Ø
Ø
Ø
FAQ | Register Now | Sign In
Full Site
Physical Sciences
Earth Sciences
Life Sciences
Medicine
Social Sciences
Culture
 Newsletter
  • HOME
  • PHYSICAL SCIENCES
    • PHYSICS
    • SPACE
    • CHEMISTRY
    • APPLIED PHYSICS
    • AEROSPACE
    • OPTICS
  • EARTH SCIENCES
    • ENVIRONMENT
    • ENERGY
    • ATMOSPHERIC
    • PALEONTOLOGY
    • GEOLOGY
    • OCEANOGRAPHY
  • LIFE SCIENCES
    • GENETICS & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
    • EVOLUTION
    • MICROBIOLOGY
    • ECOLOGY & ZOOLOGY
    • IMMUNOLOGY
    • NEUROSCIENCE
  • MEDICINE
    • CANCER RESEARCH
    • PUBLIC HEALTH
    • PHARMACOLOGY
    • CLINICAL RESEARCH
    • AGING
    • VISION
  • SOCIAL SCIENCES
    • ANTHROPOLOGY
    • ARCHAEOLOGY
    • PSYCHOLOGY
    • SCIENCE EDUCATION & POLICY
    • SCIENCE HISTORY
    • PHILOSOPHY & ETHICS
  • CULTURE
    • TECHNOLOGY
    • MATHEMATICS
    • SCIENCE & SOCIETY
    • SPORTS SCIENCE
    • RANDOM THOUGHTS
    • HUMOR
  • VIDEO
  • CONTRIBUTORS
Subscribe to the newsletter
[x]
 Stay in touch with the scientific world!
Home > Psychology > Machines, Organizations, and Us: Socio-technical systems
    Banner
    Yes, We’re Living Inside A Simulation
    By Fred Phillips | April 1st 2025 08:34 AM | Print | E-mail
    Tweet
    User pic. Fred Phillips
    Darn right, we are. Though not in the way argued for or against by my fellow Science2.0 bloggers. Here's why.

    I‘m going to self-plagiarize three paragraphs from a 2019 blog, then expound further:

    Taking movies like The Matrix way too seriously, some prominent scientists have declared it not unreasonable that we ourselves are living in a computer simulation. What’s odd is not that they think this, but that they think it’s a new idea. Traditional religions hold that God created the heavens and the Earth and the plants and creatures within. That is, that we live in a created universe, not a happenstance universe.

    If all we are and all we see around us were, instead of God-given, some cosmic super-kid’s high school computational biology experiment, how would we ever know the difference? Would there be a difference?

    A question, assuming there is a Creator, is whether the creator is biological, robot, or spirit. And another question: Why should we care? I ask this because it seems that persons seeking transcendence would seek it in the same ways in any of the three instances, whether through study, prayer, meditation, asceticism, vision quests, etc.

    And those who don’t care to transcend would live their lives as usual, in any of the three instances.

    Yet we are living in a simulation.

    Yes, we are. By way of explanation, consider the raccoon. Especially consider the next raccoon you see squashed on a highway. Raccoons are highly intelligent, social creatures, but (unlike, say, dogs) they just don’t "get it" about cars. Cars are real. Yet mentally, raccoons live in a world without cars.

    So, you ask, what computer are we living inside of? What is it about reality that we are not “getting”? The computer is our own brains. Brains, plural, because we too are social creatures. As such, we impose social norms on each other, telling each other not just how to behave, but also what we are and are not allowed to see. We co-create language that gives us words only for what we allow each other to see.

    This is called “consensus trance.”

    You’ve read about cultures that are surprised to be told the sky is blue – either because they don’t have words for it, or they’d never thought about it.

    You’ve heard about the Captain Cook paradox, in which Pacific islanders couldn’t acknowledge Cook’s sailing barque lurking off their reef – because for innumerable generations, anything sticking up out of the water could only be a canoe or a whale.

    The brains of social mammals evolved to do two things: To ensure the animal lives long enough to bear and raise children, and to communicate and share ways of surviving together. Thus, most humans share the same perceptual filters, though these filters may vary from one human culture to another.

    Has this article, so far, helped you “lift the lid” off your culture’s norms, allowing you to see things you’re not supposed to see?

    And why would you, like Keanu Reeves, want to lift the lid? Because there are ways our consensus filters don’t serve us well:

    ·       When fundamentally novel threats arise. We’re good at warning each other about marauding tigers. Not so good at dealing with nuclear disarmament or climate change.

    ·       When raising teenagers. They know we’ve been flimflamming them for 15 years. It’s natural for them to rebel, though it’s really annoying. The teen years are when a young adult must decide whether or not to buy into the consensus norms.

    ·       When we adults become ground down by our community culture or work culture, we suffer ennui and psychological distress.

    (That last can be turned to good ends, if it spurs the adult to travel, engage in creative pursuits, sit in a Zen temple,…)

    Think different?

    We did not evolve to see the whole truth of the universe; we evolved to efficiently share and reproduce. Few brain cycles are left over to devote to lifting lids. Yet some people – quoting Steve Jobs here – “think different,” and those people more or less live under the lid. We need them, to fix the bulleted items above, and they need the rest of us, to hold society together.

    And we can celebrate those who, for their own satisfaction (i.e., not to build the next Apple) lift the lid and peek under our consensus norms.*

    A simulation is a model, a simplified version of the “real” world the simulation creator lives in. (The simulation may include some elements of fantasy, and technology extrapolation.) Humans’ evolved brains and social norms ensure that we live in such a restricted subset of reality. We’ve created the simulation we ourselves live in.**

    It’s exciting to know there are things around us that we can’t see and can’t imagine. At least we can know that – unlike our friends the raccoons.

    - - - - - - - - - - -

    *If you want to be one of them and you’re looking for a place to start, try Carlos Castaneda’s The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui way of knowledge. Univ of California Press, 1998 edition.

    **As for whether aliens created our larger reality, I find scientists’ thinking on this to be disappointingly shallow. See for example, https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/are-we-living-simulated-universe-here-s-what-scientists-say-ncna1026916.








































































    Machines, Organizations, and Us: Socio-technical systems
    More Articles
    • Runaway Technology: What To Do?
    • Yes, We’re Living Inside A Simulation
    • Reporting Live From The SmartZero City Conference, Taipei
    All Articles
    About

    After a dozen years as a market research executive, Fred Phillips was professor, dean, and vice provost at a variety of universities in the US, Europe...

    View Profile

    Related articles

    • Screw 'Sustainability'- And Cheer Up About It
    • Our Population Is NOT Headed For Accelerating Collapse In Next 20 Years- Elon Musk And Jack Ma Are Not Population Experts
    • Doomsday Debunked- Nibiru Is Nuts- What About Nuclear War, Asteroid Impacts, Runaway Warming,...
    • 7 Ways To Make Your Science Video Popular On YouTube
    • Simulated Worlds and Transgender Allegories Of The Matrix. Even When You Rebel You Are Controlled.

    Comments

    Know Science And Want To Write?

    Apply for a column: writing@science20.com

    Donate or Buy SWAG

    • Donate
    • SWAG

    Please donate so science experts can write
    for the public.

    At Science 2.0, scientists are the journalists,
    with no political bias or editorial control. We
    can't do it alone so please make a difference.

    We are a nonprofit science journalism
    group operating under Section 501(c)(3)
    of the Internal Revenue Code that's
    educated over 300 million people.

    You can help with a tax-deductible
    donation today and 100 percent of your
    gift will go toward our programs,
    no salaries or offices.

    • Popular Now
    • New Comments
    • Events
    1. Climate Change Implicated In Teen Pregnancy
    2. Protein Is Key To Helping Older People Prevent Muscle Injuries
    3. For World No Tobacco Day, NFL Biosciences Wants You To Buy Their Tobacco Product
    • Berkshire_Bee

      The usual way to drive into the main Reading University campus is lined with young oak trees, the trunks of which are covered with lichens like these:...

      The 'Still Explosions' Of Lichens On Stone · 3 days ago

    • Anonymous Snowboarder Needs Sn

      That sounds like an awesome experience. Besides time for observations, how many days are appropriate to visit and not be rushed?

      The Night Sky From Atacama · 1 week ago

    • Clay Baggins

      Simple answer...No. You should ask, "Does the Perception of Human Caused Global Warming Prompt an Excuse to Go To War." There is no global warming being caused by Co2 generated by humans....

      Does Global Warming Cause War? · 1 week ago

    • David Brown

      "... countless galaxies of all shapes and brightness ..." Why does Milgrom's MOND seem to correctly model galactic rotation curves? Is MOND essential for understanding the structure...

      The Night Sky From Atacama · 2 weeks ago

    • Hank Campbell

      This comment is to show anti-science activists use bots to vote down the pro-science side, all while claiming the actual conspiracy is their enemy. Science.

      PM2.5 Is Killing You, Claim Ecologists, Except There Are No Deaths · 3 weeks ago

    1. National Medal of Science Nominations Now Open
    2. North America Is About To Get Its Longest Partial Eclipse In The Last 580 years
    3. Farmers Can Get Infrastructure Funds From The Government Now Also - But You Have To Apply By Nov. 22
    4. US Ag Secretary Perdue To Debate EU Ag Commissioner Wojciechowski On Food Regulations Wednesday - Tune In Here
    5. Natural History Museum of Utah: Research Quest Live Is Hosting Free Daily Classes For Kids
    • Links
    • Hot Topics
    Science 2.0 Links
    Interesting insights from outside Science 2.0
    Current Topic:
    Is BPA Safe Or Not?
    The best writers in science tackle science's hottest topics.
    Who's
    Online?
    <
    About Us | Contact Us | RSS | Terms | Privacy | Copyright and Removal | Advertise with Us
    © 2025 Science 2.0