Any Matrix fans out there? The Matrix could REALLY be REAL

[Flandor]

Anybody, quite literally, could've made the simulation.  If we're in it, how would we ever know? It could be anything from aliens to 'us' in the future, trying to figure out what happened in our past via a simulation.  I think it's a fascinating theory.  It is disconcerting, but I think it's important to be able to handle things that make you feel uncomfortable, so I read about things like this, and the latest scientific discoveries regarding the universe and where we stand in it. 

We wouldn't need to know what a computer is to be part of a simulation on one.  That's the point; our world is certainly real because we live in it and exist here and only here, and any discoveries we make would be on our own time.

[Calaron]

So we become products of someone's digitalized dream?  It sounds like a reworded and technologically updated statement of the possibility that we could all be merely in someone else's dream, a philosophical question that has existed and been dated for ages.

And it's something that is very nearly undebateable.  I can choose to take the evidence however I wish.  Patterns are commonplace.  This means that
1)we're in a computer simulation
2) we evolved to have these things without the computer simulation
3) God (or whatever deity you want to use) created us to have these.   

Depending on which of those 3 over simplified statements you choose to support, you will say that the occurrence of patterns clearly indicates 1,2, or 3.  (Sounds like we're getting new glasses now.  1 or 2, 1 or2 . . .)

[psilocybin]

Those are some really interesting thoughts.  Where this theory gets really creepy, however, is when you consider that the binary code which was discovered in these superstring theory equations was only recently 'invented', I believe, in the 1940's.

[Calaron]

My computing history is basically nil, so if I speak in ignorance, be gentle in your correction.   Did that not start before the 40s with Turing?

[Tannsrall]

It's weird because I've thought about this before. It's alll very creepy and makes me want to know the truth. Ever seen the TV show touch? That what this topic reminds me about.

[Nightfire]

if life is a computer simulation, who made and programmed the computer? that would be the largest missing link as far as i can see. and this theory is really really creepy. are you suggesting that i'm not real? oh and computers were recently invented, just as that might make a difference. and i dont think this is very likely.

It would definitely be the largest midding link. Who made the computer, eh? I'm a firm Christian, and I don't waver from the Bible. Sound creepy, and, respectfully, I highly dislike this theory. Not trying to cause any uproar, I'm just stating my opinion.

[Gears]

if life is a computer simulation, who made and programmed the computer? that would be the largest missing link as far as i can see. and this theory is really really creepy. are you suggesting that i'm not real? oh and computers were recently invented, just as that might make a difference. and i dont think this is very likely.

What he's technically saying with this theory is that everyone else (besides you) could be just your personal perception of reality, and only exist and function with you in their plane, while all is simulated. So, keeping with this theory, if we die, it's possible we just "wake up" but this theory also creates an "inception" type of situation, in how do you know that when you die and maybe wake up somewhere else that that's not a simulation? Very, very fun to think about. The world would be chaos if everyone believed that, as since you are the only entity, and everyone else is simulated, then killing, mass murdering, and other horrors would not be a problem. The moral implications of this theory is stunning. Oh, and a reply to whoever, it doesn't mean YOU don't exist, it means that you have your own reality. For instance, if this theory is true, then you would just be part of my simulation. I'm a Christian, but this stuff is SO fun to think about.

[Gears]

if life is a computer simulation, who made and programmed the computer? that would be the largest missing link as far as i can see. and this theory is really really creepy. are you suggesting that i'm not real? oh and computers were recently invented, just as that might make a difference. and i dont think this is very likely.

It would definitely be the largest midding link. Who made the computer, eh? I'm a firm Christian, and I don't waver from the Bible. Sound creepy, and, respectfully, I highly dislike this theory. Not trying to cause any uproar, I'm just stating my opinion.

Apology for double post. I enjoy thinking about this theory, although i don't believe it's true, but think of it like this: If it WAS a simulation, who's to say computers weren't invented in the real world, and just not as old in the simulation?

[UNKN0WN]

I agree with gears about it not being true