Is our universe real? What if it isn't?

[Hashi Lebwohl]

Even if we are in a simulation we will never be able to get out of it--we exist only inside the simulation so leaving it would cause us to blink out of existence.

Like Moriarty stepping off of the holodeck. Can't be done.

Precisely. Poor guy--he is still sitting in that simulator, thinking that it is all real. *shrug* It is to him, which is all that matters in the long run.

[Zarathustra]

Even if we are in a simulation we will never be able to get out of it--we exist only inside the simulation so leaving it would cause us to blink out of existence.

Like Moriarty stepping off of the holodeck. Can't be done.

Moriarty couldn't step off the holodeck because of a technical detail: they didn't know how to make holodeck matter into regular matter. That's not an existential truism of the universe. That's a plot device of a TV show.

If consciousness can be simulated on a computer, what that means is that the medium in which consciousness resides is irrelevant, and that consciousness could be transferred just like any other information which is independent of medium. Therefore, there is no fundamental existential barrier.

[Fist and Faith]

Is "simulate" the right word? I'd think "If consciousness can exist on a computer..." Either way, that wouldn't mean consciousness can reside in ANY medium. It would only mean we have seen it in humans and computers. We wouldn't be able to transfer it to, say, a book, even though the information found in most books is independent of the book.

Or am I misunderstanding what you're getting at?

[Hashi Lebwohl]

I think the word "simulation" came up because it would be the best way of explaining how this universe might not be "real". This begins to take us towards the Matrix and the idea which most directly influenced it: Simulation and Simulacra, wherein the map of the city is the same size as the city and is exact down to the smallest detail.

[Zarathustra]

Fist, you're right, "simulated" isn't the right word. But obviously, our consciousness isn't simulated. A simulation of consciousness would look like consciousness from the outside looking in, whereas our consciousness looks like consciousness from the inside out.

I'm not saying the medium doesn't matter, just that the consciousness is independent of it to some degree.

Anyway, just because our universe might not be real wouldn't necessarily mean we can't leave it. Hashi brings up Matrix, which could be exited.

[Fist and Faith]

What about Sophie's World? Did they escape? Something or other stopped me reading it, and I never got back to it.