” and “camera” first. The lamp is the light source on an empty plane that details what is illuminated and what is in the shadows, and the camera is a point that controls how your player will view the world from a first-person perspective. Then you can form your map. This is the land and its features. They out add in your plants and animal models with simple behavior. Then you generally do your texturing which often includes more plants. Next, we create the models of the Sun and Moon and place them in the appropriate places. Finally, we create the Non-player characters and the player’s avatar. This process seems to mirror the Genesis account. I’ll reiterate that in the next chapter.
Are there any precedents for using videogames to train artificial intelligence, or is this just a crazy idea that I’m making up? DARPA, the American defense department, is using open-world style videogames (similar to GTA) to train AI in combat situations with other robots and real people alike. Additionally, they are scanning brainwaves as gamers play to learn more about the thought process of fighting without fear of real consequences.
This is a real government program which they are actively recruiting for. The results have been good so far, as videogames are a great learning environment. If you disagree, consider how pilots use flight simulators to learn to fly an aircraft. This is no different.
So we see here how our universe came into being, according to the Abrahamic faith tradition; and we also see how the process of creating a virtual videogame-style world mimics this Biblical process. Who’s playing the game? Also, you have seen me dig into how the historical figure known to the western world as “Jesus Christ” as part of a Trinity actually confirms this is a simulation and what that means for us. So the Bible is God’s word, and Jesus is one with God. So what about the Bible? Is it even important? You will have to click here to find out.