When We Ruminate Upon the Simulation Question, We Waste Our Time
I am infuriated by the fact that millions of very bright “secular” people continue to spend significant amounts of time brooding over the question of whether the reality we live in is the “original/natural” reality or some sort of computer simulation constructed in either it or a pre-existing simulated reality.
There is absolutely no way of scientifically knowing or rationally knowing whether we are or whether we are not living in a computer simulation. There never was. There never will be. This is an “is” that will forever remain scientifically and rationally invisible to us. No “scientific” or “rational” inquiry into the matter can be anything more than mysticism.
Scientific laws, whether known to exist or yet to be discovered that some reference to or plan to reference to prove that we are not living in a computer simulation could simply be scientific laws particular to a specific computer simulation- the inability to construct a comprehensive reality simulation could simply be something scripted into a simulation.
And just as we can’t just look at patterns in the universe and scientifically or rationally know that they’re all proof of the hand of some “natural” god, we cannot look at patterns in the universe and scientifically or rationally know that they are proof of the hand of some programmer.
For that matter, if we were indeed subjects in a computer simulation, we would be the moral equivalents of intelligent beings of our exact sort, wholly incapable of knowing whether they are or are not “real”, and not living in a computer simulation. Our experience would be identical to theirs. Either way, we are genuinely sentient beings, not video game characters without consciousness and feelings. Either way, we genuinely hate and love. Either way, we commit acts of genuine good and evil. The absolute universal moral truths most of us believe to exist, if they are, indeed, absolute and universal, apply in the “real” reality and would apply all simulated realities that may exist. Whether we are made of actual flesh or are “inorganic” material not aware of its being “inorganic” or “unnatural” material, or whether we are living in the “natural” reality or a computer reality is not something that matters at this point.
Am I saying that there is anything wrong with people having absolute positions of faith on this front that may or may not be backed up by intricate mystical thinking? No, so long as those who hold these positions acknowledge that these positions are religious “is” (as opposed to “ought”) positions that cannot be supported by science or rationality, and so long as these positions don't reduce them to jaded mush or shut them off from development of class consciousness and participation in the struggle against Capital.
Those who are wasting time on or, God forbid, losing sleep over this matter, just need to come to understand it for what it is and move on with their lives. We have real work to do. We must remember that distractions like this one are deliberately pushed to the fore- we must never forget that Capital loves anything that intellectually distracts or inspires lassitude in those they oppress and who, if they were class conscious and confident, would organize into a revolutionary democratic movement for the realization of socialism, into a democratic socialist international. Let us tackle the great problem facing humanity and stop getting hung up on useless distractions like the simulation question.
-Strom McCallum
(Republished from my blog)
