I think we can safely assume that most of the world "believes" they live in the "real" world and that it is the only "world". But what if we knew or were somehow convinced that we were actually just living in a simulated reality created by a future "you." Or perhaps just living in "one" reality of yourself and those around you.

Discard any "The Matrix" references also. Or if you happen to indulge them, keep the ideas on track.

I brought this up because of the Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics(Link below). Hypothetically, if there are close to an infinite number of other universes, where "we" branch off at every decision or moment, or however you want to define it, every possible scenario has probably been played out.

This is obviously stating that the future does exist or that in "other worlds" or in this world, we were able to attain the technology one way or another to create an ultra-realistic, fully immersive, virtual reality.

If the future of "other worlds" has already occurred, have we have reached a point where we have the technology to create such a simulated world?

If the technology were there, "we" could create a program that is bound by certain parameters (Laws of Physics), just like a computer program or video game today. Why not?

I could go on all day what the "simulated reality" actually is, whether it's just a simulation of the past or a completely original creation. But having said that, would you act any different if you believed this to be true? That this "world" we presume to live in is actually simulated. Would it really make any difference to you?

I would go on further if anyone cares to indulge in this idea. Thanks.

http://www.hedweb.com/everett/everett.htm

Did you ever watch vanilla sky?

Edit: yes I would

My answer to OP question is "no." Don't find it all that interesting, really, but maybe that's because my answer is "no."

I don't rob people now, but it's only in small part because I fear the consequences. It's mostly that I don't want to cause emotional or physical harm to another living human being.

It depends. What happens when I die in the simulated reality?

The world being a simulation wouldn't imply that other people aren't "real" (or even that they're any less likely to be "real").

My answer is also no, I suspect for the same reasons - I can't see why simulated others would possess any less sentience or worth than 'real' others, whatever 'real' even means.

But how can you not find this question interesting? The answers to it have tremendous bearing on all the most profound questions in science and philosophy. After reading Bostrom's argument I've been haunted by the idea that I might have to consider it a probability instead of just a flying spaghetti monster.

Its come up before. Not sure we ad heard of Bostrum but if a simulated reality is possible then we are very likely to be living in one.

I'm not really sure in what way a simulated reality is different to reality but don't religous people basically believe they live in a simulated reality.

Sort of, but in the case of Christians etc it would be 'the' reality singular, simulated reality brings up the (near certain) possibility of multiple realities/psuedorealities. The latter also has much more potential to render all of physical science arbitrary I think since gods in the monotheistic tradition are not supposed to be interventionist barring special occasions.

I anticipate that simulism will become a mainstream religion in our lifetimes.

Wouldn't it? I mean doesn't that make all the people around you pzombies, and not real living things?

I'm not a theologian but having studied advanced texts like "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe", "The magicians nephew", and "The last Battle" I'm think you may be wrong.

That would imply a virtual reality type setup which isn't really a simulation but a 'real' person with simulated inputs.

Defining whether or not the simulated reality is akin to an MMORPG or more like a single player rpg is crucial to getting coherant answers from people.

Otherwise half the people in thread are gonna assume its mmo and say they wouldn't change because other people still have feelings or whatever, and half the people will say heck yes i'd change because its just you, everyone else is just a bot.

different answers to different questions aren't easily reconciled, but they are easily confused and taken out of context.

First I would try to figure out what the true non-simulated reality is. My behaviour in the simulated reality depends on the nature of non-simulated reality.

The paper I skimmed over stated that question is whether we are sims in a simulation run by a posthuman descendent of human ancestors. In other words, we are "real" only insofar as the simulation defines those parameters.

If we were in a simulation, I would be interested in the areas where it fails, the "shearing and tearing" of the fabric of "reality."

No. You are just as likely to be a procedure within the simulation as they are, and they are just as likely to have some existence independent of the simulation as you do, in the absence of further information.

If anything, the fact that you have no memory of anything outside the simulation makes it more likely than not that you are solely a product of the simulation. The "players" (assuming such exist, which I think is a silly assumption but whatever) may have reason to believe you are a p-zombie (I disagree, but I can see why they would think so). You have no legitimate reason to believe that they are p-zombies.

I would definitely act differently in either situation (single or multi player).

Based on the way lucid dreaming works, I would assume that the self-realization of the simulation would bring with it knowledge about the duration, consequences, point system, etc. Based on this knowledge, I would then vary my behavior in order to increase fun for myself, make it more entertaining for viewers (if this simulation was like a reality tv show), try to beat a previous user's high score, etc.

If this assumption were false, and I realized this were a simulation but somehow didnt know anything about it, the main things I'd change would be to pretend as if I were never alone. Any rando embarrassing thing I do because I think nobody's watching - well if I knew this were a simulation - that increases the possibility by a lot that people actually are watching or could somehow go back and reference this later, so I'd try to be keep the nose picking and belt usage during self-gratification to a minimum. I'd probably narrate a lot of my boring life for my potential studio audience or for lolz during post simulation self-review.

Answer to OP: Not really. I mean it's hard to imagine how I could ever form such a belief, but trying as hard as I can, I don't see how it would affect anything I do. I have already managed to come to terms with the fact that I am going to cease to exist one day, and that I am fundamentally no different from a tractor or a cabbage. Food still tastes good, music still sounds nice and girls still look pretty. Don't see how believing I'm part of simulated reality would change much either.

EDIT: Oh wait a second, I think I understood it all wrong? I myself am actually "real", just what I experience is a simulation? Can I end it? I would perhaps try a couple of things that have been on my mind recently, and then end it. If I couldn't end it, hmm... I don't know actually.

Man I thought you meant that I myself was a simulation (like an NPC in a computer game).

I call BS. I have no problem believing that you don't want to cause emotional or physical harm to another living human being, but no way would you dare to try to abuse people even if that wasn't the case.

Well, if it were a straight-up video game, albeit realistic, and if I had the capacity to reload/restart/quit the game at any time, I'd totally go psycho.

I assume this is missing the point, though.

Well sure. He made it sound like him considering other people "real" is the main thing that's stopping him. It's not. Of course, reload/restart/quit at any point would remove all the other things that are stopping him, so then sure.

I have to say though, personally I would not enjoy committing terrible violent abuse where I'm actually seeing the victim suffer. I enjoy it in computer games or movies only because it's never realistic. In the few cases where it actually seems realistic, it makes me feel bad. At most I would do stuff like smashing windows or climbing a mobile phone tower and jumping off. Not sure how you envision "going psycho". I feel unless you can actually "godmode" there's little you can actually do without a lot of effort.

If you can godmode though, a harem of cute and smart but servile chicks would be the first on my list easily. Even flying will have to wait quite some time. Not sure I'd ever get to silly stuff like having Godzilla monsters fight it out in some metropolis or blowing up the earth with meteorites, there's seems much more fun to be had from perfectly peaceful things.

EDIT: OK no, I'd get to these things alright lol. It'd just take a bit of time.

I don't know what I'd do first. But I would definitely have some action/fighting stuff going on. Playing a real villain would be interesting, I don't know how I'd take it. Sometimes I feel ugly playing the "bad guy" in a video game, other times I feel great doing it.

Sometimes in the same video game.

In Fallout 3, there's one point where you can solve a quest by selling a young boy into slavery. I thought that was great, even though it's arguably the worst thing you can do.

On the other hand, there's a point where you can betray a town to destruction in order to get more cash (a few of them actually), and I always felt kind of sick to my stomach after.

Maybe the reason the first situation was fun was because it was so over-the-top Snidely Whiplash. It's hard to know. I often want to play a really bad dude in those games, and GTA and stuff, but I quickly gravitate into playing a good guy (or the closest possible thing, in GTA). I think I'd do some torture, rape, genocide, total evil if it were just a game and nobody would get hurt. But then again, I always think I'll run over hookers and stuff in GTA, and I never actually end up doing that. So probably if it were super-realistic, I'd be even more restrained, no matter how much fun it "sounds" like it would be to do awful things.

Also, let's not underestimate the power of save/reload. That's practically God mode in itself. It would definitely get you money (save at the beginning of the week, wait until the winning lottery numbers are revealed, then reload the save and use the winning numbers), but I think it could do more (go into an action scene and if you get shot, just reload the battle and try it over and over until you win - that alone would make you a badass fighter).

Haha, I feel like even abuse of the save/load function would take so much goddamn effort. Wait a week? How boring. It would generally take so much effot to "go totally psycho" based on save/load function alone as far as I can tell.

I find myself being the good guy in games as well lol. I know exactly what you mean by how it's good to be evil when it's over the top, but not when it actually seems realistic.

I can imagine doing stuff like you know, dropping nukes or napalm, out of pleasure from pure mechanical destruction, the same way I enjoy smashing bottles, without actually seeing all the people get hurt. But if a person was being hurt in front of my eyes, screaming in agony and desperation, I wouldn't like that. Not to say I'd feel downright terrible or anything, but, you know, it's just not attractive to me. It wouldn't be on my list of things to do the same way that going outside and playing with dog turds isn't.

Note also that the vast majority of violent abuse you've seen in games or movies, is NOT realistic. Typically in movies, even ones praised for realism, people are still just ridiculously macho about it. You hardly ever see the true gut-wrenching desperate screaming and begging that would happen in reality. Even in scenes that are supposed to be precisely about depicting terror, just take a step back and think about it, imagine what it would be if it actually happened in reality, you'll realise that it's very tame and stylised in the movie. There's also a reason for that - noone wants to see the real thing because it's so damn ugly.

I can imagine "rape", but not rape.

Yeah, you may be right. I haven't seen a whole lot of people in those situations, only the aftermath. If I had gone into EMS like I had planned, maybe I'd have a different perspective, but it occurs to me that I don't actually know what realistic violence looks like.

i wouldn't do anything different; for to me, it would still be reality.

if it were some computer type game I would definitely try harder