This quick dive of mine into AI has led me to reevaluate my thoughts about the possibility that we are indeed living in a simulation. I now believe there is a greater possibility that we are living in a simulation.

But I don't think we are. I think we're organic and that we think we understand the world around us to a certain degree. But regardless of whether we're in a simulation or not, I do think this:

We are living in an illusion, at least most of the time. Perhaps some people, whether it be through meditation, being a savant of some sort, drugs, etc., do experience something closer, and I emphasize the -er here, to reality. But for most of us, simulation or not, I think we create our reality. I'm not even sure an objective reality exists.

We create our reality first through self awareness, hence separating ourselves from our environment, which right off the bat skews our observations in such a way that is impossible to avoid. We are our environment, and yet we experience life as 'me' living in this environment. It's a quagmire and it will forever and permanently leave a stain on any scientific finding.

But watching my teen students get entirely immersed in their virtual realities (i.e., Minecraft, etc.), and seeing how quickly AI is developing, I have to admit that the possibility that we are in an AI driven simulation is real.

After all, if we were able to do that now, if we were able to create a virtual reality in which we could enter and experience, well virtual REAL reality, we would do it. Therefore, what's to say we haven't done so already? What's to say we aren't living in a chosen world, one, say, just as AI was emerging?

A number of movies have explored this. One we watched recently, a crappy movie for the most part, was Don't Worry Darling, 2022 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10731256/.

But, I don't think we're in a virtual reality, as we understand that, for a couple reasons. One, we can't understand human abilities that haven't been realized. We can guess, extrapolate, and imagine, but we can't know. So any concept we have of such a simulation would be wrong.

Second, if we were in a simulation, life wouldn't be so fucking monotonous at times. Games, simulations, virtual realities, they exist to address boredom, not create it. Nor misery, growing old, etc. I mean, who in the hell would design THIS simulation? I want my money back!

But it could be another type of simulation. Training? Punishment? We're getting into the realm of religion here. Could it all be one great simulation? Maybe.