Are our world and our lives really real?

We probably all know the saying “Nothing is as it seems”.

But this saying takes on a whole new dimension when you look at the statements of people who are well respected. What is more, in a note to its clients on 8 September 2016, Bank of America said that the probability that we live in a Matrix-style simulation is 20 to 50 per cent.

In its note, the bank addressed the subject as follows (translated back from the German):

Many scientists, philosophers and entrepreneurs believe that the probability that we live in a computer simulation is somewhere between 20 and 50 per cent. In April 2016, researchers met at the American Museum of Natural History to discuss this idea. The main argument for it is that we are already approaching a realistic 3D simulation in which millions of people can take part at the same time.

But Bank of America is not alone in this assumption, as many respected figures share this view. Tesla boss Elon Musk, for instance, said that the probability that we live in “base reality” rather than in a simulation is “one in billions”. He went on to say that we should hope we are living in a simulation – otherwise civilisation might cease to exist.

The scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who among other things is responsible for Pluto no longer being a planet, also believes that “the likelihood that our universe is just a simulation may be very high”. Tyson added:

On the day we find out that we really are just part of a simulation, I will be the only one to say: I’m not surprised.

As early as 2003, Nick Bostrom, a professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford, wrote a lengthy scientific paper on simulation theory. Bostrom concluded that there is a significant probability that we live in a simulation. For him there were three possibilities:

1. We die out before we become “posthuman” and could create a simulation.
2. We reach a posthuman existence but never simulate our evolution.
3. We are already part of the Matrix.

For Bostrom, however, the answer to his three possibilities is irrelevant, because he believes we could never find out which of them is true. That is why, in his view, the question is more of a philosophical nature.

FURTHER INFORMATION

BANK OF AMERICA’S TWEET 2016 ISAAC ASIMOV MEMORIAL DEBATE: IS THE UNIVERSE A SIMULATION? ARE YOU LIVING IN A COMPUTER SIMULATION – BY NICK BOSTROM NEIL DE GRASSE TYSON – THE UNIVERSE MIGHT BE JUST A SIMULATION ELON MUSK’S STATEMENTS