Here's a conspiracy theory for the forum to chew on.  I am not advocating it, just throwing it out there (perhaps WAY out there!).

Are we in a hologram, much as Physicist Leonard Susskind suggests?  Is the three-d Universe really 3-D?  Perhaps the final reconciliation of Relativity and Quantum theory really is that wacky!  Some mystical schools have taught this.  Strangely, many esoteric western philosophies seem to hold a view similar to this.


Now, the story/narrative gets more complex.  We posit that the government and the military really know, but fear the social consequences of the masses finding out and refusing to go to work or to follow social conventions anymore.  Perhaps they would track down Aspies and try to find out about our way of perceiving things, perhaps under the impression that we might have some insights in to the Cosmic Computer that runs the Matrix.  Other people might reject the social order altogether, seeking to find reality outside of the Matrix instead.  

Phillip K. Dick wrote somewhere along these lines.  Who thinks that this might even be plausible?  Again, this is not something that I am suggesting is true.  It would make a good story (we could throw in the hero or heroin who finds out and is on the run).  Let me run a poll and get a thread started, just for the lol of it.

tis plausible

Uh..... I dunno?

On a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being completely implausible and 10 being certainly true, I would say:
Existence of God: 2
We are living in a Matrix(Illusion): 1
Theory of Evolution: 9
Existence of Me: 10

Like a lot of things, especially conspiracy theories, not really worth wasting mental energy on in the absence of evidence, except (possibly) as an interesting thought experiment. Which, now that I mention it, is really what this thread is.

Well, Leonard Susskind is not a crank Physicist.  His ideas are taken seriously by String Theorists.  Oddly, it was announced in the news that possible evidence was discovered for the holographic model.

Then, strangely, there was a reversal.  Not advocating any conspiracy theory, just sayin'...

P.S. This thread is for the LULZ, folks, come on!

Not only have I been outside the Matrix, I actually write some of the programming. Okay, so I'm only in charge of one tiny pixel in northern Alaska, but it's something.

Seriously, though, I see it as being possible, but extremely unlikely.

You write some of the programming for how the world runs?  Where do I file complaints?

Seriously.  Is there an IT department?  OK, programmers, rewrite the brains of world leaders to end global warming and stop trampling on my rights.  Come on guys!

I told you, I only do one pixel in the middle of nowhere.

A pixel can say more than a thousand zeroes and ones.

OK, but you can refer me to the IT department.  No?

You are the IT department.  You can modify your reality.  

Of course, your existence according to other people's realities will still follow the rules of their reality.  But with the right conditions, you can undertake a variety of transformations that will be true from your perspective.

This post was last modified: 02-28-2012 10:18 AM by Lang.

You must work for Google, LOL!

If Moore's Law continues to hold true then it has been calculated that by 2030 we will have a computer with enough memory and powerful enough to upload an electronic replica of a human mind.

There would be two versions of the same mind, one living and thinking in an animal body and one inside a computer.

If we call that first electronic mind Adam then within two years he could be joined by Eve living in a virtual reality inside a computer's circuits and they could begin begating, doubling there numbers every couple of years.

Since the advent of computer chips it has taken us a remarkably short time to achieve this so I think it is reasonable to say that any technologically mature species could do the same.

Given the size of the universe there should be many many such simulations already running. On this planet alone if the Americans made one the Russians, Chinese, Japanese and the European countries etc would all quickly follow suit. Each growing rapidly, it wouldn't be long before the number of electronic human minds in the universe vastly outnumbered the animal human minds. Especially considering the physical constraints on the animal population.

So we can either believe that:

1\ We are unique in wishing to make such simulations. (highly unlikely)

2\ There is some very dangerous technology that wipes out technologically mature species before they can create simulations.
(In which case we have less than 18 years left to enjoy ourselves)

3\ We are, most probably in a simulation!!

The choice is yours

If Moore's Law continues to hold true then it has been calculated that by 2030 we will have a computer with enough memory and powerful enough to upload an electronic replica of a human mind.

There would be two versions of the same mind, one living and thinking in an animal body and one inside a computer.

If we call that first electronic mind Adam then within two years he could be joined by Eve living in a virtual reality inside a computer's circuits and they could begin begating, doubling there numbers every couple of years.

Since the advent of computer chips it has taken us a remarkably short time to achieve this so I think it is reasonable to say that any technologically mature species could do the same.

Given the size of the universe there should be many many such simulations already running. On this planet alone if the Americans made one the Russians, Chinese, Japanese and the European countries etc would all quickly follow suit. Each growing rapidly, it wouldn't be long before the number of electronic human minds in the universe vastly outnumbered the animal human minds. Especially considering the physical constraints on the animal population.

So we can either believe that:

1\ We are unique in wishing to make such simulations. (highly unlikely)

2\ There is some very dangerous technology that wipes out technologically mature species before they can create simulations.
(In which case we have less than 18 years left to enjoy ourselves)

3\ We are, most probably in a simulation!!

The choice is yours

I knew that would be a good responce