**TL;DR - A great and interesting idea, but it is a bleak way to look at the world** We all know the film The Matrix, right? A great film series that explores the idea that we live in a simulation that is very different from our perceived reality. It plays on the idea that we cannot truly trust our own perceptions and sensations. I feel like some believe this philosophical idea is something quite new, however this is not the case. Dating back to Ancient Greece, Plato wrote this theory and example of ‘The Cave’. This example, in a nutshell, was the story of a man who was locked in a cave only witnessing shadows on the wall. These shadows of other people were his reality, he could not see the full people, nor was he aware he was in a cave, just in his reality. When exploring, he then witnessed the true nature outside the cave. This meaning he was living in a ‘simulation’. He would only have his own perceptions and senses to build an understating, and this understanding would not be the truth. An amazing philosophical idea that our perceptions may not be the full truth! I think there is a logic to this as we do not know what we don’t understand or know. However I don't think it is quite a black and white as The Matrix portrays it to be, nor Plato for the same reason. I like the idea that maybe what we experience isn’t exactly real, but it is our reality! I don’t think it should mean take such a bleak view of the world and disregard our reality, however true it may be as what our reality gives us is worth exploring.

We are very probably living in a simulation. Technology is rapidly developing and infact the development is picking up speed. It was less then 130 years since the wright brothers first flew Since then we have sent people to the moon and back and now hope to send humans to Mars. A present day pocket calculator has 10's of 1000's times as much computation power than the computers that sent men to the moon, just 50 or so, years ago. There is presently something called spaceengine.org, which is a simulation of the latest available information about the astronomical universe. This exists now. It updates as new scientific informaton comes in. Clearly as we are creating simulations of the universe now, we can do more complex versions in the future. So the next question we can consider is: what motivation would we have to create a more complex simulated universe? Well spaceengine.org, I imagine, is created for entertainment as well as education. Presently spaceengine.org does not simulate civilisations or artificial intelligence. But could it? and would it? A civilisation could learn a lot about itself if it could create simulations of it's past era's.By programming in, known factors and known personalities, a ancestor simulation, could allow us to examine key points in history and why this happened and what happened in more detail. Also it would allow us to run simulations where we change the factors or personalities involved in key points in our history, to examine different outcomes. An ancestor simulation could be very useful. Also imagine the entertainment of having your own universe of personalities to play with, where you could change a factor, or change a personality and come out with a different "story ending" every time. This could be done for world changing events, or an level of story. This story would be in a simulation where most of the artificial intelligences thought they were real and took everything 100% seriously. Wouldn't that be a entertaining thing to have on your computer? Artificial intelligence, may be in it's infancy now, but how long will it take to evolve into something that is indistinguishable from real intelligence? What do you think? A 100 years? Well even it is 100 years, given that computer technology is always becoming more advanced, then what will that artificial intelligence look like in a 1000years, I ask you? I have written the above to make the point that a simulation indistinguishable from reality to by the Artificial Intelligences that live in it, is not only possible, but likely, for the reasons of: growth in the capablities of technology, and for entertainment and scientific/sociological interest. Once one of these artificial universes with artificial intelligences are created, with the growth of the capabilities of technology, then they will become increasingly common until there are 1000's or even billions of these artificial universes for every one universe that is real. As everyone may want one, for entertainment and curiosity and one day be able to afford one. Given that the artificial universe (the simulation) would be completely real to its inhabitants, what are the chances then of us living in the "one that is real"? Isn't it billions to one? The probability is then, given the growth in our technological capabilities and intelligent life's love for science and entertainment, that we are living in a simulation.

Does it matter?