Are we living in a Computer Simulation?

What's the point of the past two pages of this thread. It is a bunch of people sitting around yelling at each other about what idiots you all are.

Anyone still on this thread is a fool. What a f***ing waste of time.

It has been alleged that the OP, Hodgarrik, is really Quehoniamath, back in a new guise.

you are so right

wtf?

You are quote correct as far as 'scientific thinking' is concerned, but there are social and psychological aspects to 'trolling' which have import with respect to 'information manipulation' in its more sinister aspects. We only need to consider Hitler's comment ...'the bigger the lie, the more likely it is to be believed'....to see the dangers. Controx's references on the psychology of conspiracy theories are relevant to that.

nope, he doesn't even have a clue about conspiracies.

Hitler? This is a thread about the nature of reality... it is a harmless philosophical tangent at worst. Why does everything have to be about Hitler? There is no danger here. What is happening is even on this thread the Politically Correct crowd has to come to be nasty. They aren't discussing this. They aren't ignoring it They feel the strange need to viciously attack anyone who has wrong ideas.

I have seen no proof that there isn't an "external universe" with a completely different set of Physical laws to ours. I have seen proof that an external universe with the same Physical laws would be problematic. More importantly, I have seen no evidence that any of the people here to bully the "ignorant" into submission have put any thought into the difference.

The nastiness is unnecessary. Really Fresco, if you aren't intellectually amused by the idea of an external universe which is running our universe as a simulation... than who the hell cares?

It is like people on this thread are just looking for someone they consider inferior so that they can beat them up.

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
Starts when you're always afraid
Step out of line, the man comes and takes you away

Listen to Setanta, Fresco. This time he is correct.

Sorry. I don't do 'nature of reality' stuff except from a social constructivist point of view. In Kuhnian terms, social forces have impact on 'scientific paradigms' and 'mis-information' is a rogue element in the 'vector sum'. From that point of view, the 'trolling' here can be considered to be a minor player in those attempts to control information generally termed 'propoganda'.

From the psychological point of view, the trolling here is simplistically 'attention seeking'. It has little to do with scientific ignorance, and it is futile to engage at that level.

Max is just **** stirring, it's what he does. He's as much an attention seeker as the OP. He's just trying to make himself look good while implying all manner of things about the people he disagrees with, note how he twisted your quite innocent, and valid, remark about Hitler out of all proportion.

He's only interested in talking about himself which is why I put him on ignore a long time ago.

please put me on ignore! lol

Brilliance!

Of all the people whose posts I read on A2K, I have to say, it would be most enlightening to have a face to face discussion with you, I think(not for you, for me ). It might leave me permanently befuddled, but it would be enlightening, I'm sure. (Well, you and Setanta both, to a similar degree of enlightenment and befuddlement).

Thanks !
(We do 'face to face' every first Tuesday in the month, Manchester UK )

Who is trolling whom? One person proposed an idea on a thread he created. A bunch of people come to attack him with nasty insults.

I don't know what your definition of "trolling" is. There is an angry mob that comes with pitchforks and torches anytime anyone suggests an idea that doesn't fit their perfect little village of acceptable thoughts.

The angry mob seems far worse, and far less civilized, than the trolls.

Maybe someone should explain to Izzy what the word "ignore" means (he can't seem to stop talking about me).

Fresco, or anyone else, could you explain to me about a remark about Hitler is valid in a thread about computer simulations?

@maxdancona

Don't forget that ALL forums like this are full of government-agencies trolls.

It's huge.

Some here are aware of that and some are blindly following anything mainstream.

The attack, the ridicule etc is all by design.

But I say this to the government trolls:

People are waking up and you can't stop it.
And think of the world you are leaving for you children if you continue this work. Or maybe you want your children to live in a police-state, eh?!

It seems the truht is a bad career move for them.

The 'Hitler comment' was meant to illustrate how conspiracy theories can be pernicious. 'Conspiracy theories' are concerned with the manipulation of social reality. And insofar that Hitler's genocidal antisemitism involved accusations about 'the control of the media' the comment has further significance.

The substance of the theory is secondary to the manipulation process, i.e. the control and categorization of what constitutes 'information'. To some extent 'computer simulation' is a 'second order conspiracy theory' in as much that it involves speculation about the manipulation process itself. The fact that computers are human constructs seems to have escaped the speculators in the same way that the illogic of an anthropomorphic 'God' has escaped many theists. The same infinite regress applies and that, in my opinion, is the only comment worth making to the OP.

BTW 'pantheists' who believe that we are all 'aspects of God', could be thought of as being involved in a 'celestial program'!

Do you have any clue where the term 'conspiracy" etc even comes from?


and where did I mention "God"?

There is a lot of research showing that we are really living in a computer simulation.

It was also mentioned in "Scientific American" because a debate about this
by physicists and philosophers was then going on. Just showing that it is taken very seriously by scientists.
It is seen as a legitimate scientific hypothesis.


Not that I care, but there you go.

And if we are not living in a Computer Simulation, then how to explain this:

"Theoretical Physicist Finds Computer Code in String Theory"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvMlUepVgbA


"Working on a branch of physics called supersymmetry, Dr. James Gates Jr., discovered what he describes as the presence of what appear to resemble a form of computer code, called error correcting codes, embedded within, or resulting from, the equations of supersymmetry that describe fundamental particles.

Gates asks, “How could we discover whether we live inside a Matrix? One answer might be ‘Try to detect the presence of codes in the laws that describe physics.'” And this is precisely what he has done. Specifically, within the equations of supersymmetry he has found, quite unexpectedly, what are called “doubly-even self-dual linear binary error-correcting block codes.” That’s a long-winded label for codes that are commonly used to remove errors in computer transmissions, for example to correct errors in a sequence of bits representing text that has been sent across a wire.

Gates explains, “This unsuspected connection suggests that these codes may be ubiquitous in nature, and could even be embedded in the essence of reality. If this is the case, we might have something in common with the Matrix science-fiction films, which depict a world where everything human being’s experience is the product of a virtual-reality-generating computer network.”
"