Is Our World a Computer Simulation?

By Harold King

Could we be living in a computer simulation? In this book Harold King describes with convincing reasoning why this theory is quite plausible. When we look at our world from a certain viewpoint we discover that atheist ideology can be collated with most of the dogmas of the majority of important religions. Statements that until now have seemed ambiguous and mysterious will now receive a credible explanation. Themes discussed include the soul, transmigration of souls, guardian angels and time-dimensions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9780244031336

Book preview

Is Our World a Computer Simulation?

Is Our World a Computer Simulation?

Harold King

Copyright © 2017 by Harold King

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced

or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written

permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations

in a book review or scholarly journal.

ISBN: 978-0-244-03133-6

Publisher: Lulu.com

Preface

Although it is generally said that self-praise stinks, there is no humble way to say that this book you are about to read is a very special one. Within these pages I will be looking for an answer as to whether there are reasons to believe that the world we live in may only be some kind of simulation (probably a computer simulation) of a larger outside world. There seems to be a high probability of factors that legitimate posing this question. Please note that I am not saying I have evidence to prove it. Considering the nature of this subject it would be almost impossible to prove, in fact most certainly impossible. What I am saying is that I have found many puzzling arguments that underpin this theory. But of course even a great many good reasons and a high probability of factors cannot be considered real proof; it is a well known fact that even 99.999999% probability does not count as proof in mathematical terms.

In spite of this I hope my book will be an interesting read. Even purely because, in contrast with religious doctrines in which so many people on Earth believe and take seriously, my theory has a lot of good reason behind it that definitely makes it worthy of consideration. I drew a parallel with religions on purpose. As it shall soon be seen, when we look at our world from a certain viewpoint, interestingly we can discover that the atheist/materialist ideology (including evolution!) can be collated with most of the dogmas of the majority of important religions. Statements that until now seemed ambiguous and mysterious, practically exceeding human perception, will now suddenly become clear and receive an almost banal explanation. For example, how are we able to interpret Jesus’ words when he said The Father and I are one? How are we supposed to explain that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is of one being with the Father, that is, the Son is consubstantial with the Father. How can transmigration of souls be possible when we accept that human beings and other living creatures have gone through evolutionary development to become what they are today? It can be stated based on scientific facts that human awareness is caused by the functioning of the brain, and one thing we know for sure is that the brain does not live after the body has died, so information stored there will be gone as well. How can the existence of atman, which means soul in Buddhism, be real while there are Buddhist schools teaching that nothing eternal exists in the human body. How can it both be true that Nirvana is the same as Samsara, and also that they are not the same? How can Christianity and Buddhism be reconciled to each other, not to mention Atheism?

Of course important subjects like these cannot be jumped upon recklessly. I intend to introduce my reasoning properly, and that is why my book will begin with the theory of how we human beings would design the simulation of our world. We will see that any world simulation we might create must be based on the one we live in, for otherwise it would be dysfunctional. Moreover there are certain technical and programming limits that cannot be ignored by the maker, which will determine some aspects of the structure and certain inevitable qualities of the simulation. This is interesting because if we can find similar qualities in our world that have been generated due to those limits, then we may have the right to raise the question of whether the world we live in might be a simulated one. Either way, if our world has evolved or if it was created by God, it would not necessarily show any similarity with a simulated world. But if it does show similarity, then we have good reason to believe that it could be a simulation.

The first chapter will introduce the technical implementations, so I will use certain technical terminology from Object Oriented Programming, mainly from C++, because that is the programming language I am familiar with. But I can state factually that no matter which programming language was used to code the simulation, my conclusions will not be affected by it. Of course I do not imagine for a minute that the Great Programmer wrote the code for the simulation of our world in C++. The sheer thought of it would be a nightmare. If someone wanted to accomplish something like the simulation of an entire world, it is inevitable they would use Object Oriented Programming languages (OOP), C++ being one of those. I shall try as far as possible not to use program specific language, but once in a while it will be necessary and I will not be attaching explanations to them either. My aim is not to teach programming, but I hope that my writing can be enjoyed even by those who are not familiar with this field and decide to skip the technical details; that the substance of my message and conclusions will come across to everybody. The following chapters are not programming-specific at all.

So let’s get on with it Dear Reader and begin the first chapter...

Feasibility Study of a World Simulation

As a first step we must think about how we would go about creating, or rather programming, a world simulation. This is not a simple task, especially because at the very beginning we need to face the concerns of our critics, such as lacking enough memory or an adequate processing speed. As a matter of fact our critics are right. It is completely unimaginable to squeeze a realistic model of our world into one or even many computers. It is evident that nothing can be placed into a partial element of itself, so no matter how many computers were available, they would just be a subset of the entirety of our world.

Therefore we had better come up with a more humble objective. When we use the term world simulation we do not mean our entire world, merely a basic world. Obviously one in which its modeling requirements of size and other qualities would stay within the bounds of our possibilities. Some may say that at this point the meaning of world should be defined in this context. Particularly those individuals with a philologist degree may believe that before something can be created