Simulation theory is the idea that reality is not real. Shocking, right? However, this is not just the contemporary hypothesis that we may be in a computer simulation, controlled by “a programmer in the next universe up” as pondered by Australian cognitive scientist David Chalmers, or that we could be part of an ancestor simulation created by future humans as proposed by philosopher Nick Bostrom. This idea has been circling around for centuries, in one way or another.
In ‘The Republic’, Plato uses the ‘Allegory of the Cave’ to explain how everything we see is simply a ‘poor imitation’, an illusion of the ‘World of Forms’ and that reality may exist beyond the physical world we are aware of.
French philosopher René Descartes famously wrote the dictum “Cogito ergo sum” or, “I think, therefore I am.” That is, the only thing you can be truly sure of is your own mind. You have the ability to think, so you exist. But what if your thoughts are not your own?
Contemporary examples include experimentation with hallucinogens, our understanding of mental illness and how it can change human perception of reality, and interestingly, in TV and film. Netflix's Black Mirror production ‘Bandersnatch’, for example, is an interactive film where you control the protagonist’s actions, with each decision leading to a different ending. A common thread among these instances is that they question the idea of free will, and consequently, blame.
Perhaps, the growing interest in simulation theory is a product of the looming climate crisis and the dystopia we are hurtling into.
With that, is this just a crisis of control? Does the notion that we live in a simulation give us a certain comfort while absolving us of blame? Or is the appeal of a higher power?
