The relation between the software creating a computer simulation, the hardware upon which it runs, and the conscious experience thereof is not very tangible.
The conceptual abstactions become mountains from which one can barely see the valleys of the hardware through the clouds of myrad software layers.
In light of our understanding of [[Quantum Field Theory]], the substrate upon which our reality rests is even less tangible than that.
So a computer advanced enough to simulate all of that... our entire observable universe - and who knows how many orders of magnitude more - would be a computer of such complexity that it would bear no resemblance at all to what we call a computer.
Whatever substrate reality is resting on, it is not running on a computer. [[t.If We Are in a Simulation It Is Not Running on a Computer]].
If you insist on a low-dimensional, non-recursive hierarchy of complexity, [[t.any sufficiently advanced computer is indistinguishable from the universe]]. Any sufficiently advanced horse and carriage is indistinguishable from an automobile.
A short amouht of time ago, it used to be that Man thought the universe to be a series of tubes, a clockwork, a steam engine, a computational engine, a state machine, a cellular automata.
A longer time ago, a very long time ago, the longest time ago, it used to be that Man thought the universe to be a living thing.
When will man meet the living thing he thought to be the universe?
See also:: [[The Last Question]]
[[Steven Wolfram]] made the point that simulationists often proclaim atheism. The creator(s) of the simulation however are… are? are? Yea... like God.
So much for your atheism, simulationist.
This is part of a larger cluster of human-centric misconceptions; [[anthropic principle is not necessary]]
Topic:: [[simulation hypothesis]] related:: [[t.If We Are in a Simulation It Is Not Running on a Computer]] related:: [[anthropic principle is not necessary]] Original file:: [[tickler-2021-03]]