What If Humans Built a Reality Sim? | God Complex | Unveiled

What If Humans Built a Reality Sim? | God Complex

Are we living in a simulated universe? How real is reality? The simulation theory provides us with so many existential avenues to explore. But what happens if the roles are reversed and we’re the ones in control?

This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; what if humans built a reality sim?

Humanity has long wrestled with the notion that life, the universe and everything might actually be a whole heap of… nothing. The ancient scholars continually questioned their own existence, while the seventeenth century philosopher René Descartes is well remembered for his views that life can never be truly trusted - inspiring his most famous line; cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am).

In more modern times, the Simulation Hypothesis has taken over as alternative worldview number one. It has a long history as a sci-fi plot device reaching as far back as the mid-twentieth century… but, thanks to a 2003 paper by the Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom, it’s an emerging academic problem, too. It says that if we assume advanced civilizations with extreme computing power exist… and if we suppose that even a small fraction of those civilizations want to use their power to run ancestor sims… then it’s much more likely that we’re the product of those sims (rather than a member of the original, advanced society of sim creators).

This idea that we’re built, rendered and controlled by a technologically supreme higher power has been the basis of many a movie or game series, as well as some previous videos on this very channel. But today we’re turning the question around, to ask what would happen if, against all the odds, humans weren’t the ones populating the sim… but were actually the ones running it.

Straight away, this scenario requires human society to rank as one of the most advanced societies across all of space and all of history. For that reason alone, it’s statistically unlikely that it will ever come to pass. Currently, life on Earth is the most advanced we know about in the universe… but we also have nothing to compare it to. We’re a sample size of just one… so what are the chances that we’re also a model of cosmological perfection? They’re not high!

Regardless, the fact that we’ve even managed to concoct something like the Simulation Hypothesis says something about our intelligence. As does the arrival of virtual and augmented reality tech. On some, limited level, then, we might argue that we’re already building reality sims of our own - just ask anyone who’s spent an afternoon crashing around their living room in a VR headset, or has sunk hours of time into a world-building video game. But this would be a wholly different prospect.

A human-controlled, conscious reality sim could go one of two ways. It could be accessible by only a limited number of people, or it could be that everyone can join in. With the first option, the sim’s existence might be kept secret from the majority and treated as a futuristic experiment. Or it might be that everyone can observe the sim, it’s just that they can’t affect it. So, it becomes a kind of detached entertainment. Reality TV version 2.0.

With the second option - where it’s open access and we can all join in - our sim becomes a sort of second world. It could be that we ourselves inhabit the simulation - as in the 2018 Steven Spielberg movie, “Ready Player One”. Or it could just be that we, all of us, control it from the outside. That humans are elevated to assume a god-like position.

Let’s take a deeper look at the first option. Imagine that there’s a small group, somewhere on Earth, that really has worked out how to birth an entire reality filled with definitely conscious beings. There are a number of reasons why they might not want to let the rest of the world know about it… but chief among them would be the total panic it could trigger. Because, if humans can build a sim convincing enough to pass as the real world for those that inhabit it… then couldn’t something else be doing the same to us? And then something else to them? And so on. The knowledge of even one layer of simulated reality could unravel fears of endless more layers, and that could prove the end of civilization… even as we primitively understand it.

That’s a big problem… but what about if the same select group of sim creators can also prove with certainty that there aren’t any more layers. Perhaps, whilst birthing their own reality, they’ve devised methods of testing this one, too… and it’s found to be authentic. It really is real. At that point, they might safely reveal their creation to the rest of humankind… and thereby change the world forever!

Everyone on the planet would now be faced with the knowledge that everyone in the sim was none the wiser to their true nature. Some would undoubtedly pray for them… but the guiding hand of their god would be totally known to us. The simulated beings might show Faith in an unseen, divine figure (much as many humans do)… but we, on our now heightened level of reality, would know that their Faith was actually being placed in just mortal flesh and bone. As a result, those in command of the sim could well develop a massive God Complex, only now it wouldn’t be a delusion… they really would be in control of everything.

For as long as the sim remained under the power of only a select few, however, it’s not as though those few could never be challenged by everyone else on Earth watching on. After all, we would know what their simulations would not… that they weren’t really gods and were still just normal (if incredibly intelligent) people. Soon, the sim controllers could face resistance. There’d be campaigns for sim rights, for example, with calls for the control of sims to stop… similar to how animal rights campaigners seek to stop lab testing on animals. And the life and fate of simulated beings would be continually discussed by ethics boards.

These issues don’t disappear, however, if we imagine our second option for a human-led sim; that it’s accessible and controllable by everyone. In many ways, the problems actually increase. Now, we have the potential for all humans to rule and manipulate a different world - to the benefit or detriment of not just the sims, but also themselves. Would the simulated beings be treated fairly, or cruelly? Would we recognise ourselves in them, or treat them as lesser-than or other? Might the simulated world become just a testing ground for real-world ideas? Or could we turn it into a Utopia and, in fact, prefer to spend our time there than in our actual reality? And could that mean that the real world falls to ruin?

With so much that could go wrong, there’d no doubt be some attempt made to police the sim. To monitor who accesses it, and when, and to track the changes they make while they’re tapped in. But how would we go about deciding the laws of this land? And, given that the inhabitants of the sim would all, in their own minds, be conscious… would these even be decisions that we’d have a right to make? Perhaps there’d be certain grades of access available - ranging from tourist to full-on world-builder - but, again, how to decide who sits at the top and at the bottom of that hierarchy?

If nothing else, in this strange, multi-dimensional, alternate version of reality, there would be one rule that no-one could break. Under no circumstances must the truth be revealed. For the sim inhabitants, such a revelation could destroy their existence. For the human controllers watching on, it might only play out like a glitch across the system… before it shuts down and we all carry on with our lives. But for those inside the world that we built, it’s the apocalypse. It’s the end of days. And it would be all of our fault. Could you do it? Could you be the one to unveil the truth and set in motion the sim-shattering consequences?

Thankfully, for now, there are no signs that humanity has, or ever will have, this kind of higher, cross-dimensional power. If we did, we can all hope that we’d use it wisely, fairly and for the benefit of both this world and the created one… but a God Complex come true wouldn’t necessarily be for the better. And that’s what would happen if humans built a reality sim.