e-business - You may not know it, but life could be a simulation. 
30 July 2002
Birmingham Post 21 

Do not press delete: It is possible to live in a Matrix world, say academics 

To many, it may seem as far fetched as science fiction can get. But hit-film 
The Matrix might in fact be uncomfortably close to the truth. Just like 
Keanu Reeves in the cult movie, we could all be living inside a computer 
simulation. If so, says one expert, you had better be careful not to get 
yourself deleted. 

The idea sounds insane. But Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at Yale University 
in the United States, has done the calculations.  His conclusion is that our 
lives could well be programs developed by a post-human society living in 
what we think of as the future. And he is not the only one to take the 
theory seriously.  Robin Hanson, from George Mason University in Fairfax, 
Virginia, USA, goes further and says the way we come across to our 'creator' 
might determine whether we live or die. 

In a paper submitted to the Journal Mind, Nick Bostrom outlines how he 
reached his chilling conclusion.  He argues that if it becomes 
technologically possible to mimic consciousness, the future can only lead 
one of three ways.  First, an extinction event such as an astroid strike 
might wipe us out before it is achieved, in which case there is no need to 
worry. Real life is real life. Secondly, future humans will not be 
interested in running simulations, or there may be laws against it. 

But the most likely outcome, argues Bostrom, is that humans will one day 
simulate consciousness and then go on to simulate universes for it to live 
in. If that is true, the chances are it has already happened and we are 
living in one. It has been suggested that simulating a mind with a computer 
program would take about ten to the power of 14 operations per second. While 
that may seem a tall order, such technology could be available by the end of 
the century, Mr Bostrom says. 

Of course, we may be part of the pre-simulation real world or 'original 
history', he adds. But given how many simulations there will be, the odds 
are stacked against it.  Evidence that we live in a program may be seen in 
the strange world of quantum particles, a report in New Scientist magazine 
suggests. 

A simulated universe, while having to be convincing on the large scale, 
would not need to fill in every microscopic detail.  It might be possible to 
get away with odd irregularities at the level of atoms and electrons. A 
conscious 'program' looking at these bizarre features would be tempted to 
accept them as 'just the way things are'.  That is exactly how most 
scientists view what goes on at quantum scales.  According to Mr Bostrom, we 
should simply accept the situation and live life normally. 

But Robin Hanson does not agree. He says that if your life is a computer 
simulation, you should do everything possible to avoid being deleted. The 
first step is to work out the purpose of the simulation. If it is for 
entertainment, then you should be funny, outrageous, sexy, violent, strange, 
pathetic and heroic.  If the simulation is for the creator to participate 
in, then it makes sense to 'suck up to celebrities'.