Unheard Theory about “The Human Existence”

    

        There’s a famous saying by a German Philosopher called Arthur Schopenhauer, he said that “A person can do what he wills, but he cannot will what he wills”. In this thought he’s trying to question the existence of free will of any individual, we think that we have free will and we can do what we want, but that might not be the case he says. This quote was also used in Netflix’s one of the most highly rated TV Series “Dark”. Because I found this thought so intriguing, through this article I’ll try to convince you the same. There’s no argument about the technological advancement we have achieved in less than a few decades in the fields of gaming as well as simulation. About 40 years ago in the name of a game we just had “Pong”, which was basically two rectangular boxes and a dot, the rectangular boxes moving vertically passing the dot. But today with the help of computing technology using VR & AR we are able to create our own small virtual realities in video games and movies. 

    The highest version of top tech games today look so real that it is close enough to the real-world objects. So, what is VR, and what is AR? VR is the use of computer technology to create a simulated environment, VR places the user inside of an experience. The computer works as the gatekeeper to this artificial world creating as many senses as possible such as vision, hearing, touch & in some cases even smell. Similarly, AR also works the same but it takes VR one step ahead, in AR the computer uses sensors and algorithms and superimposes the simulation in the real world with the help of 3D graphics. The main component of the VR tech is the head-mounted display(HMD) and 3D glasses for movies whilst there’s no need for such gadgets in the AR. 

    We all know the Marvel Character “Ironman”, most of the tech he uses for his research and communication is 'Augmented Reality'. At the current moment with the technology we have, we can only simulate a fraction of the reality of this universe. But, at the rate of advancement, we are on, the human race will one day be able to simulate each and every aspect of the entire universe and when that day comes it will be impossible for one to tell the difference between what is real and what is not. That would be a huge evolutionary step for our race, it may take 1000 years or 10,000 years for us to reach there, but on the evolutionary scale that is nothing. Now, this is where the article gets interesting, I would appreciate you to stick around. What if I tell you that the possibility that the reality around us has the probability of “One in Billions”, that this is the base reality. Confused? let me simplify it for you.

 What if, you and me, we are not real and just a simulation in someone’s computer, that we are controlled by some foreign entity. This is known as “The Simulation Argument”, many of the well-known scientists agree with this concept but I will try to explain it with the words of the man I guess we all know, "Elon Musk" the genius billionaire, the true Tony Stark of the real world who is the founder of Tesla Motors, SpaceX and many other such enterprises; he suggests that it is true that the chance for our reality for being true is ‘one in a billion’. According to him “We should hope that we are in a simulation or human beings will cease to exist”. Easing it a bit, if we are not living in a simulation, there is a 100% chance that human beings will become extinct, it may be due to environmental conditions like global warming or due to our technological advancements which will eventually create our own doomsday.

   This idea seems absurd, doesn’t it? But, our History is proof that geniuses like Elon Musk are considered to be madman until their theory is proved to be right. For thousands of years humans believed that the Sun revolved around the Earth, not vice versa and that the Earth was flat not spherical as we know today until Galileo an astronomer proved us wrong, he was considered a madman at his time. Other than Galileo there are many such examples. There's another principle called as the "Anthropic Principle" and it states that 'If we wish to explain why our universe exists the way it does' the answer to that is 'Such universe must-have qualities that allow intelligent creatures to arise, who are capable of asking the question'. Has it ever come across your mind, why cannot we exceed the speed of light? Why cannot we reach the sun? What about the Bermuda Triangle? Why haven’t we found a form of life other than us? There are a lot of such limitations and unexplained things about our universe. The question is who set those limitations for us? Maybe the person who is controlling our simulation, certainly the one who does not want us to cross the limit and reach the next stage like we set limitations in our games. So, if I’ve convinced you about Simulation, now the question arises about who’s controlling our simulation?. Is it Aliens? God? many scientists believe that the controller of our simulations is ‘we ourselves’ only more evolved versions of ourselves. The glimpse of this context is very beautifully portrayed in Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” movie. So to summarize, there are a lot of ‘what if’s’ in this conversation. But, in order to grow in life and acquire a sufficient amount of knowledge, one must learn to keep an open mind about things, stubbornness does not lead anywhere. Start questioning your Beliefs, Thank You!