Anyone who has done a decent amount of philosophy / epistimology has probably learnt that it is impossible for a human to disprove the possibility that they are merely a brain in a jar (if you don’t know what this means, watch The Matrix). You can’t disprove that your reality is a simulation, because all your experiences and hence knowledge could merely be the product of this simulation.
My question for you is this - could God disprove that his reality is a simulation?
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January 13, 2009 at 8:46 pm
aeonsim
Possibly, one way to do it would be to start constantly creating new and highly variable universes, assuming God as such is able to do so. If it has some way of making sure they’re all unique and they’re designed so that each generates it’s own intelligent life forms (some of which may be able to evolve or be guided to the point where they start creating there own universes) then the data and calculation costs will increase at an exponential rate making it highly unlikely that any higher order of existence could continue to provide sufficient resources.
January 20, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Dan
Yes, but I don’t know how.
January 30, 2009 at 1:53 pm
era
No. But I think anyone who thought otherwise would just fit into the theme of solving our philosophical problems by positing a god, without stopping to wonder how shifting the problem up a level solves anything. My favorite one is the whole god created us, but who created god. Or, god makes our lives meaningful, but who makes gods life meaningful. It works for most philosophical problems, but you get the idea.
February 23, 2009 at 11:22 am
Matt
Well, if his reality *is* a simulation, then he’s not God, because there’s something beyond/greater-than him. So if he *is* God, then his reality by definition can’t be a simulation.
(I think my circle is too small.)