If Reality Were A Simulation, Which Pill Would You Take?

in #philosophy7 years ago

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The questions about existence are some of the biggest questions that we have. We’ve always been an inquisitive species and therefore the need to know is inherent within us and hence, the pursuit of the answers to these questions.

Scientists and researchers apart, even the common human thinks about the nature of reality and what it all means and there is, in my opinion, nothing bigger and more sophisticated to think about.

There have been many scientific theories and even philosophies that try to answer some of the most burning questions we have and to an extent we have some knowledge about it. But then, we hear about radical new theories that challenge these theories or that add to the explanations we have but in a way that changes everything!

One of those radical theories is that the whole reality is nothing but a simulation. The idea is not new and there have been many movies made about this before. Even some really smart people in the world (Elon Musk, Neil deGrasse Tyson) believe in it. But what exactly does it mean?

A Simulated Reality

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When we say reality, we mean literally everything that exists. This includes the entire existence. The existence of us, the universe, your cat, your grandma, every single thing! So, when someone comes along and says reality is not real, you would definitely scratch your head.

The Simulation Hypothesis does just that. It states that our reality is a computer simulation built by a highly intelligent species. That effectively makes the universe and everything in it, lines of code!

If you think about it, this idea is not too far fetched. In fact, just take a look at our own abilities of creating simulations, which has come a long way in just a few decades. Today, millions of people play online games simultaneously that look very realistic.

With time, and technologies like Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, these virtual worlds will be almost impossible to tell apart from reality. So, if we can achieve this, a higher intelligent species that is thousands of years more advanced than us, surely can!

This idea became really popular after the Matrix movies, where the main character, Neo, was given two choices (red pill and blue pill). He could remain in the virtual world or could wake up in the real one. IF our reality was a simulation too, and you were given the same choices, which one would you take?

The Blue Pill

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In the Matrix movies, taking the blue pill means simply continuing to live like before, in the simulation, which they call Matrix. This would mean that the person would never know the truth.

I wonder how many people would take the blue pill if presented with the options. Continuing to live life as it was, even though it isn’t real, definitely has some comfort in it. That familiarity might feel just too good to abandon.

There might be many who could simply remain in denial because their whole idea of reality, their beliefs, the life as they know it would be challenged and this might be too difficult for them to accept and therefore they might automatically go into denial mode and opt for the blue pill.

As they say, ignorance is bliss and I wonder how many would choose the comfortable ignorance and a system they are familiar to over a harsh and radically different reality, where they might even be in danger.

The Red Pill

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In the Matrix movies, taking the red pill wakes you up in the real world, so you are no longer living in the fake virtual world created by the machines. So, you then exist in the world that the machines have taken over.

If our own reality was a simulation, we have no idea who the programmers of it might be and if they would be good or evil. Taking the red pill would literally transfer you to their world and out of this fake one.

If I had the choice, I would take the red pill and I think a lot of you would too. I would rather get slapped by a harsh truth than live a comfortable lie. Also, our curious nature would definitely make us want to ‘know’ what real really is and in the moment, the decision would be pretty clear.

There would be no meaning to life if we declined the red pill because as Morpheus says to Neo, “It’s the question that drives us” and if we choose to ignore the existence of the question itself, I see no meaning to such a life. In fact, that would make us perfect suitors of ‘their’ virtual world.

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I believe that we live in a simulated reality, and that the world is kind of a holographic reality. Yes, I take my red pills, daily!

Yeah, it is very plausible!

Do you have any faintest idea of how to 'prove' it?

I think I have heard of some ways that it can be proven. None come to mind right now though. Some searching on the internet might get you the answers.

The overwhelming evidence points to Oxycontin.

Red pill. I am too curious 😁

Very interesting subject @sauravrungta and very stimulating.

I would tend to think that many people would choose the blue pill preferring to live in the comfort zone of their "reality" rather than shake their reality or destroy it completely.
I say this because many of us humans are living in a specific comfort zone, even if this comfort zone is actually like hell and not comfortable at all, just because they are afraid to explore the unknown.
Of course not all people are like that, thats why we were able to explore the universe as well as the internet world. Through the individuals who do not fear the unknown, radical changes and further stimulated realities are born

I personally would like to have both pills at hand (not just one), take the red pill first and go to the real world to understand what happened and what makes it, then go back to the stimulated world to figure out solutions for the real world. I guess that is my scientist side of loving to find solutions speaking. In this case, I will probably need a pack or 2 of both types of pills to keep doing my experiments, LOL

However, there are a couple of questions that come to mind,

1- What if the stimulated world IS the solution WE (not machines or God or whatever) invented to be able to live in the real world without suffering too much?

2- Since the input and output of information for each human is different, this makes the perspective of each individual vary from so slightly to so much from each other. Does that mean these pills actually exist in 50 (or more) different shades, not only 2?

Thanks for sharing :)

In response to your question 1; If we had total control over the parameters of this simulacra, why is there still some suffering? Would it not have been eradicated entirely?

I guess that can be answered by answering "Yes" to the second question. People has been taking different shades of pill depending on their differences in perspective and imaginative abilities.
As the old saying goes "You can bring the horse to the water but you can't make the horse drink"

So let me see i follow this; the 'real' (outer) reality is some sort of traumatic wasteland and we've all voluntarily plugged ourselves into this subset reality in order to live in a bliss state for a while and ignore the pain of being conscious in that other one. That's an interesting idea, that it wasnt some nefarious AI or corporate conspiracy - that we plugged in by choice to avoid the suffering there. And we're about to do the same thing again from within this reality; the development of our own Virtual Reality devices....It's like a nested set of sub-realities that keep getting better in terms of enjoyment, pleasure and avoiding suffering? It's alchemical: we're continually refining and distilling the best parts of consciousness perhaps? I wonder how many iterations there have been?

Dear @fishsauce, That is a beautiful way of summarizing it.

Honestly, I think the iterations are not what really matter. The depth of each iteration is what makes more of a difference.
For example, the depth of virtual reality nowadays is so great that people tend to "want to" live in it more than living in their real lives. Games, social media, "reality" made-up TV shows, TV series and social platforms. What's even more pronounced is that younger generations are especially more susceptible to these things than older generations.
Just listen to what old people say about the way they used to play outside with their friends, while kids of this era are mesmerized by video games of all sorts.

Yeah, you are quite right. Many people would rather continue living in the make believe than face the reality or even try to comprehend it.

I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could.

- Mahatma Gandhi

I thought for a long time about this question. I looked up Descartes' Daemon Deceiver, The Allegory of the Cave, The Matrix.

But does it really matter if it is a simulation or not? We still have preferences (I love pizza), physical stimuli (I have a bruise from bumping a table), and there is a flow to this reality (nothing ever is exactly like I imagined). If this is a simulated reality, someone needs to change the settings.

We are also still are here on steemit making a different reality. In this regard we definitely took the blue pill, but yet there are things to be discovered here. Relationships to be made, in the world void web.

In conclusion, I always found this question interesting but less than fruitful. So what if it is real or not? Does knowing (or not knowing) this 'fact' change anything? Have you ever chosen a different path or action because you believed it was simulated?

'If you can't be, with the one you love, love the one you're with.'
Crosby, Stills, and Nash

The question here is not the what if.

The question here is would you take the red pill and go to the real world or take the blue one and stay here.

I'm just saying, it wouldn't matter to me. The connections that I have to the 'real world' and the 'simulated world' are just cognitive structures. Reality, like meaning, is something that I think we create for ourselves. You could be real, or not, I still am enjoying this dialog.

Also a 'simulated hypothesis' is a fancy 'what if'.

The Allegory of the Cave is just a much older version of this simulated reality.

Truth. It poses the same question. And therein lies my answer, I would take the red pill if it afforded me a way to return and help others find 'reality'. Much like a true philosopher after leaving, who returns to the cave to help those still inside.

What I am trying to get at, is the can of worms that this question proposes. Are somethings real (ex: my mind) and some false (ex: my simulated body)? Are there 'others' to show the light outside the cave?

Both are real in the sense that mind and body are subsets of the greater 'set of all realities'. However, it may be prudent to ask, which is more real? Goedel's set theory revealed that contradictions can coexist within nested sets, without being invalidated. So Plato's cave needs addendum here; the falsity of the reality inside the cave is not guaranteed by the perspective of being outside of the cave.

Well, the hypothesis that it is all a simulation might open up to possibilities that don't seem to be open in a totally material universe. For example it might be the case that we should interpret chance, and luck differently. There just might be a "meaning" to events for us to try to decipher, that would otherwise just be coincidence and chance.

This question really recurs on all levels of life. Not only is it possible that the physical universe as a whole is some sort of illusion, you can also (and you probably do) live within layers of illusion within this physical universe.

The blue pill. it doesn't matter which reality is true. Even in a simulation there are decisions and consequences. This would not change if you left the simulation. Just because one reality is true and the other is fabricated does not make the non simulated reality a better experience. Imagine this thought experiment: It is the far future. All stars have burned out and all that is left are embers of neutron stars and black holes. In this stage, the universe emits essentially no light. Hypothetically a civilization could harvest the rotational energy of black holes to provide energy. But since there is no available light, there is nothing to see or anything that is worth seeing. This civilization may decide that a simulated universe is more interesting to interact in than a dark universe.

Great post ! I would definitely take the red pill to bring about a change for the better even if it brings a setback in life at first

The red pill would shatter all our understandings and may wake us up into a reality that we wouldn't even be able to comprehend.

Nice post and i like post you...i. Resteem post you dear friend @sauravrungta

I will choose the red pill every time
F.Dostoyevsky (the russian author ) says :"no one sees the reality as a reality except the pessimistics persons"
i rather be pessimistic and live the reality

I would choose the blue pill only, wont be able to face the real world knowing my fake world of loved ones is never coming back to me.

But would it really matter, if they were never real in the first place? Or if they decide to take the red pill with you?

Even if they were not real, i will be an emotionally weaker being alone

But hell yeah , they take red pill with me, it will be an adventurous risky tour of life :D

Yeah, I understand the point you are making.

It can't get any more adventurous than that!! I mean meeting your designers? Literally out of this world.

Hihi yeaaaaaah :D

The discussion that attracts friends, I really like the contents of this post.

Thank you. Appreciate it :)

Blue pill when I go to bed and a red pill when I wake up.

You can only choose one.

I opt for the red pill... as confusing as it is... I still opt for it.

I will always go with Red :) You cannot live always with virtual reality, not for long.

Yeah me too! Better to face the truth than live a lie.

Long ago I chose the red pill, to actively learn, write and rewrite the source code around us....
Not that I'm saying we exist in a computer but that like a computer, all things that exist have a set program of permissions and parameters operating within the operating system of the world (phisics, chemistry, ect all global programs). When you build/demolish/alter something in the world around, you are rewriting its code
Dont wanna make a whole book out of this, just planting the seed of a thought.

The seed of thought has been planted and I know exactly what you mean. :)

it's great post and the question is the reality thank's for share it with us , I ve followed you !

I love this philosophical post, and i will answer your question, in the first i have to clarify that everyone has a different theories , and this difference deal us to the reality, and about me i will choose the blue one because i like to live safely, i don t like to knew what will happen in future, because if we knew everything about our life and what will happen after, then our life will not have any meaning.

Yep, many people would choose the blue pill for sure.

The red pill. There are too many unanswered questions in life! But a better question is, have I already taken the red pill?

I need to find those answers too.

That's deep. Maybe we already did and have no recollection of it!! hehe

I don't know about you guys but right now I'm just taking my allergy pills

haha those will do just fine too!!

hopefully, allergy season feels like it's getting worse and worse every year...

This all began for me as I decided to embark the road to mysticism. And honestly it has been a struggle. I had a Kundalini awakening which slowly started to open my eyes towards the so called truth. Life has changed and so have I. You might find my articles interesting as they are written to help people see life from a different perspective.

Much love ❤︎

The road to awakening is quite difficult and only persistence will do.

Nice pictures, Thanks for sharing and best regards

Thanks for reading :)

Supposing you take the red pill and 'wake up', wouldn't you then exist in a reality where this same simulation hypothesis is possible? Even if you get to meet our programmers, would they be able to prove that their reality is not just a simulation made by some even higher beings, just like ours was? The problem is recursive.

Yes, there can be a multiple layer of this and that just boggles the mind!! hehe

Gimme the sex pill.

I and my wife are definitely Red Pill realists. To be awakened and enlightened is scary, but not as scary as being Blue Pill Unrealists. There are people in this world who only care about 1 thing, and that is not you. All we say is leave us alone to live our lives without your regulations and let us teach others to do the same and duplicate the way things used to be, before we came out of the agrarian lifestyle.

You said it perfectly. knowing that such a reality exists, taking the blue pill or even considering would be scarier in my opinion.

Believe it or not, we are actually watching the matrix!

hahaha, What are the odds :P

Hehehe. We may watch Matrix Reloaded next week, same time (the TV program is very predictable), in case you want to write on the same topic :)

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So often people only see the choices presented. take the blue pill or the red pill. The blue pill returns you to sleep, the red pill wakes you up. Two pills two choices, or so it would seem. Take the blue pill mix it with the red pill, wahla a purple pill. Granted it may lead you to schizophrenia, but it is a choice. And since we seem to have a choice, I think choosing not to take a pill is a choice also. Or what about taking only half of the blue pill, or half of the red pill? There is as it has been said by many people more than one way to skin a cat. So you are left with more than the simple choice of take a pill, and your choice could lead you down unexpected roads.

For the purposes of this post, I am considering only two choices.

There's a lot of science supporting a simulation hypothesis, and personally I would take the red pill.

Yeah, I think it could even be scientifically proven one day.

In real life, we humans have the addiction to seek the truth but usually, theres is no one simple explained truth... but the obsession is too strong and we have to find reason for everything, so we invent god, we invent conspiracies and we rather just think something is true than asking ourselves if it's just our perception of truth and maybe its just an Idea.
"The map is not the territory" - each person has a different reality because the ways our brains prosses information is different.
Please check my blog, I will talk about such topics in the near future :)
@paps

Yes, this is perfectly put. I totally agree with you :) Followed you for future posts.

thank you very much ^^

The question is "What if everything is real?" That's the difficult one.

Most people already assume that, I think.

Great post! Red pill is the way to go! We've been living in the illusion far too long! The truth is out there, But perhaps for many it would be too uncomfortable to acknowledge...

Yeah, the truth is out there and the seekers will grab the first opportunities to get to it.

I would try and take both just to see what kind of contraindications the pills would produce.
Anyone seen "waking life"?

You can only take one :P

Can I mix it with a shot at least?

Despite what people like to believe about themselves, no one ever takes the red pill.

This is an interesting question indeed and I believe that it is actually a much harder decision than than we may initially think. It is much more than a question of whether or not we want to give up our bank accounts or satisfy our curiosity.

The blue pill represents this world as we know it which means that it most importantly represents all of our attachments. It represents the world in which our loved ones exist and perhaps even more importantly it represents the world in which our identity exists. Our identity is made up of all of the labels that we define ourselves with and all of the roles that we play in life.

So the red pill therefore represents a world in which we give up our ego and give up all of our worldly attachments. By taking the red pill we not only give up our careers and our bank accounts but we also give up all of our pursuits and our purposes in life that are associated with this world. We give up our family. We give up our mothers and our fathers, our brothers, sisters and children. We give up our friends. We also give up all of the labels that we identify with that that are apart of the world and what makes us who we are. Eventually all that we are left with is a name, but we must give that up as well.

The red pill represents what is behind the veil. behind the illusions that we create with our mind. Behind our attachments.

The red pill represents death.

Each one of us right now lives within the world of the blue pill and it is all of the things in this world which drive us to keep on living (our identity, our loved ones...etc)

When we die our brain struggles and fights death with all of its effort. It flashes our loved ones faces within our minds eye to encourage the 'will' to hold on and keep fighting to stay alive.

In this moment right now, I'm not ready to die. I don't think many people are.

You perfectly explained why people would choose the blue pill and I completely get that. It's a lot to give up. No, it's everything to give up.

But I do have to disagree that the red pill represents death. In my scenario, and in the movies, the red pill represents the truth, the actual reality. Granted you would be literally no one in that reality and would have to build everything from scratch and you might not even get to do that if it was ruled by this other highly intelligent species. But yes, you would at least get the truth.

I completely agree that the red pill represents truth. I interpret the movie to mean that our mind creates a world (the matrix) that is made up of illusions. Illusions of self, illusions of belief, illusion related to attachment and so on. If you remove the machine aspect of the movie, which for me is just a plot line used to convey the deeper message, then the world of the matrix actually parallels our own world. The matrix is the world of the ego - the world of the "self." Whereas the red pill is the world of truth beyond the self and beyond the illusion. People in our world hold onto their egos for dear life. We are so attached to our identity (ego) that many of us do not even consider the fact that when we die, we may not exist at all or that the "self" won't exist.

If we think about the truth (red pill) as only being associated with the machine world then I personally think that we miss the true meaning of the movie. In such a case we are not actually giving up our "self" we are merely transporting the self to a different world. We are in essence saying that we are unsatisfied with this world and that we want to be a part of something else. Like saying "I want a new purpose in life."

In "The Matrix," Mr Anderson dies and eventually he becomes "Neo" - "The One." So Mr. Anderson lets go of his ego and becomes one with the universe. Its basically the idea of enlightenment as taught by Buddhism. I say that no one actually wants the red pill because everybody has the opportunity to take the red pill in this life, yet no one does. Only a select few become monks who dedicate their lives to meditation and dissolving the ego, and all of its illusions, in order to reach enlightenment and oneness with the universe.

So the "actual reality" of our world is that there is no "you" or "me." Such things are just illusions that are created by the mind.

That's just my thoughts on the subject though.

HMmM I must have picked the blue pill because I'm still unsure about our aliens who put us in this simulation...LOL

But really, this is a fascinating​ idea you brought up. If I had a do over, I would pick the red pill, I really want to meet our alien programer friends! hehehe :)

Yeah, I would take the red pill too. And freak our programmers out and questioning them about why they make life so hard!! hehe

Seriously, why did the make me such a bad driver and unable to read maps? Why? Doesn't that just seem cruel 😝

I feel this is a simulation. We're already at the point where our faces, voices, thoughts, blood samples, DNA, financial records etc. are all in some kind of data base so replicating ourselves won't be far into the future... so maybe it's already been done? Maybe we are already a simulation? Love this kind of thinking. Keen to follow you and hear your other thoughts. :)

The advancements of computing power and the ability to create life like virtual objects are the top most reasons people often give for this theory and we ourselves are getting better and better at doing this. So, yes, this is highly plausible. Thanks for reading :)

red one hahahah

And if take the red pill is part of programation, and what you call "out of matrix" was programated too?
going too much far? heheh
Love the simulation hipotesys
greetings from Brasil! follow you

I think the red pill would be too risky. You have a 50/50 chance of waking up in either a dystopia or utopia. With my luck, I would wake up on a lava moon mining colony. Besides this life could just be a test to where you belong outside of the simulation. Hell could be that mining colony and heaven could be some sort of futuristic utopia. Might as well just live your life the best you can. Someone day we will all live in the red pill in the sky.

I'll take both, so help me God... or something.

If there is a chance to learn about something that is true, I'd like to take it, so Red Pill for sure.

But existing in a simulated reality like the Matrix and taking a pill to set you free to the real world is not a likely scenario if our reality is indeed a simulation. If our reality is a simulated one, I think that it's much more likely for us to lack any external avatars or essence and for us to be entirely a product of the simulation.

In such a simulation where your consciousness can't really exist outside the simulation itself, taking the red pill can have very different implications. You might indeed be forced to remain inside the simulation while knowing what the nature of it is as you might simply have not way to be transferred and exists in the world of the programmers.

Indeed, it seems to be that if our reality is a simulation, it would be incompatibly different from the reality of the programmers as they might be experimenting with the possibility of different rules of physics and space-time than what they have to see how a universe like that would work. They might have a different number of spacial dimensions, they might have more than one temporal dimensions, they might be free to travel within their temporal dimensions, they might have some other aspects of reality that are not present in ours that we couldn't even imagine.

On top of this, the same logic that dictates that our reality is likely to be a simulation, means that the reality of our programmers is likely to be a simulation too.

One possibility I see that is scary is that one might take the red pill and be forced to exit the interesting simulation that is our universe and then be transfered to a holding cell in the operating system that runs our simulation and have to spend eternity in a while holding cell with nothing and nobody to interact with. Or that the red pill will result in deletion soon after the knowledge of the simulation has been comprehended.

you can red pill yourself now if you have a bit of DMT. It can be pretty overwhelming when you know the truth but you don't hold onto the understanding of the universe for very long. you forget over time.

If you presented people with a Red Pill/Blue Pill choice there is a very good chance that they would not believe you. Certainly, in the movie, NEO has some impossible things happen, which open his mind to the situation. However, what would be the trigger for a normally asleep person to realise an alternative exists.

At the moment we hear the new term "Fake News". Do people question the "Real News"?

As used by Jonathan Swift - "There are none so blind as those who will not see. The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know."

All the world is a stage comes to mind.

Yes Indeed. What is reality? We don't know and may never know.