{"id":18221,"date":"2022-10-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=18221"},"modified":"2022-11-02T12:51:23","modified_gmt":"2022-11-02T11:51:23","slug":"if-we-are-all-living-in-a-simulation-then-what-is-real-and-outside-of-this-simulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/2022\/10\/11\/if-we-are-all-living-in-a-simulation-then-what-is-real-and-outside-of-this-simulation\/","title":{"rendered":"If we are all living in a simulation, then what is real and outside of this simulation?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

QUESTION OF THE MONTH:<\/span><\/h3>\n\n

If we are all living in a simulation, then what is real and outside of this simulation?<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n

TONY H WORCESTER, VIA EMAIL<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

There is no way to know. This isn\u2019t just unknown in the way that the existence of life after death, or parallel universes is unknown; it is an unanswerable question. Let\u2019s suppose that we are in a computer simulation, either created by a higher intelligence or humans in the future. Now imagine that through some bug left in the code, we are accidentally able to step beyond the constraints of our programming and \u2018see\u2019 the simulation\u2019s raw scaffolding, like Neo in The Matrix. <\/em>How would you be able to decide whether this lay outside the simulation, or was still part of it \u2013 as a joke or an Easter egg, put there by programmers? <\/p>\n\n

Could you even definitively say that the columns of ones and zeros scrolling past your eyes proved that reality was a simulation at all? Maybe that\u2019s just what the Universe is made of, once you zoom all the way in past the atoms and quarks.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

And even if you were able to unplug yourself and emerge blinking into the higher reality, how do you know this is what it is? Perhaps there is another reality around that, and so on. If none of these realities are reachable except in our imaginations, are they real? Reality comprises the things we can measure; everything else is fantasy or speculation. <\/p>\n\n

Asking what lies beyond this reality is like asking who we were before being born. Shakespeare\u2019s Hamlet tells Horatio that there are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in his philosophy. But it may be the other way round. Humans are good at dreaming up things that do not exist, so you can\u2019t use your ability to imagine something as evidence for it, one way or another. LV <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n

\n\n

WINNER<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

The winner of next issue\u2019s Question Of The Month <\/em>wins a pair of Space Q45 headphones <\/strong>worth \u00a3139.99. These adaptive noise-cancelling headphones will block out a wide range of sounds, from crying babies to plane noise. Plus, with 50 hours of playtime, you can travel on a long-haul flight without needing to charge. uk.soundcore.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

<\/div>
\n

Email your questions to<\/span>
questions@sciencefocus.com<\/a>
or submit on Twitter<\/span>
@sciencefocus<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

QUESTION OF THE MONTH: If we are all living in a simulation, then what is real and outside of this simulation? TONY H WORCESTER, VIA EMAIL There is no way to know. This isn\u2019t just unknown in the way that the existence of life after death, or parallel universes is unknown; it is an unanswerable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":18601,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"81","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"81","purple_seq_number":"2","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"2","purple_source_article":"article_81-2.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_81-2.xml","purple_source_issue":"October-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"October-2022","purple_external_id":"October-2022-81-2","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"October-2022-81-2","purple_issue_code":"|0000089659||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000089659||","purple_android_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue383","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue383.2","purple_ios_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue383","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue383.2","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"0f422ad1-c939-476d-9f82-a410052ad4c3","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-10-11T10:40:52Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"2d6dc0f2-0645-459f-9caa-d860e2aec0d9","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-10-12T08:58:24Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABQ==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ALW3A8gZFRZ-cqthg4q7A2Q","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[30],"tags":[15],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/GettyImages_1140063838.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/GettyImages_1140063838.jpg",1460,1000,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/GettyImages_1140063838-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/GettyImages_1140063838-300x205.jpg",300,205,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/GettyImages_1140063838-768x526.jpg",768,526,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/GettyImages_1140063838-1024x701.jpg",800,548,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/GettyImages_1140063838.jpg",1460,1000,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/GettyImages_1140063838.jpg",1460,1000,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"QUESTION OF THE MONTH: If we are all living in a simulation, then what is real and outside of this simulation? TONY H WORCESTER, VIA EMAIL There is no way to know. This isn\u2019t just unknown in the way that the existence of life after death, or parallel universes is unknown; it is an unanswerable…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18221"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18221"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20489,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18221\/revisions\/20489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}