We experience things every day that reminds us we are still alive, that we exist, and that we are still here on earth. Our senses are a good example. They keep us grounded to reality, and keep us believing that are experiences are real, and that our surroundings actually exist. So thinking your own life isn’t real is crazy…or is it?
In quantum mechanics, particles do not have a definite state unless they are being observed. Are we merely seeing what we need to see when we need to see it?
If you have ever seen any of the awesome movies in The Matrix trilogy, then you have seen Neo get plugged into an augmented reality. Who is to say we aren’t just one of the mindless computer programs traversing the Matrix? I know its crazy, but hear me out!
Believe it or not, there is a theory that has been going around for centuries on this premise, and it is just recently being looked at. Dr. Rich Terrile is the director of the Center for Evolutionary Computation and Automated Design at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and he believes that there is a chance that our reality is nothing but a simulation. Dr. Terrile had an interview with Vice, and he goes on to generally say that since the universe is not infinite it can be computed, and since computer power is doubled every two years (Moore’s Law) we will one day be able to simulate millions of lives.
In the interview, Terrile says, “Right now the fastest NASA supercomputers are cranking away at about double the speed of the human brain. If you make a simple calculation using Moore’s Law, you’ll find that these supercomputers, inside of a decade, will have the ability to compute an entire human lifetime of 80 years—including every thought ever conceived during that lifetime—in the span of a month”.
So, if we can do this in the future, are we in it now?
dreamscape 2016 