Rizwan Virk: "The Simulation Hypothesis" | Talks at Google

Rizwan Virk:

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Thanks. For, that introduction and it's great, to be here in, Mountain View I actually live just down the road so it took me all about three minutes to. Drive here so. Today we're gonna be talking about these topics videogames, science-fiction, computer, science coin and physics and mysticism it's, quite a bit to pack into an hour and we need to leave some time for Q&A now. You'll, notice that I included, two, topics that sometimes aren't discussed by a lot of academics, or scientists, which is science fiction and mysticism but it turns out they're actually quite relevant and important when we talk about the simulation hypothesis, first, most, of the reference, references. We have are from, science fiction like. The Matrix and that's really the question that we're going to be trying to answer today is do we live in the matrix but, also we. Start, to get into, this question of what is consciousness, and. It's something that science hasn't fully understood, yet but, mystics have been studying it for thousands of years so although, sometimes scientists, get upset at me why are you talking about mysticism and religion in the same breath as quantum physics I did. That deliberately so. Before, we jump in a little bit of background on myself as, Piyush mentioned you. Know I'm a technical, guy by background went, to MIT, undergrad, many years ago and did some. My, thesis at the Media Lab on using, gamification for, learning and. Then I did a bunch of enterprise software stuff back in the 90s and then, I moved out here about ten years ago ended up going to business school but, more importantly I got, involved in the videogame industry full-time, we. Created a game called tap fish on mobile which was the number one grossing game in the iPhone App Store when. They first came out with in-app purchases, and of course the number one game in the Google Play Store as well and. Then made a bunch of games based on TV shows and really started to think about you, know how we build games then. I became an investor, invested, in a bunch of different companies you may have even played some of these video games like telltale. Games has a game of Thrones game and Walking Dead game and if, you haven't used this cord probably, your kids have right it's a very popular messaging. App for gamers but now being used in a bunch of different worlds and. Then. You know a couple years ago I went back to MIT to the MIT game lab which. Didn't exist when and, this is the one place at MIT where they study video games and the, effective video games and I started play labs but. You know one of the important things that I learned from some of the faculty there was that playing. Games is one of the oldest human endeavors right. And if you look at how children learn social, interaction, it's, often through playing games with each other so playfulness. Is an important topic more. Than that I submit, that most of what the technology we use today for a variety of different, applications whether it's AI, chatbots. Cryptocurrency. All, came from video games and entertainment, in some way whether it's through GPUs, or through, early multi-user, dungeons, etc, so the history of video games in the history of technology, are, pretty, intertwined, uh and. So that's why I'm going to talk a little bit about the history of video games and how, it ties to this idea that we may add fact to be living inside a giant, video game so. I got my start with video games a long time ago very. Classic video games back, in the day of the Atari 2600.

Space. Invaders and pac-man but. What really made an impression on my young mind was when the game started to become a little more realistic we're still looking at an 8-bit. Video, game here called pole position, I would. Always wonder what was beyond the racetrack, right, you see the mountain, that looks like Mount Fuji there and. Sometimes there would be bleachers, with fake people and and you know as I was playing the Atari I would wonder what. Happens to those characters when I'm not logged in you know is there a real world you, know within this, video game where there's actual conscious entities and of course with, the Atari there weren't but, you know this got more interesting, as science fiction developed. And. As I got older I was a big fan of Star Trek as many of you may have been and you, may remember the holodeck, which was a limited, space but could, project any kind of simulated, environment, and it would feel real to the. Players of the game who were typically, crew. Members of the enterprise but. The episode that really got me thinking about this Oh took. Place in the holodeck, and there was a character named. Professor Moriarty, and for. Those of you who have seen this will remember data. The. Android played Sherlock Holmes in the simulation, but, this, particular character was quite intelligent he. Actually figured out that some of the people in. The, holodeck, were. Simulated. And some were real and they were from a world out there out. There being the. Rest of the enterprise and so. You know he wanted to leave the holodeck, and he wanted to get out of the simulation and so, this kind of you know inspired, me to think about this topic for many years and of. Course you know the the, major reference these days is the matrix where Keanu Reeves plays a character named neo, who. Is living a regular life as mr. Anderson working, in an office like many of us do and. He comes across Morpheus. Who's played by Laurence Fishburne who is named after the Greek god of dreams who, tells him that everything. He sees around him is, an illusion in fact he says you are living in a dream world but. He also says that I can't tell you or show you you. Know I can't tell you what the matrix is you have to see it for yourself and even. Those who haven't seen the movie probably know the famous scene you can take the red pill or the blue pill you, take the red pill you wake up to see what the matrix is you take the blue pill and you just keep on living your life, neo. Of course takes the red pill and he wakes up inside this pod and he, finds that he has a connection. Into his neocortex. Which is probably, why they called him neo in, the movie and, that everything, he thought was reality was being beamed in, to. His brain and. So we'll will talk a little bit about this in the context, of current technology and where, we're going and what this might mean and. As. Per you know. This. Topic has gotten popular in the 20 years since the release of the matrix back, then it was just considered science fiction but there are a couple of reasons one. Of which is you know Elon Musk said, a few years ago with the code conference, that 40 years ago we, had two, squares and a dot that was the stage of video games right, we had pong which was the first widely available video, game made. By Atari right down the road here in Sunnyvale, today. We have virtual reality, we have augmented, reality, and. We have millions of online players, on these, MMORPGs. In 3d worlds so what will happen you. Know in a few, decades what will happen in a hundred years from now will, we get to the point where the, video game is indistinguishable, from reality I would. Argue we're actually getting there very, quickly so, I had my own experience speaking. Of pong, few years ago when. I was playing a ping-pong game using. A virtual reality headset I think, it was the vive in this case and I, started to play this game and you'll notice that the resolution, isn't that great the opponent, you, know is there but it's not even a photorealistic opponent, but, what happened was that the physics engine was so good and the.

Reactions, Were so dead on that I actually felt, like I was really playing table. Tennis and I forgot that I was in a virtual reality headset in fact, at the end of the game I put the paddle two hand on the table and I leaned against the table just like I might do after, playing a game with a little table tennis of course the controller fell to the floor, there, was no table and I almost fell over and so, then I really, started to think okay it's. Not so much about the resolution it's about the responsiveness, of the technology, that. Makes us believe we're. In something, when we're actually not. And. So. I started, to do a thought exercise that. Said you, know could we build a matrix you know how long would it take us to get there and what, are the stages, to. Get to what I call the simulation, point and that's, the point at which we would be capable of producing, a. Video. Game that is so indistinguishable. From reality that the players would not know that they were inside a video game and if, we could get there that, raises a bigger question which, is just about the simulation hypothesis. Which is has. Someone already gotten, there right, now, what most people don't realize is that there's two versions of the simulation, hypothesis, out, there, and. One, of them is what I call the NPC, version and it, was put forth by a professor. Named Nick Bostrom, at Oxford University and, we'll talk a little bit about his simulation, argument which has gotten a lot of press but he, put, out a paper in 2003, are we living in a simulation and that, got academics. And others to start taking this idea a little more seriously but, then in that version we're all simulated, AI. We're, like non player characters or. NPCs, as we call them in the video game world in the, other version, of the simulation, hypothesis, which. I call the RPG. Version, we, exist outside of, the simulation, and we are playing roles just, as I might have an avatar in. The Warcraft or Second Life consciousness. Exists, outside the simulation, and. So, when you look at some physicists, like Max Planck who was one of the founders, of many. Aspects. Of modern physics he, says he views consciousness. As fundamental. And matter. As derivative, in. The other version, consciousness. Is seen merely, as a collection, of neurons and an emergent, property right. So matter is primary, and consciousness. Is derivative and so that. Tug-of-war, between these versions of the simulation, hypothesis, is I think you know one of the most interesting aspects, of this question, the RPG version, by the way is also the matrix version right, neo, existed. Outside of the simulation, now there were a eyes for NPCs, like the famous Agent, Smith inside. The matrix but. Most of the players actually existed, outside so. Let's talk about boström simulation, argument many of you may have heard of it before but the, basic idea is he. Says that if. There are civilizations. In our galaxy that, get, to this point and I call it the simulation, point which, is in the middle there that. Get, to the point where they can create this technology, then. They are likely to create not just one simulation, they're. Likely to create many simulations, actually. Makes the point that there's three possibilities one, civilization, never, gets to that point which. I doubt and many technologists, doubt because we think we can get there the, second point being the civilization, gets there but they don't want to make any simulations, and he calls them ancestor, simulations, or simulations, of more, primitive societies, that's, the possibility, the, third possibility, though is they get there they, create these simulations, and they create lots and lots of simulations, and so, his point was that creating, a new civilization. Or. Simulated, universe is just a matter of spinning up another, server on Google, cloud or whatever so, we can have millions of simulated. Universes with billions, of beings within them therefore. It's, simple statistics, boström, says that, if you kind of all the simulated beings in, the universe and you add up all the biological beings. In the base reality. Then. You, know you. If you are simulated, being you are more if you are being you, are more likely simulated, being than, a real being simple probability there's way more of these than those and that's, what led Elon Musk to say that the chances that we're in bass reality, is one, in billions right.

Because There are so many more of these meanings so. That's one, version of the argument but. You know I wanted to delve a little bit deeper and say okay how do we get there as a civilization, and it's. All starts with video games so about a third of the book is dedicated to, how, we build a technology and if, we go back to the 1970s. You know text adventures were the first place where there, was a virtual world inside the computer that could be explored there, were no graphics but you could give little commands like go north go left and you could speak with NPCs, then, we got graphical, arcade games like the ones I grew up with and today we're at 3d. Massively. Multiplayer online role-playing games, where there are more. Realistic, NPCs, and there, are millions of people interacting with each other which, brings up an interesting philosophical question, if you and I are both playing World of Warcraft you. Know are we in the same space, are. We even seeing, the same world it's, what I call the rendered world, of. Course that's the beginning stage. Four and five are about virtual reality and photorealistic, augmented, reality. Stage, six though is where it starts to get interesting because now we say at some point we got to get rid of the the glasses, right I mean, even, though I forgot for a moment that I was playing ping pong I did in fact have the glasses on my head and I would have realized it eventually and so as we start to be able to render objects, in augmented reality using. Light field displays in, the idea is that you can figure out how the light bounces, off of this cup for example then. What is the difference between the cup and a. Physical object where, light bounces, off the physical, object the physical object becomes information, right. And today's 3d printers are already showing us this we can take any physical, object and we, can encode it into a set of pixels 3d, pixels right, well if that's true then. The distinction between information. And material. Reality, starts, to blur, and that's actually one of the key points in my book is that we may be living in a world of information and, not, a world, of physical, material, objects right the more physicists, open up you, know they look down the molecules they look at the look, inside the atoms and they can't find physical, matter right.

There's Nothing there when you keep opening up the Russian nested, dolls what, is there is information but. Getting back to my point about ping pong that, the really critical stage is the brain computer, interface, right. It's this ability to be able to beam into, our minds, a scene. And then, to read back the results. Of how. We want to react to that scene and we'll, talk about some analogies, for how that might work and then stage eight has false memories, stage, nine would be AI that's, much more able. To come, across as human and. Then stage 10 is. Another. Controversial, topic, but one that's quite popular here in Silicon Valley which. Is downloadable, consciousness, can, i download my, consciousness, into, a silicon, device thereby. Living, forever you. Know and we'll talk a little bit about this in the in the context of consciousness, and mysticism later, on because there, may already be people who know how to do this without, the silicon device to upload and download consciousness. And then, we reach stage, 11 the simulation, point which, is that, point that I talked about so. You'll. Notice that we're. We're, where are we you know in this we're at about five six, stages. But. We're not that far off from the other stages right, so let's talk a little bit about you. Know the things we still have to develop right. So in brain computer interfaces the first step is being, able to project a picture. Into the mind and you know there have been experiments since the 1950s. Where, they used electrical, currents, and, they were able to bring up particular, scenes in the, mind. The, harder part of it may be to actually as in, the case of the matrix to, get your responses, well, it turns out there's actually a biological technology, already that, does this it happens. To each of us every night it's. When we dream our, dreams. Are like many simulations, we. Have scenes projected, in front of our minds some of the characters are real some of them are not we. React to the scenes and. We see the results, it's the same basic gameplay loop that we use when we build video games right we present something, we. Wait for your response I mean today's video games you're, still you know doing dialogue trees and things like that but. Being able to detect. People's responses, now, just last week Elon. Musk unveiled neuro-link, which is a chip that, can go in the brain that. Will be able to enhance using, AI there's, there's a start-up in Boston called, neuro Bowl that, is already, trying to be able to predict, your responses. So. That you can actually you, know control, video game characters, now. It this may or may not involve an actual physical, water or a physical. Chip right some of us may not want to put a chip in our minds there, was a group at Princeton, at, the advanced engineering, and amélie's Research, Lab where. They looked at random, number generators, and they. Found that quantum random number generators, could. Be influenced. By. Your thoughts and so. There's a few companies. Now that are trying to commercialize this technology without. Necessarily. Requiring, to plug in your brain that. If, you change your thoughts it, changes the color of a lamp for example and. So we're still in the early stages here. But, there's a research group at Berkeley that found that they could get rough ideas, of what you were dreaming right. So these technologies, are coming they're. Still in their infancy but. They're not, as far off as you might think. We. Then move to stage eight which. Is the area of false memories some, of you may have seen the. Movie Blade Runner which was based on a novel by philip k dick so, what, many people don't know is that in 1977. Philip. K dick was. In metz france and he gave a talk and he said we, live in a computer-generated, reality. And the, only clue we have is when something in our environment changes. In fact, he really believed this I interviewed his wife tessa dick as part of my research for the book and, some of you may have seen the man in the high castle which. Is pretty. Popular science fiction he. Actually believed that that was an alternate timeline that actually happened and that, the creators of the simulation, decided to unwind that timeline and Riaan, go forward again so, now we're at the intersection of science fiction mysticism.

And. And. The simulation hypothesis. So. Let, me jump forward a I and NPCs I mean the first practical, AI how. Many people know this was Claude Shannon, it was a professor at MIT and. Where he created a chess-playing computer. And in. That same year in 1950, Alan Turing came up with his idea of the, imitation game which is now known as the Turing test here, at Google I'm sure you guys have all heard of this where, the idea is that behind. One curtain there's a computer and the other curtain there's a person and if you can't tell the difference then. It, has passed the imitation game or passed the Turing test we, seem to be getting closer to it we're, not quite there yet with our NPCs, right we still use dialogue trees if you've played a telltale, game right don't, say what do you want to say back to this character but, we're getting there in the video game side so. You, know it's just a matter. Of time I think before we get realistic looking NPCs, and. Then we get to stage 10 downloadable. Consciousness, right, and so the question here is gets, back to that fundamental question. Is. Consciousness, just a set of information that. Can be downloaded and, put, into a silicon device or, is, it something else that, that exists, somewhere else in which case simply. Copying, the neurons isn't, enough so, far we've, had computers, which have simulated all the neurons and the, neural connections within, a rat's brain which. Is a much smaller number than the human brain so, it's not that it won't be that long before we're able to simulate all of the neurons and all, of the neural connections of a human brain I think that number is something like 10 to the 39 once. We can do that you, know do we have the ability to replicate consciousness. But, this brings us now to metaphysical. Questions many. Of you may have heard of the quantum teleportation done. In China of a, particular. Particle to, a satellite but. Really what they're teleporting, is the, information, contained, in that particle, not the particle itself so, the question is if you replicate somebody's. Neural structure are you creating a copy of that person or is, it actually that person so these are deeper philosophical issues then.

The Technology itself, but. Again. We're not that far off so it's very possible that we'll be able to get to stage, 10 and once we do we're. At the simulation point, so, if we can get to the simulation point who's to say that someone hasn't already gotten. There and perhaps. They've left clues for us in. Our physical world either. Intentionally, or unintentionally that. We're living inside a video game. So let's. Shift and talk a little bit about the, physics now I'm not going to spend too much time on this I'm not a physicist but there's some really, interesting aspects. Of quantum, physics and you know Niels Bohr was once said those, who are not shocked when they first come across quantum, theories cannot. Possibly, have understood it now. Physicists. Gotten to the point where they no longer want, to ask the big questions, about quantum, theory, they, said let's just get down to the calculations, and figure out you, know some of the details but, the big question and the big mysteries are why. Do. Things happen in this way and. A couple of the big mysteries are quantum indeterminacy and, quantum entanglement, why. Would we live in a universe where, these things exist, that's. The question that I believe physicists, don't have the answer for by which the simulation, hypothesis, provides a pretty, good answer so. Most of you may have heard of quantum, indeterminacy this, is the famous double slit experiment where. If a particle is going through these two slits it, starts, off as a probability, wave and then, the probability wave collapses. To, a single. Possibility, when. It's observed, so, here's an example of a wave and probably, the better way to understand, that is Schrodinger's. Infamous, cat and, so, common, sense tells us that, Schrodinger's. Cat is either alive or dead inside this box and Schrodinger. Gave a scenario, where they, put some radioactive, material in the Box within, the cat with. The cat so that within, an hour it, would have a 50% chance of being alive and 50%. Chance of being dead so, common. Sense says it's either alive or dead we just don't know because we haven't opened up the box quantum. Physics tells us no both. Of those possibilities, actually. Exist and it's not until someone. Actually observes, it that. That possibility. Collapses. The probability, wave and there's, a few different theories of what, causes the. Collapse of the probability, wave but. It seems to be that, the rule of thumb is that. In. Quantum physics in our physical universe, only. That which gets observed, actually, gets rendered all. Right because. You need an observer now there's some debate over whether that observer can be a machine and AI or it has to be a conscious observer and maybe. If we have time I'll talk about some experiments that are being done and so California, to, try to nail that down but, it needs to be observed only then does, it get rendered well this reminded me a lot of video games right, in, early, video games there was a shared rendered, world I don't, know if anyone knows which video game this is but this is a game called King's Quest from, the, 1980s, and you'll notice that all the pixels exist, on. Memory, and as your character moves all you have to do is get the pixels from the next scene and move, them right so that is in a pre-rendered. World and the materialistic, point of view says, that we live in a pre-rendered, world the physical world exists. It's. Just a matter of us getting going, around moving around in it but, if, you had asked somebody in the 1980s, can you render, something like World of Warcraft, or fortnight, a fully, 3d, world. They would say no we just don't have enough, computing. Power for all those pixels so, how do we get from there to here we, came up with optimization. Techniques, and that's, really the key we came up with 3d modeling, and we came up with rendering, engines and we came up with physics engines and what, does a rendering engine do it takes the point of view of your character, and renders. Only, that which can be observed from. Your point of view everything, else is hidden from, the point of view of the rendering engine now this is the game Doom which.

Came Out in the 1990s, and was one of the first 3d. Perspective games, but of course the. Techniques. Have gotten much more sophisticated since, then so, the rule golden. Rule in video games is render only that which is observed which, brings up the question. Is there a shared rendered, world or, not. Now, if you and I are playing for. Night or World of Warcraft or Second, Life or any of these games we, think we're in the same scene but, the reality is there is no shared rendered world I'm rendering it on my laptop you're. Rendering it on your laptop or your phone and so. Physicists. Have been asking the question for, a while is there no shared rendered world there, was a Nobel prize-winning physicist, named Wigner, Eugene. Wigner who asked this question saying, if I look at a particle and see the collapse of the probability, wave and then, Wigner's friend, looks. At it before I tell him what I observed will. He see the same collapse of the probability, wave that. I saw and he. Wasn't able to do the experiment, back in the 60s, well they just did it in recently using, a series of I think five or six entangled particles and they, found that Wigner and Wigner's friend could observe, different. Collapses, of the probability, wave okay. So this is pretty profound two, different people might, observe, a very, different, rendering, of the world it's, not unlike what we do in video games right I if, you're a level 10 character and I'm a level 5 on. The server we can send you a different, thing, I can put a UFO in the scene if I have a lot for you and the other guy won't see it right so we're sending information. To a rendering device, which, is rendering it at unconsciousness which brings up the point of what, is that. Rendering, device, is it our brains is it consciousness is it something else John. Wheeler who we'll talk about in a minute you, know said that everything. Is information theoretic, in origin he's a pretty, well-known physicist, so, it seems like quantum.

Indeterminacy Could. Be an optimization. Technique same, kind of techniques we use when we build video games what. About quantum entanglement, okay. You, know Einstein called, it spooky action at a distance it's, you and confirmed now. You. Know quantum entangled, particles, have been able, to get pretty far apart from each other theoretically. They could get millions of miles away but. Why. Would nature have, an instance where these particles, are entangled why would it need to I would. Pause it again. Coming. At it from computer science and video gaming point of view that, it's all about optimization. And compression. Now what does this have to do with Game of Thrones well. The reason I can stream, Game of Thrones to, my phone is. Because it. Doesn't send all the pixels right I mean at a HD resolution, think of how many pixels would have to be sent to, my phone and how many frames there are at 30 frames per second right, so what we do is we take all the particles the pixels that have the same values and we collapse, them all right we're going back to Claude Shannon, and an information theory and compression, and whenever, you compress, things. You, reduce, the. Amount of information that has to be transmitted. But, you also need to decompress that information, which, means you need error correction, codes and people. Some, certain scientists, are starting to find error, correction, codes in, the physical universe it's all theoretical at this point but there are string theorists, for example who find who found error correction, codes in the Asians and. People. Who are simulating, physical universes, using. A smaller number of particle an entangled, particles are finding that, error correction, codes are present as well there, so, it's very possible that, quantum. Entanglement really, is it is yet another compression. Technique. Or optimization, technique so these are clues that we find in the physical world now. Another interpretation, of this, is, that. The, probability wave never actually collapses, what, happens is that every time there's a decision made we. Branch out into multiple different, universes, okay, so we probably have a bunch, of computer scientists, here and engineers like, if you were to branch out and create a copy of something how. Would you do that right if you look at the physical world and you, look at physical processes, creating, a clone of the sheep dolly you, still have to grow the cell creating. A clone of a tree it's, a slow process following. Some some algorithms, that we don't fully understand, but they're probably fractal, in nature however, in, computer science we just copy the information from the server and says boom we now have another ranch if. You're branching out your crypto currency blockchain like Bitcoin for example, right you just take a copy of the blockchain at that point if the. Melting many-worlds, hypothesis. Is true there must be a mechanism that can instantly create copies, of the, physical universe which. Means that it's more likely to be an information based reality than. A physical, material, universe in my opinion this. Also begs. The question if there, are multiple parallel, universes are, they really just probability. Or do they actually exist, so, you know when I was making my first video games we used to use something called the minimax algorithm right we would look at the current state of the board and we would project forward, and then, we would look at all the probabilities and we would find them the biggest the, best most optimal, function and that's, the pact that we would choose there's. A physicist, named Tom Campbell I wrote a book called my big toe my big there him everything he believes that that's what nature does is it spins off these virtual, realities. As. Parallel. Universes, but they don't actually exist they're, just they're, just probabilities. And then whatever is most optimal, that's the path that we follow, that's how rendering, happens. Within physical world so these are all interesting and there's a you know a lot more aspects, of physics which I won't get into a ton of detail now the delayed choice experiment, which shows that a decision in the future can, affect the path do, we have pixelated, space going back to Max Planck the, smallest.

You. Know physical distance we can measure is called the Planck length below. That we can't measure it why would there need to be a smallest. Distance. Right if nature was continuous, in material that, may not be needed pixel. At a time which. Is something we do in simulations, and computer games all the time you have a clock speed and you, have a certain, you. Know you have a certain generation for example if you're simulating fruit flies every. Year you look at the population but. Whatever speed. Of the simulation, the, set it has to be a multiple of the clock speed so, if there is a pixelated, time. A minimum. Unit of time and many physicists, are starting to think there is then. It's very possible that we're in some kind of a compute engine that's. Going forward, and. There's more about speed of light and wormholes and good stuff like that and, of course quantum superposition, and qubits which you, know I talked a little bit more about in the book as well so, I'm gonna end the physics section here because we're running out of time but John. Wheeler who was one of the last physicists. To work with Einstein, and many of the Great's of quantum physics you know he came to the conclusion that the. Physical universe was. Really based on information and he had famous phrase he called it it from bit which. Is the idea that anything you see that's physical is based on information and he, says in his lifetime we, went through three stages of physics in the first stage everything. Was a particle it was a material universe, in, the second phase, everything. Was a field. Probability. Field of quantum field and by, the third phase everything. Was a series of bits you, know and now that we're looking at quantum, computers and qubits we're starting to see everything, could be an on, and off structure, and be built of bits which, leads us back to this idea that we could be living in an information, centric, simulated. World, around us and those are just some of the clues the. Third big aspect, that I cover in the book is this idea of. Mystical. Traditions, and the world's religions and. Turns out not just, any. One religion right. Sometimes I get pushback from people particularly religion like I was on a show in South Carolina, and this guy said that's not what Jesus Christ said you. Know that we're living in a simulated, computer game we're sitting there playing Mario, Brothers I said. Well let's, look a little more deeply what he said, but. Particularly, Eastern, traditions, seem, to you don't even have to do an analogy, right I mean Buddha said know that all phenomena, are like reflections, appearing, in a very clear mirror, devoid. Of inherent, existence sounds. A lot like pixels. In, the Hindu. Traditions, that's, a picture of the god Vishnu who's, having a dream and we're all part, of the, dream in the Veda as they talk about the Leela or, the grand play, of life like. A stage play we, were all characters, kind, of like Shakespeare, said right all the world's a stage and we're all characters.

But What, kind of a play would it be it's, an interactive play where, each of us can, modify. What's happening, with some sense of freewill well that sounds a lot like a video game right they didn't have the terminology video, game back, when they wrote the Vedas but if they did that might have been a more appropriate, you. Know thing. For them to say in. Buddhism, and in Hinduism in the Eastern traditions there's a society of the wheel of samsara where. We go through a life and then, we go we we, go through another life so we play different characters. Where. We're basically it's basically the world is basically a role-playing, game. And. What. Makes this wheel turn in. Those. Traditions it's the fact that we still have unaccomplished. Tasks. Ahead, of us right I'll talk about Karma in a minute but karma is what makes the wheel turn in, these, traditions, in, the Tibetan traditions, they have this idea of dream yoga it's one of the six yoga's of Naropa which. Is our set of mystical practices, that have been preserved for about a thousand, years and in, dream yoga you. Learn to wake up within your dreams what we would call lucid, dreaming today and the, idea is if you inside, a dream can. Realize that what you're seeing around you is an illusion, it's a dream then. You can also wake up in physical, reality and, realize. That we are in fact in a dream world and in an illusion so you bring that consciousness, so this is one of the the, yoga's, that they've taught for a period of time and now we've started to study it and lucid dreaming has been studied in the laboratories. As well so, we know it exists, so which brings us back to the age-old question that, Descartes, Wright. Raised, me and I think the 1500s, when he said what if there's an evil demon that's tricking me and everything. I see around me is just signals. Into my brain I can't, be sure the, only thing I can be sure of is that I am thinking therefore. I am right. So this idea that we may actually be in a dream world with signals being sent into our brain has, a long history. Particularly. Within Eastern traditions, we, basically, download, consciousness, at Birth from, somewhere, into, a physical body and at death the, information, is uploaded, or beamed back up like in a cloud server, now. What is it that gets downloaded and, uploaded now we're back to the transhumanist movement and, folks, like Ray Kurzweil here at Google who want to be able to, download. To a silicon device well, it turns out in the Eastern traditions they've been talking about uploading, and downloading of consciousness, for a while one. Of the differences between the Hindu and the Buddhist traditions is in Hinduism there's an indestructible soul, but. In the Buddhist traditions. What. Gets reincarnated, is really. A bag, of karma, well. What, is that a bag, of information. It's, a set of things that you have done in this life and that you have to do in the future so, it's really just information. And being sent back and forth within these traditions, well, I started to think about this from the point of view a video game designer and turns out you can define a very nice questing, system that. Basically defines. How. Karma, is supposed to work within the Eastern traditions, which brings up the idea is, Buddha's. Endless wheel and algorithm, actually and. Is, there actually a scientific or technological basis, for, what these religions have been telling us all along where, we have a series of quests that we have to achieve and. You. Can read more about that in the book even, in the Western religious traditions there's, this idea of the recording, angels and in, the Islamic traditions in the Quran they give them names and they say one angel writes down every good deed you did and one, angel writes down every bad deed now, we're a bunch of engineers here if you had to implement that would you really have 14. Billion conscious, entities sitting there writing down things in a book no.

You Would probably have AI or algorithms, that are recording, things but. In in the Quran. And in, the Western traditions they say you have to review, you. Know what you did so, that it mean it's literally a book somebody's, trying to step down but they say that after you die you, have to examine your deeds and look, at the impact of those deeds well. This. Is kind of interesting and if you're gonna want. To talk about China you want to talk to somebody who's been to China so, we're gonna talk about what happens after death you want to talk to people that have actually been dead so, I have a good friend named dannion brinkley who, wrote a book called save by the light he was struck by lightning and had a 20-minute near-death, experience turns out there's thousands of these cases out there and almost, all of them bring. Up this idea of a panoramic. Life review he, said where there's a recording. Of everything you did in your life and, you have to relive that recording but you. Have to live it from the other person's point of view and you, know Danny was in the military he used to literally kill, people as a sniper he had to experience what it was like to get the bullet so. Recently, you know before I wrote the book I was involved in a start-up that did recordings, of games like a league of legends some of you may have played these games now this is a 3d game on a 2d landscape, but, we would record it in 3d and then you would put on a virtual reality headset and we could put the virtual cameras, anywhere. We wanted to so, literally, you could play back the, character you killed or, that you shot in csgo, and you, could see it from their point of view so I'm. Not saying that what the Western religious traditions told us is necessarily true I'm saying if they're true how. Would it be implemented, it, would be implemented, you know by doing a 3d recording, of everything that has happened to you in your life so, that reminds, me a lot of the. Simulation, hypothesis, kids today are recording, their their games and sending them on Twitch all over the place right so. That may be what's going on at a more cosmic scale now. I won't get into some of these since our we've, talked about NDEs, but, here, at the, Stanford Research Institute in the 70s when they were inventing the ARPANET, they, were also doing research on remote viewing where, they had people trying to figure out what was in a remote destination, and they, found statistically, significant, results not many people know that these were going on like them rooms next to each other they're working on the internet and they're investigating remote viewing if. It exists, how could it work it's. The same way we put a virtual camera anywhere, inside the 3d world and we, can see what's happening it makes sense if it's a simulated world it does make any sense if we, live in a material world at all and. So there's a lot of these topics I'll actually be giving a talk at east-west here in Mountain View more about the the. Unexplained, phenomenon, side of it but. You know we want to transition the questions here soon but one of the big questions that I get is can, i hack the simulation. And, if we're living in a simulation now you may remember the famous scene in the matrix where, this, young, guy was bending the spoon and his. Advice to neo was the thing you have to remember is there. Is no spoon. Within. A simulation it's. All information. That's being rendered so, to hack it you may have to figure out how to tie in to that now we're, very left brained there, was also research done on this at the Stanford Research Institute on spoon, bending right, which some people think doesn't exist well this is a picture from the Marriott here, in Santa Clara on Friday night where a group of 20 people got together took. Spoons from the Marriott and bent. Them all if you zoom into that picture now one. Of the guys who did research on this Jack Hogg from Stanford Research Institute said, he, went, to Los Alamos and tried this and none. Of the physicists, could do it but all of their wives could. Isn't. That interesting so maybe, hacking the simulation, is not about a left brain quantitative. Approach but it's about letting. Go and realizing, something about the underlying nature of reality so, I. Mean I want to break for questions soon but you know we get the big questions, often, why. Would somebody want to do a simulation. The. Answer is why do you play video games, for. Entertainment, to have experiences, that you might not be able to have outside, the simulation, I can't, ride. A dragon and kill it works in real life but I could do it in a video game so there may be something about the experiences, in the video game that we're having, another. Big question is what's outside the simulation.

Right, Ilan must ask this recently as well he said that I think, Lex Friedman, researcher. At MIT asked, him what would you ask an AGI if we, had artificial general intelligence he's I would ask him what's outside the simulation, is, it. Aliens, future. Humans so Bostrom's, theory was that we live inside an ancestor, simulation, so there are future versions, of us and this is more old more along the lines of what philip k dick believed, could, they be trying travelers if you're, more of a religious man you might think it's God in angels some, people think it's pure, justise going back to max planck and some, of the ideas there we, don't know the answer but, you know what does this mean for me right as a person, you, might say doesn't, mean anything to me well, if you're inside you know grand theft auto maybe. Your goal is to steal, automobiles. So my question for you is if you were a character in a video game what, attributes strength. Intelligence, dexterity, all those old Dungeons, & Dragons attributes, have you brought into the game what, type of character are you and what, is your quest right, what are the challenges and, things, that you want to achieve in this life so, adopting, the idea of a video game is a pretty powerful metaphor, and to. Take. The advice of another. MIT physicist. Max tegmark, you. Know he said make, it an interesting simulation. Because you don't want the simulators to shut you down I. Like. To use the analogy I, like, to use the analogy of Indiana Jones films, where, if at the beginning he was just given the treasure map and it's, just that here's the treasure go get it that. Wouldn't make for a very interesting movie it wouldn't make for a very interesting video game either right you have to have a clue and you follow the clue to the next clue and you have to have challenges in fact in the sequels to the matrix if, you remember they said that the first version of the Matrix was an ideal world but. Humans wouldn't accept that as a real world because there was no strife there was no boredom there weren't any challenges, I mean people always ask me well if I was gonna make a video game I would make myself a trillionaire and I would do this and that well, that may not be the nature of the game and that may not be the types of quests or achievements, that, you're here to achieve so. You know that's the answer to that big question so. I think we have a few minutes for questions in, terms of where to get the book I like to say. Support, local bookstore so Books Inc here in Mountain View in East West yeah. In New York strand, bookstore or Barnes & Noble in Boston the MIT group Harvard coupe so you, know go to your local bookstore and if, you can't find it then go to Amazon. So. With that I'd like to open, I my website is an entrepreneur, calm and my email is there if you want to ask me questions afterwards. So. It's a question um first. Of all a wonderful, and fascinating philosophical. Conversation, happy for basically. Being able to ask us um there's. A field of machine learning research called.

Model-based, Reinforcement. Learning where, you'll build up a simulation of your environment and, then. Train inside, of that simulation, there's. A value to having the simulation, which is that you can generate arbitrary. Amounts of data and so end up with an algorithm that's much more finely tuned and capable of decision making than, without that simulation, there's. Also this want to do counterfactual, inference and ask oh well if I hadn't, experienced, this reality what would have happened and in. Asking what would have happened you can do a kind of credit assignment, which. Says oh well if I've taken some other path you, know this is what the outcome would have been and so. That might be a motivation, for creating simulations, so I don't know if you engage with that at all in the book or, what your thoughts are on this, sort of you know access of machine learning research yeah. I mean not so much the machine, learning research but this idea that you may want to look. At alternate. Versions. Of what might have happened and, find a way to score, those right, I mean I think that may. Be a fundamental. Part. Of this view of parallel, realities, and what they actually are it. Gets back to this question of why are we doing a simulation right if I'm simulating fruit flies is to, see how the population, might evolve over time if I'm, simulating you, know Sim City or sid meier's civilization what. Is it that I'm trying to figure out you know some people think that we're. Trying to figure out if we're gonna destroy the planet or if we're going to destroy ourselves in, the simulation, I don't. Think there's necessarily just. One purpose, and there's not just one way of scoring what the different alternatives might be but, really that each of us has, our own versions, of what we're here do and each of us is doing something similar to, what you talked about there with the machine learning which, is that each of us is projecting, into the future figuring. Out what might happen and. Then coming back to the present which gets back to this idea in quantum physics with a delayed choice experiment, where some, observation, of the future is actually affecting, the past so, it's a very very high level answer, to. Asking there but I think you, know that general, approach maybe what's that work in the simulation. Before. We jump to another life question there is a question, from the live audiences, and this, person asks if, if there's any possibility to wake up from the simulation, like neo did and how can you achieve that. That's. A great question and I would submit that, most. Religions today happen, because somebody, woke up from the simulation they. Peaked outside the simulation, they saw what was out there and they, came back and tried to describe it and then somebody built a whole religion, around it right but, it's kind of like the, the three blind men with the elephant right, they're all feeling the elephant but they're feeling different parts of the elephant one thinks it's like a snake because they have the trunk one, thinks it's like a tree because, they're feeling the legs of the elephant one thinks it's like a house, so. I think there are ways to peek outside simulation. But, I think they may have to do more with our consciousness. And realizing. You, know that there. May be more going on than what we're seeing around us and so that's what you know Yogi's and these guys have dedicated thousands. Of years of techniques to basically. Peeking outside the simulation, now the, other question might be can we do it more from a scientific point of view right and. You, know I think a related. Question is. You. Know if the simulation hypothesis, isn't falsifiable. Right. Then, why, should we take it seriously right, but I would say that it's. Just because something can't be proven wrong doesn't.

Mean That you can't find evidence for it right, 200, years ago the idea of meteorites, was. Unfalsifiable. Scientists said that's ridiculous there's no way that that's happening I think it didn't believe it there was a belief system that. Said these, things cannot be here therefore they don't exist contrary. To some evidence that people had seen things falling from the skies at how you imagined the whole thing right but, eventually they did find some evidence for, meteorites and today we actually accept that, meteorites do exist and things do fall from the sky but we needed a different model of how the universe worked before, we were able to get to that point and so, I think you can find evidence, and in the book I go into some of the experiments, that people have done to try to figure out if we have a pixelated reality, etc. And so there may be a more scientific, way of doing it but I would say explore consciousness is the way to up from the game. So, I really enjoyed, the parallels you drew between aspects. Of a reality, and, video. Game software like. The pixelization of the world with, Planck's constant and. How. These quantum, phenomena, might be forms. Of compression, so. What I'm wondering is, we. All know that software has bugs and that, they're unavoidable so what. Is the. Analogous, what are bugs in the simulation, what do they look like yes, we detect them yeah great question so if you remember in the movie The Matrix, you, know they, coined that - the phrase which is used pretty often now a glitch in the matrix and, if, you remember it was the cat that. Was going by the door and then. He looked again and it was the same scene replayed it, was a glitch in the software so. The. Question is are there glitches, in, the physical matrix around us now I mentioned, philip k dick he. Wrote a novel called the adjustment, team short. Story which became The Adjustment Bureau which, is a big blockbuster movie, with you, know Matt Damon and Emily Blunt but, he believed that it was experiences, of deja vu just like the glitches of the matrix in the movie and, he one. Point he said I used to have a light switch here in, my bathroom now I have this, chain, what. The heck changed. He, thought that somebody had played with the simulation, and it, actually changed, little things in the physical realm we believe in big changes and little things and so a lot of the unexplained, phenomenon, that I talked about but I didn't really get into detail today that. A lot of modern science dismisses, could in fact be. Glitches in the matrix, particularly. Around you, know things like feelings, of deja vu and. Precognitive. Dreaming right there's a lot of literature on this stuff that, because our belief system doesn't allow it most scientists, won't even look at it that if. You've ever a scientist we won't look at data that, happens in this realm but not in other realms and so I think that that's why I included the whole area of mysticism and religions in the book because I believe there's a lot of glitches in the matrix but we've been conditioned, for, a long time to not look at those as anything, real. This. One says the general simulation, hypothesis, is inconsequential.

And Unfalsifiable because, if it were somehow proven, true it would make no difference within observable, reality and one can always claim that reality as a simulation is. Preferred version of the simulation, hypothesis, either consequential. Or falsifiable. Right. So you know getting back to what I just said a few moments ago just, because you can't prove it's not true doesn't. Mean that you can't find evidence that. It is true and you. Know I was just down at a university. Down in Southern California where that we're running some experiments, to try to show evidence that, in fact. Consciousness. Is needed. To collapse the probability, wave not just a device because, the device could be part of the simulation as well right so if. And, and depending, on what we find if in, fact you need a conscious, person as opposed to a device that. Brings up back, to my preferred, version of the simulation hypothesis, which is that the RPG version, that we, are conscious entities who are playing characters now. Is it consequential, I'll get back to the to my last point in this talk if you, were playing a particular game, like EVE Online, your, goal may be to build spaceships and, you, know build an empire intergalactic. Knowing. That you're in a simulation might, alter your behavior. Because. You'll have a different set of quests, and achievements, that's, why I like the video game analogy, more, than just a straight simulated, environment, itself yeah. We, want to thank you so much for being here thanks everybody. You.

2019-08-11 12:56

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Comments:

one of my oldest friends in the world and one of the smartest people i know. go rizwan!

I spend most of my time collapsing probability waves on youtube.

would this help explain why massive objects affect time? the more mass involved the "longer" itd take the simulation to process all them bits, slowing time relative to other regions

Simulation hypothesis is just religion 2.0.

Bell's Inequality is just bad RNG.

Please add Arabic subtitles

When he was talking about the rendered objects in the simulation, all I could think of was a recent popular music album by Billie Eilish called "When we all fall asleep, where do we go?" In that album, the song "bury a friend" asks this very question.

Quoth ]03:30+035s[ What happens to those characters when I'm not logged in Insightful ]42:00+090s[ Great first questions regarding ML and dare I say recursive merit system that determines if right action by assessing all outcomes and ranking them. Sounds exactly like what Sussman and RMS were playing with idea wise back in the 70's on the fastest and most efficient learning. Force decision points to gain more information and data which provides outcome assessments retroactively. This is why I fear spawning too many minecraft worlds. They are massive and should be attended to.

An altruistic human experience, true story, loaded with exciting, emotional, surprising, dramatic and happy events. https://www.avolunteerbride.com/

Can't believe he liked my post on twitter last week. !

please include subtitles in other languages

I wonder how something like "glitch in the matrix" could be translated in a language that has not yet developed the concept of virutal reality in its language forms? I'm not talking about making a reference to the movie, but the concept of simulation. A simpler case for example could be converting a number from one system to another system that has no concept of zero.

I believe the whole issue of video games, other than for mere entertainment, is at best a distraction from developing a better understanding of the quantum world and reality. Studying dreams and consciousness are much more worthy pursuits than delving deeper into video games. Think about a basic dream that people may experience on any given night: the brain apparently creates an entire world that, unless it's a lucid dream, cannot be distinguished from reality itself. then we do it again, and again. And most importantly, more often than not, it's a *believable* reality, at least until we perform some "impossible" task that wakes us up. Science:Fiction is akin to Truth:Religion: if you have the former, you don't need the latter. And games are, well, games! - j q t -

when your ego so strong u sign your youtube comments

If you allow the defintion of "games" to include speculative thinking and other conscious and unconscious reactions to real or perceived activities then the solutions space becomes bigger and more interesting than just narrowing the scope to the quantum scale.

Great presentation. Thank you for sharing it.

Oh, darn. I was hoping that Rizwan Virk was not going to go down the heavily worn path of pseudoscience. His idea(s) that it is the observer which is needed for reality to manifest is an attempt to fill a knowledge gap with a heap of fantastical speculation. I am not saying that he ought to stop speculating. I do hope that Rizwan can get back on the path of exploring what might be a testable hypothesis about a simulation hypothesis. I am in awe that great minds are getting trapped by what appears to be the descriptor "observer". Look, I do not know anything. But, I do know that making the claim that an observer is necessary moves us from the application of science and of acts which add to our body of knowledge to that of a sci-fi/fantasy steeped speculation. If anything, I do like Rizwan's passion for what he is speculating about. May Rizwan work together with those who are our pioneering minds and who are quantum physicists without being sideswiped by all of that unnecessary woo. The universe is exceptionally fascinating and breathtaking without there being any need to add fantastical speculations to our experience of awe and of wonder about the universe. I sound like a curmudgeon. Forgive me.

Even this simulation needs some curmudgeons. :) For those trying to make the logical connections of how AI and ML actually model and behave this was oddly insightful, but come from a more mystical worldview of GKChesteron so that added part is actually extremly helpful as we wouldn't see authors throughout history that dug into the re-recorded words of fairy stories and oddly walked into a similar understanding of the universe. It is by no means a scientific one, but I do think it is a readibly available one that any anywhere can test and find information. I'm rambling, but do appreciate your comment and insight.

It's interesting how you want to constrict the domain of exploration long before we have a notion of where or what our search might lead us. Remember not too long ago it was "fantastical" to even suggest the Earth was not the center of the universe. Before we can even get to the realm of testing hypotheses, Rizwan is asking can if we use play to narrow the scope from which we can pick what to test?

“All y’all Mario, it’s all a game.” -Kanye West

I organized this edition of "Talks at Google". I asked this question at 44:30 on behalf of a dear friend. I work at Google in the Bay Area. I had the privilege to meet Riz in person that day and get to know him a little. I felt that he embodies the truth. In other words, his behavior speaks more to his understanding of reality than does his knowledge. He was one of the most pleasant and peaceful person I've come across and this was especially surprising to me considering the responsibility he must have running a department at MIT while writing a book in parallel and yes, he's also produced movies. However, do you believe that he could be right about this? Could be be dreaming our reality? What does it mean that our reality is just a simulation? What did the Buddha mean when he said that the self is an illusion. How can that be? It's madness. If madness doesn't scare you, then you should try to perform this simple experiment with your hand eye coordination @ madness.kotuhal.com :) I hope you enjoy the talk. Wake up, Neo...

Only try to realize the truth...there is no spoon. Then you’ll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

Thank you for doing so, just started it and excited to see where he goes with mysticism and science fiction because he is spot on.

8:25 - No. Bostrum's 2003 paper does NOT assert we may be npc's in a simulation. Readers should observe this rather easily, at https://www.simulation-argument.com/ How can you get something this simple and fundamental, that wrong? Using your terms, he posits primarily rpgs within a simulation. 10:20 - No. Bostrum doesn't "make the point" that civilization never gets to the point of creating world simulations, that is merely one of his three conditions at the head of his paper: "This paper argues that at least one of the following propositions is true: (1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a “posthuman” stage; (2) any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof); (3) we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation. It follows that the belief that there is a significant chance that we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor-simulations is false, unless we are currently living in a simulation. A number of other consequences of this result are also discussed."

If we're in a simulation, DMT is the cheat code to escape.

Drug users drown in the pool mystics swim in - Joseph Campbell

Yep and the jester thinks we’re hilarious for stressing out. He/they literally laugh at us like foolish teenagers angry at losing a silly game. ...I mean... from what I’m told.

That may be so. MDMA is the code to God.

Reality is stranger than fiction. :)

Read 'Who Am I' by Ramana Maharshi. You'll get all the answers if you read and re-read it :)

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Isn't the claim at 18:55 about how we've simulated all the neurons and connections in a rat's brain totally bogus? Maybe every TYPE of neuron and TYPE of connection? Or what is he referring to?

No Virk, he's Neo because its the word "one" rearranged

His book gives a very thorough overview of various versions on how we can be living in simulation. It is quite technical too. The book doesn't cover enough questions of our life's purpose and the role of god. I just finished Answers in Simulation kindle book that gives good spiritual guidance while living in simulation.

I can't wait to plug Google into my neocortex!

Very productive hard gamer re-enchanted "neo spinozist" contribution to the “simulation hypothesis” , also linking the hypothesis to the modern foundational physics of non-locality, many worlds and quantum consistent histories. Actually rather neutral on the question of the precedence of mind/consciousness over matter. The boundaries between “created worlds” and “naturally occurring worlds” are blurred and the polemics somehow closed, like the older “debate” between the ‘innate’ and the acquired has been. The distinction between NPCs and “players” can also be blurred: after all, an “advanced NPC" could be “uploaded” into the "superior" world of the players, through some robotic extension, a reverse of the "total recall" avatar process! All this was pre-sensed by older theologies, indian and also jew/ christian and probably others, with the question of the boundaries/ the distance between a god (which can be a corporation of higher level entities like a much older multiverse controlling civilisation churning out simulations ) and its creation: tsimtsum Vs a version of "deus sive natura" that does not throw god with the bath water (keeping players subsuming unsuspecting avatars!). Now the question is "where are the backdoors and the special passwords" ?

Spoon bending? Lol no

God. I was open minded. But this guy is filled with shit to the gills.

Ask those same people to move a grain of sand with their minds. Nothing you can touch or rub or transfer your body heat to, or lie to yourself about because you want your spouse to think “hmm, wow, maybe?”

Wait a fucking second. Prob waves can be collapsed with different results? ????

Why aren’t we all studying this?

Would like an unlimited health and money cheat...

He remimds me of a asian mark Ruffalo

My like is 2^8

Every now and then when I dream dream. Within that dream, something very vivid and similar to something that would happen in real life occurs. Eventually, while i'm awake and living my life at a random point in the future, that little 'moment' will occur in real life, although I won't see it coming. I can rule out deja vu because I'm a conscious that the moment happened to me in a dream, if only momentarily. Seeing as this has happened quite a few times, can anyone explain this? How is that not proof that there is some form of pre formed narrative to my life? Would be interested to hear peoples take on it.

I appreciate an open-minded engineer/scientist.

it could also be argued that when we sleep.... were actually in the real world..... some things feel so real when you wake up.... then they fade..... fade because were not linked to that thought anymore as were in a simulation when were awake

arguably one of the best sci fi movies ever made.... with arguably the most disappointing sequels. Also the dark glasses and s&m were pointless and stupid...... we want to hide from agents.... so lets look as ridiculous as possible

Once they realize that we've discovered the truth, they'll reboot! :)

sha shazan ali he does a bit. :)

Mark Cochran there is no spoon

Lillian Bee we could also be living in a giant toilet

Lillian Bee Gods role is obvious.... its used as a method of control.... it doesnt rely on proof nor disproof.... merely faith.... and fear

Jacob Ramsey and God is Dog backwards.... that must mean we were created by a doberman too

Shandana A. Durrani he doesnt look that old

thegrumpyhypnotist no, that would be gravity and force

Avocado Pirate imagination.... our greatest gift

@unrepeatable raddish you said "We always judge or learn by the perceptions we have..." Not exactly true. We also judge and learn by intuitions and other mental activities nothing to do with perceptions. In fact, most advancements we make in pure judgments are not based on perceptions.

Avocado Pirate you make a fantastic point. We always judge or learn by the perceptions we have.... its unavoidable.... I actually think things "exist" or dont, depending on the concept..... that are beyond how we think. Its one reason we cant actually fathom infinity.... it goes against what we are to think something has no end.... our thoughts simply have to have balance

@unrepeatable raddish I do enjoy the game of Chess and Cribbage, and often play both using computers. But I've never been the least bit interested in what seem to be pointless shooting games. If it's not tethered to reality, I lose any interest. But perhaps it's just my age, born in 1958. I did once install "Need for Speed" on my Original 2010 iPad, so cut me some slack! LOL

John Quill Taylor dreams could actually be reality.... the memory fades when were no longer linked to it

John Quill Taylor the benefits of video games are mind blowing..... you wouldnt believe the benefits they can bring...especially in medicine and psychology... . I did a paper on the subject in college. You actually couldnt be more wrong

the deeliciousplum you need some beer.... and to get laid

Avocado Pirate it was fantasical to think the earth was spherical....not you have attention seeking morons who just hate authority... claiming, quite ludicrously, that its flat

the deeliciousplum and when you write an essay long post... try not to copy your argumentative ideas from a jj abrams scifi show (fringe)

the what youre saying is..... imagination is merely based on everything illogical..... even though as humans, imagination is our greatest trait.. and youre saying, everything in fringe science is bullshit? Im sure, given youre so high and mighty, that your way of thinking.... is the right one (after all, youre telling us all how we should think) yea, youre pretty much the last person id ever invite to dinner

Infertile Myrtle yes but kanye west is a moron

unrepeatable raddish Open your reality

....wait, so people really bent spoons with their minds?

Very nice! I think you guys might like a video I made, "heartbeats & blood flow". I got emergent behaviour from a simulation!

hmm....apparently there is no spoon anyway, so no, they didn't bend anything :) I thought this was a fantastic talk until that comment raised a red flag

My thoughts exactly. I even web searched to see if something new had occurred but it was all the same old "total hoax" debunked reports. He kinda had me wondering until he jumped the shark.

Australian Hip Hop Directory so then, if it has happened numerous time thought our lives and we can consciously remember and document it happening, than it’s either MASSIVLEY coincidental or our lives have a pre conceived narrative.

I'll go as far as assuming that everyone watching this talk has had that happened throughout their life

That was a great talk. Loved Riz. I've had a theory (unprovable) that we are actually living/existing in Parallel/Multiple Universes. These universes could be pre-existing OR could be a result of a decision we make at each life point. Riz suggests in his talk that this might happen as a copy paste function within the server. So each choice we make in life spins off a separate world that exists (potentially or materially) somewhere in the millions of universes, and we therefore exist as millions of personas, each living in their own little world, and blissfully unaware of our other copies. However dreams to me are the glitch in the system. That is where one of my personas makes contact with another version of me. Or I make contact with my secondary persona and his world. Thus we see all sorts of crazy things happening, events that don't make sense, friends gone crazy, relatives dead or dieing. So effectively we have had a peak into another simulation. However when we wake up we are unsure of what reality is...the dream, or the world we have woken upto. Interestingly Sufism or Islamic Mysticism makes a potent attempt to breach the distance between material and consciousness. I've never been part of it, but have read about it, and have some friends who are followers. The emphasis on consciousness and its reality is massive. Al-Ghazali the famous mystic writes about it, as do others. Iqbal the Indian poet, writes about Mysticism as the knowledge beyond science, in his famous 'Reconsstruction of Islamic Thought.' Obviously Riz shows in his talk above that science might also hold clues. Please tell Riz, he gave a fascinating talk. I'll try to get hold of his book.

@Kris Stefan Alternately it could be the complexity of the human brain and its ability to 'imagine' countless scenarios - as much as I'd like to believe that things like de ja vu have a 'higher meaning' I can't exclude the possibility that it is something similar to the gamblers logical fallacy that attributes superstitious beliefs whenever they win, but ignores all the events that happen when a loss occurs

@enorbet2 Thanks....I was being sarcastic :)

@Australian Hip Hop Directory actually there IS a spoon. Whether we, or anyone or anything perceives it as an energy field or a solid object just depends on "the equipment" of the perceiver/recorder... it's sensitivities, resolution, zoom levels, etc. Regardless of perceiver there is a collection of density that can be defined as having a border that allows identity as a coherent item. This is somewhat different from pure perspective "items" like constellations which only appear as a two dimensional pattern when viewed from a particular location in 3D space.

mybigtoe.com

i think bugs are wars

you got cheats?

The matrix is already in the grid, we just need to learn to communicate with it. Rico

'Everything happens for a reason' takes on a whole new slant when considered within the framework of the simulation theory. Almost a leftover remnant of 'what to remember when the simulation kicks in'. 'DON'T PANIC'.

Does he honestly believe his entire life is a simulation as he's giving this talk? What a bunch of complete BS.

Many ponder on this possibility, (The Simulation Theory) but WHO really wants to see 'The Processing System of LIFE', all is being produced through ??? It is very, very easy to see 'The Construct' of 'The Processing System of LIFE' in your sight. This can be achieved through many different methods.

Wait... Isn't that Zabo, from The Guild? Has my reality been adjusted?

Ok, and what we should do? There is any Neo here who wants, as me, to escape the simulation, or to get the next level?

Holographic Universe John, Thanks for sharing this very interesting information with me. It certainly makes sense to me. The Anthropic principle alone should be enough for skeptical scientists to understand that the laws of physics and mathematics are the laws of God's own Mind. Kevin Williams James Gates, Ph.D., a theoretical physicist at the Univ. of Maryland said: “If the simulation hypothesis is valid, then we open the door to eternal life and resurrection and things that formally have been discussed in the realm of religion. Our Creator created linear space-time which is essentially controlled electrical energy in the form of light that has existed eternally. Checkout on YouTube: A fractal universe. Time and space must exist before matter can be created, and only an animate entity can conceive of space-time; this prerequisite must be a stabilized and uniform condition before matter can form, thus, monotheism is a Truth. A stable space-time and the Universal Laws of Physics did not happen by chance. On Jan. 17, 2000 at 2 pm, while crossing a river bridge in Burswood (Australia) on my bicycle, I observed a velvet-textured beige pearl covering the sun. Within the entity, there were containers in the shape of elongated, seven-pointed Koch snowflake fractal crystals immersed in a white misty light traveling in a ten o'clock direction. I later deduced that the light flashes on the inner space of the crystals were of a binary language conversion pertaining to the senses of all mortals, that is, a holographic universe. Nicola Tesla believed that crystals were living entities ....writing: “In a crystal, we have clear evidence of the existence of a formative life principle, and though we cannot understand the life of a crystal, it is nonetheless a living being.” If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration" -Nikola Tesla. Scientists decided that to prove that reality was not, in fact, simply an illusion, they had to discover the “point particle”, and this would be accomplished with innovations like the Large Hadron Collider. By discovering the "Point Particle" scientist were able to prove that reality was, in fact, an illusion. Through the data, they received from The Hadron Collider (LHC) which was built to smash particles together then monitor the outcome. By doing this, scientists were able to make some incredible discoveries. According to research conducted through the particle accelerator, they could see that the physical world is not as physical as we think it to be. Reality is, in fact, an illusion. We are only surrounded by energy. Natalie Porter 16 April 2018 In Life, Metaphysics "The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence." ~Nikola Tesla ------------------------------------------------- What Heaven looks like, which I witnessed in the sky above the banks of the Swan River, Perth, at dawn on 31 July 1998. In the garden, flowers and grass were clearly visible, they pulsed in the surrounding low light, infused by an inner light. Their colours were magnificent but totally new to me with a spectrum much broader than that on Earth.

"The first practical AI was claude shannon".. exactly - he was a npc himself.

When u know the earth is flat and the Mandela effect is a real phenomenon - the simulation we live in becomes obvious.

Think about it. Voodoo and spells and magical stuff could be jus cheat codes

I like his energy :) Very interesting :)

I'd really like to know how the first version of the matrix looked like (which was neglected by the human beings)!!!

there is a vishnu living in the blockchain

No, we don't live in a simulation. Look at how often computer software breaks/glitches/crashes/does random shit. When does the universe we live it do that? It doesn't. Buildings always render, we never lose gravity and start floating, nothing ever crashes or so on. The whole simulation argument is so ridiculous you may as well state that homeopathy works.

29:10 If there is Pixelated Time, would it mean that, if time travel is possible, then it's through the "different timelines hypothesis"? Or maybe we would need to reverse entropy

Could it be that google's purpose may be to create a new simulation to capture us all in as we begin to wake up from this one?

Thanks for sharing, the mad kotuhal article is amazing!

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