Speaker 1: Hey everyone, and welcome back. Ready to go on another
deep dive with us. This time we're tackling a topic
that's sure to stretch your perceptions and maybe even leave
you looking over your shoulder.
Speaker 2: It's definitely one of those concepts that can really make
you question everything you thought you knew exactly.
Speaker 1: Today, we're venturing into the world of simulation theory.
Speaker 2: Buckle up, because things are about to get pretty weird.
Speaker 1: We'll be exploring the arguments, sifting through the evidence, and
trying to wrap our heads around the mind boggling possibility
that our reality might be well, not so real after all.
Speaker 2: And what's particularly fascinating about this is that the idea
that we might be living in a simulation isn't just
some recent sci fi fantasy.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's got deep roots.
Speaker 2: Definitely. Ancient philosophers going all the way back to Plato
pondered the nature of reality and often came to the
conclusion that our senses might be deceiving us.
Speaker 1: It's like a universal itch we can't quite scratch, that
feeling that things aren't quite as they seem.
Speaker 2: It definitely seems to tap into something deep within the
human psyche. This desire to understand the true nature of
our existence absolutely.
Speaker 1: But today it's not just philosophers grappling with this idea.
We've got some heavy hitters in science and technology like
Elon Musk and Neil deGrasse Tyson openly speculating that we
might be living in a simulated reality.
Speaker 2: They're definitely not shying away from the big questions, and
that's what makes this whole topic so intriguing.
Speaker 1: It really is. And to add to that, we have
Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom who throws down a serious gauntlet
with his simulation trilemma.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a real head scratcher.
Speaker 1: Essentially, he presents three possibilities, each more mind bending than
the last one. Civilizations wipe themselves out before they reach
the tech level needed to create realistic simulations. Two, they
get there but decide not to create simulations, maybe for
ethical reasons.
Speaker 2: And then there's door number three, the.
Speaker 1: One where we're already living in a simulation created by
some super advanced civilization.
Speaker 2: The kicker is that he argues all three are equally likely.
Speaker 1: So basically we're left with a cosmic coin toss pretty much.
And when you consider the pace of technological advancement. I mean,
look at how far we've come in just the last century.
Speaker 2: It's truly remarkable.
Speaker 1: It kind of makes you wonder what will be possible
in another one hundred years, a thousand.
Speaker 2: The possibilities are both exciting and a little terrifying.
Speaker 1: Definitely. But let's delve into some of the arguments for
why some of the brightest minds think we might be
simulated beings.
Speaker 2: Right, where do we even begin with this?
Speaker 1: Well, let's start with the granddaddy of all cosmic events,
the Big Bang.
Speaker 2: The ultimate origin story.
Speaker 1: Right from absolute nothingness, all the matter and energy in
the universe bursts into being.
Speaker 2: In a single, incomprehensible instant.
Speaker 1: Science has given us a pretty good understanding of how
it happened, but the why remains elusive.
Speaker 2: It's the ultimate question, isn't it What triggered this cosmic ignition?
What came before the Big Bang?
Speaker 1: It's like trying to imagine what's near to.
Speaker 2: The North Pole precisely? But what if instead of unknowable
primordial event, the Big Bang was simply the moment a
super advanced computer program was initiated.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, let's unpack that.
Speaker 2: Sure, So imagine all the fundamental constants of physics, the
laws governing gravity, even consciousness itself, all of.
Speaker 1: That, the very fabric of reality.
Speaker 2: Exactly what if it's all just lines of code carefully
crafted by some cosmic programmer.
Speaker 1: So instead of searching for some grand, unifying theory of everything,
we might just be trying to decipher the source code
of our simulated reality.
Speaker 2: It's a mind blowing shift in perspective, for sure.
Speaker 1: But think about it. How does a video game work.
You've got a set of rules, a.
Speaker 2: Predetermined environment, characters interacting within that space, following those rules.
Speaker 1: Right, and perhaps our universe operates in a similar way.
The laws of physics are just the game mechanics, and.
Speaker 2: We're the players or maybe the characters navigating this virtual world.
Speaker 1: So the speed of light, for example, what if.
Speaker 2: It's not an absolute limit, but rather just a hart
coded constraint set by the simulation's programmers.
Speaker 1: It's like hitting the invisible wall in a video game.
It makes you stop and think, Okay, there's something else
going on here.
Speaker 2: Precisely, and if our universe is a simulation, it opens
up a whole Pandora's box of intriguing.
Speaker 1: Question like glitches in the matrix exactly.
Speaker 2: Have you ever heard of the Mandela effect? Oh?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a rabbit hole I've gone down a few
times myself.
Speaker 2: It's named after Nelson Mandela, of course, and it describes
a phenomenon where large groups of people share a distinct
memory of an event.
Speaker 1: Something that, according to documented history, never actually happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like a collective glitch in the matrix.
Speaker 1: Give us some examples. I'm sure our listeners have experienced
a few of these themselves.
Speaker 2: Oh, definitely. The Mandela example itself is a big one.
Many people vividly remember him dying in prison in the
nineteen eighties, but he actually lived until twenty thirteen.
Speaker 1: Right. And then there's the Berenstein Bears versus Berenstein Bears debate.
Countless people swear it was spelled.
Speaker 2: With an inn despite all the evidence pointing to aim.
Speaker 1: Wait really, Barren Stain, I swear I remember it with
an im.
Speaker 2: It's uncanny, isn't it. And don't even get me started
on the Darth Vader quote, Luke, I am your father.
So many people remember it that way, but the actual line, no,
I am your father, No Luke at all.
Speaker 1: You're messing with me.
Speaker 2: Nope, it's true. I know. It's enough to make you
question your sanity, let alone reality for sure.
Speaker 1: Now, of course, there are explanations for these beyond fimulation theory.
Memories notoriously unreliable, and we all know how easily misinformation
can spread, especially online.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, but the sheer scale and consistency of some of
these shared false memories is hard to ignore. It's like
reality itself has shifted.
Speaker 1: Leaving these little inconsistencies in its wake.
Speaker 2: Exactly, And if we are living in a simulation, these mandela,
the versions of the program.
Speaker 1: Or intentional tweaks designed to test our perception.
Speaker 2: It's a fascinating thought experiment.
Speaker 1: So are all those little discrepancies we brush off in
our daily just subtle hints that we're living in a
simulated reality.
Speaker 2: It's enough to make you second guess everything. But all right,
let's zoom out from those weird glitches and look at
the bigger picture, the universe itself. Have you ever noticed
how many patterns repeat in nature?
Speaker 1: Well? Yeah, absolutely, Like you see spirals everywhere, like galaxies
and seashells.
Speaker 2: It's crazy, right, Like the Fibonacci sequence, where every number
is just the two before it added up sunflowers, nautilus shells,
even the way branches grow on trees.
Speaker 1: And then you've got that golden ratio, that one point
sixty one eight number that seems to be everywhere.
Speaker 2: From the proportions of the human body to ancient architecture.
Speaker 1: It almost feels like someone just copy pasted it everywhere.
It's too perfect to be random.
Speaker 2: You know, it's definitely remarkable, and some people think it
points to like an underlying code, a blueprint for reality itself.
Speaker 1: So are you saying there's like a cosmic architect, some
grand designer who set all these mathematical constants in motion.
Speaker 2: It's a tempting thought, isn't it. And it's not just
pretty patterns either. There's a physicist, James Gates, who was
actually pretty skeptical about simulation theory at first.
Speaker 1: What changed his mind.
Speaker 2: He was studying the math behind sub atomic particles, really
deep stuff.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, way over my head.
Speaker 2: But while he's doing that, he finds something crazy, what
looks like error correcting code, the kind you find in
computer programming.
Speaker 1: Wait, you're saying there's computer code baked into the very
fabric of reality.
Speaker 2: It sounds nuts, right, But that's what he found. It's
a discovery that's really shaking things up in the scientific community.
Speaker 1: So it's like the random static on a TV screen
turns out to be a secret message, except this message
is like the building blocks of the universe.
Speaker 2: It's wild. And since we're talking about mind blowing discoveries,
we have to talk about the double slit experiment.
Speaker 1: Ooh, yes, I've heard about this. Uh huh, something about
shooting particles through slits. I'm not sure I fully get it, though.
Speaker 2: So picture this. You've got a wall with two slits
in it. You start shooting these tiny particles like electrons
at the wall. Okay, got it, and behind the wall
is a screen that detects where the electrons land. You'd
expect to see two bands of electrons on the screen, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one for each slit makes sense.
Speaker 2: But that's not what happens. Instead of two bands, you
get this interference pattern like waves waves. Yeah, it's as
if each electron is going through both slits at the
same time and interfering with itself, like it's a wave
not a particle.
Speaker 1: Wait, how can something be in two places at once?
Speaker 2: That's the crazy thing about quantum mechanics. It throws all
our everyday logic out the window.
Speaker 1: Okay, but it gets weirder.
Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely, So scientists try to figure out which slit
each electron goes through. They set up a detector.
Speaker 1: To watch, so they're spying on the electrons exactly.
Speaker 2: But as soon as they do that, the interference pattern vanishes.
You get the two bands like normal particles.
Speaker 1: So just by observing it, they change how the electrons behave.
Speaker 2: It's like reality itself changes depending on whether we're looking
or not. Super spooky.
Speaker 1: That's crazy. How does this fit into the whole simulation theory?
Speaker 2: Well, think about it. If our reality is a simulation,
it wouldn't be very efficient to render everything all the time.
Speaker 1: Right, Like a video game only shows you what.
Speaker 2: You need to see exactly. So maybe the universe only
renders what's being observed. Saves processing power.
Speaker 1: So the double slit experiment is like catching the simulation
red handed. It's showing us how the program works.
Speaker 2: That's one way to think about it. It suggests that consciousness,
the act of observing, is somehow intertwined with the very
fabric of reality, which is a pretty mind blowing thought.
Speaker 1: It's like our consciousness is the cursor deciding which parts
of the program get rendered. Okay, so we've talked about
glitches and this weird quantum stuff. But if we're in
a simulation, who created it? What's their deal?
Speaker 2: That's the big question, isn't it? And honestly, we don't
have a clue. But it's interesting to think about how
this idea of simulation creators overlaps with the idea of God.
Speaker 1: You're saying, are we just swapping one all powerful entity
for another?
Speaker 2: It's a thought, right, both represent a force beyond our understanding,
shaping reality. Whether you call them God or programmers, the
basic concept is kind of similar.
Speaker 1: A higher power pulling the strings.
Speaker 2: And it raises questions about free will. If our actions
are just code being executed, do we actually have a choice?
Speaker 1: Whoa yeah? Like, are we just characters following a script?
Speaker 2: And if we are in a simulation, does it make
our experiences less real? Does it diminish our lives?
Speaker 1: Good questions? What do you think?
Speaker 2: Honestly, even if everything around us is artificial, our experiences,
our feelings, they're real to us. We laugh, we cry,
we connect, that's genuine No matter what. It really makes
you wonder what if we're the ones building simulations someday.
Speaker 1: It's not impossible, right, Look how fast technology is evolving.
Speaker 2: Think about Moore's law. Computing power doubles like every eighteen months.
It's insane.
Speaker 1: So if that keeps up, even if it slows down
a little, we could be creating crazy realistic simulations in
the future.
Speaker 2: Indistinguished from base reality.
Speaker 1: It's kind of scary to think about, right, I mean,
look at video games now compared to like thirty years ago.
It's a whole different world. Imagine what they'll be like
in one hundred years, and what.
Speaker 2: About a thousand years or a million. It's mind blowing.
We could literally be creating universes.
Speaker 1: It's like we're on the verge of becoming like digital gods,
creating life in these simulated worlds. But then it makes
you wonder, if we can do that, doesn't it mean
someone else could already done it to us?
Speaker 2: Full circle right back to that question, are we the simulation?
It really challenges everything we think we know about the universe,
makes you rethink our place in it all.
Speaker 1: It's humbling, that's for sure. But even if we are
just some experiment in a giant computer program, does that
mean our lives are less meaningful.
Speaker 2: That's a personal question, I think, But for me, it
doesn't change how I feel about things. The emotions we experience,
the connections we make, those are real, even if the
world around us is artificial.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I get that. Like we still laugh, we still cry,
we still fall in love. That sus real no.
Speaker 2: Matter what exactly. And I think the very fact that
we can even ask these questions, that we're curious about
the nature of reality, that says something about us.
Speaker 1: It shows were always trying to learn, to explore, to understand.
And maybe that's the whole point, whether we're in a
simulation or not.
Speaker 2: Maybe the journey is more important than the destination.
Speaker 1: Well, I think we've given everyone a lot to think
about today. From the Big Bang to the Mandela Effect
to those creepy double slits in the Fermi paradox, we've
explored some pretty wild ideas today.
Speaker 2: We've gone deep down the rabbit hole of simulation theory.
Speaker 1: So what do you all think? Have we convinced you
that we're living in a computer program or have we
just left you with more questions than answers.
Speaker 2: Either way, head over to our website or social media
and let us know what stood out to you.
Speaker 1: We'd love to hear your thoughts.
Speaker 2: And until next time, keep looking up at those stars
and wondering the universe is a pretty amazing place, simulated
Speaker 1: Or not, and keep those minds open because you never
know what might be lurking just beyond the edges of reality.