Here\u2019s what you\u2019ll learn when you read this story:<\/p>\n
For two decades, scientists have seriously considered whether we\u2019re living in a simulated universe.<\/p>\n
A computer scientist at the University of Louisville explores ways that humans could try to hack our way out of this reality and enter the baseline reality.<\/p>\n
So far, techniques ranging from all the world\u2019s religions, along with the immense complexity of the Large Hadron Collider, seem to have no effect on our theoretically simulated reality.<\/p>\n
The red pill or the blue pill\u2014the famous question<\/a> that frames the entirety of The Matrix. In the 1999 film, a surprisingly resolute Neo takes the red pill and decides to \u201csee how far down the rabbit hole goes.\u201d The moment is one of the most iconic scenes in sci-fi history,<\/a> but it also explores a relevant philosophical question: If reality is a simulation<\/a>, can humans decide to leave it?<\/p>\n University of Louisville computer scientist Roman Yampolskiy explores this very question in a detailed post outlining<\/a> how to possibly hack our way out of our simulated existence.<\/p>\n The idea that humans possibly live in a simulation is a surprisingly old one. French philosopher Ren\u00e9 Descartes tossed around the idea back in the 17th century, but the idea really captured the science community when Oxford University philosopher Nick Bostrom wrote an influential article on the possibility of a simulated reality back in 2003<\/a>. Bostrom put the odds of us living inside some super-advanced alien computer at about 20 percent.<\/p>\n Yampolskiy continues this tradition of exploring the boundaries of a possible simulation and specifically exploring ways to escape it. Yampolskiy pulls examples from real-world examples of hacks, exploits found in video games, as well as more philosophical meanderings about attempting to communicate with our simulator overlords with an avatar.<\/p>\n Yampolskiy also includes a compendium of sorts of escape plans theorized by other thinkers, which include \u201cgenerating an incalculable paradox\u201d or stressing the simulation\u2019s computational capacity, such as requiring millions of people to meditate at the same time and then suddenly becoming very active.<\/p>\n The article admits that there are some compelling bits of evidence that are potentially damaging to the idea of escaping the simulation\u2014or if there\u2019s a simulation at all. For example, knowledge of the simulation itself doesn\u2019t seem to impact its existence, nor do religions, which all appeal to some outside simulator, have no measurable effect or intervention (previous researchers<\/a> have proposed this very idea). Also, running incredibly complex machines that deliver astounding results, such as the Large Hadron Collider<\/a>, appear to have no effect on any sort of simulation.<\/p>\n