Your yearly dose of is-the-universe-a-simulation
Here&#x27;s what I wrote in a comment here last year about the Bostrom simulation argument specifically:<p>The simulation argument, going back to Bostrom, relies on two flaws.<p>1) It leverages our optimism to corrupt our understanding of statistics and logic. It essentially says that if you think humanity doesn&#x27;t destroy itself, then our descendants will probably try to simulate us. But of course if you just take a statistical view of the potential future ordered states of the universe, there are FAR more potential future states in which we don&#x27;t exist, than states in which we do. The chances we are living in a simulation now are equally as small.<p>2) Bostrom hypothesizes that our descendants will try to simulate us. But it is impossible to completely simulate a system from inside that system--that&#x27;s basic thermodynamics. So simulation proponents argue that our simulated reality is running in a more complex universe than we experience. But if that is the case, then the beings running the simulation are not our descendants! They&#x27;re the descendants of whatever more complex beings came before them. Once again the central logic of the argument fails.