If we were inside a simulation, what difference would it even make?

[cuafpr]

as a Christian ... i wouldn't freak out over it one bit. If it was 100% proven we are a mere simulation it would perhaps alter the view God but in no way change my belief system.

would i live differently, not really.... maybe see if there is a way to hack the system to improve my life ?

[cubby]

What feels real, might as well be considered real for all the practical purposes I could think of.

For us nothing would change even if we were to undeniably realize that we're indeed inside of a simulation.

Do you think we'd change the ways we're living today or do you believe we'd just go on with our daily business?

If we found incontrovertible proof that we were in a simulation, I think many people would go insane and the basis of our society would collapse - with something new and possibly horrifying rising up.

I also think we'd try to find a way "out" ala Matrix or 13th Floor.

[Elsif]

The religious would lose their shit, and it would make for interesting philosophical (and maybe physics) discussions, but otherwise not much. It's one of those things that we probably can't prove or disprove anyway, so the idea is pretty much useless beyond a thought experiment.

Might as well be talking about God.

Further, maybe the general concept of creation (not the Biblical sense) is really just describing the creation of the simulation we live in.

[Deleted]

It hasn't to be such a modern scenario. Nihilism is the only deduction that can stand without fantasy / moral / faith. If your consciousness dies with your body which without some fiction of a soul or spirit is the accepted norm, then it doesn't matter what you did. It will become void. And supposed everything dies, including our planets, suns... created by randomness (accepted norm) then we will have never existed in the first place. Nothing will have happened or mattered.

So we create reason, we look around and say "but I AM!" which becomes then the wonderful journey in a fantasy world. And every individual lives in their own fantasy world. If the sole reason of your current "existence" isn't enough to make your world solid then do what so many other humans did: Create a world with universal laws or some entity that stands above you entirely, then make others adapting this world. This will then be called religion or theory.

[StayTuned]

Might as well be talking about God.

Further, maybe the general concept of creation (not the Biblical sense) is really just describing the creation of the simulation we live in.

You mean the 6+1 days of booting?

[Heladys]

There's no "if".

You do not directly experience any part of reality, nor does anyone.

Everything you see is merely your brain's interpretation of electrical signals passed by your eyes' interpretation of light hitting them after bouncing off whatever's out there and mixing and matching with the other light beams floating around.

Everything you touch is merely your brain's interpretation of electrical signals passed from your nerve endings.

Everything you hear, taste, smell is similarly just your brain's interpretations of your various organ's interpretations of whatever experience they're having.

You're already fully submerged in simulation. Who's to say it's not been coopted already?

[Jeezy911]

What everyone seems to forget is that with simulation theory things don't happen until there is an observer. So go to Mars, it becomes reality when you land. The best way I have heard this summed up is ask yourself the question, "What is happening two streets over when you play GTA?" Well nothing until you observe it.

[Netherling]

I'm not sure why people think only the religious would freak out, being in a simulation doesn't disprove religion. Perhaps the beings that created the simulation also have Christianity etc.

[Tijuana]

What feels real, might as well be considered real for all the practical purposes I could think of.

For us nothing would change even if we were to undeniably realize that we're indeed inside of a simulation.

Do you think we'd change the ways we're living today or do you believe we'd just go on with our daily business?

Blue pill.

[Auxora]

As far as our lives themselves if it were a simulation that wouldn't change much. No matter your religion or lack thereof, some higher power created the void we're in and the clump of mass that exploded into the big bang. Our experiences and choices are the same whether it's real flesh and a real world or simulation.

But if humans unquestionably proved that we are in a simulation that would change religion and science tremendously, because the #1 focus would shift to breaking out of it or seeing what's on the other side. Religion would shift to learning who built the simulation. The tricky part of that is what if the simulation was specifically designed to hide and save us from knowing how crappy our "real" existence is, kind of like in The Matrix. Alternatively what if we learn we're little more than an aquarium for a higher being. I wouldn't have thought any of that was too likely years ago, but as tech advances both in AI and in integration with us physically with VR and AR, and as more and more of the world seems to be going downhill, it seems increasingly likely that people in a thousand years would say forget TV and movies, we're better off living in one. And if that could happen that soon, who's to say it already hasn't sometime in the past?

The more I think about it, there's a strong argument to stay blissfully ignorant (blue pill) if that's really the case.

[Mihalik]

No practical difference, but would raise a number of philosophical questions.

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sip.

Gods are supernatural and likely a derivative of the simulation itself, or more accurately constructs of the intelligences that are being simulated, created in an attempt to explain the mechanisms of the simulation without understanding it.

Not much different to how gods would emerge if we aren't in a simulation.

On the other hand the creator of the simulation would actually be a natural entity (even if wielding godlike powers over the simulation) thus not a diety.

Most of the emerging philosophical questions would rather have to deal with consciousness and purpose.