Reflections on the Simulation Hypothesis

Paramarthika Satta: the plane of absolute existence

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

This koan encapsulates a fundamental question about the nature of reality — does the world exist independently of our observation of it?

In 2003, philosopher Nick Bostrom published a paper that pushed this question to a new level. Titled “Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?”, it proposed that we might all be living in a vast simulation, our experiences and perceptions generated by a computer program. This idea, known as the simulation hypothesis, has since captured the imagination of philosophers, scientists, and the general public alike.

The Simulation Argument

Bostrom’s argument, known as the “simulation argument,” rests on a trilemma — three propositions, at least one of which Bostrom argues must be true:

1. The fraction of human-level civilizations that reach a posthuman stage is very close to zero.
2. The fraction of posthuman civilizations that are interested in running ancestor-simulations is very close to zero.
3. The fraction of all people with our kind of experiences that are living in a simulation is very close to one.