If you keep up with pop-science at all, then you’ve probably encountered the whole “string theory” hypothesis, or the notion that we’re living in a hologram or inside the database of a giant computer, like in The Matrix. It’s one of those theories that doesn’t actually make much of a difference in our daily lives if we can’t prove it. We might as well just go on with our lives as usual, right? But, that doesn’t mean it’s not a lot of fun to think about. If someone could prove that we’re all living in a game of The Sims, what would the implications be?
Crime and punishment is one area where things might change considerably. If we could prove that we were all living in a simulation, would crime really be that big a deal? Stealing a car would be about as serious a crime as cheating in a game of Overwatch. Likewise, sending someone to prison wouldn’t be that big of a deal, either.
Online video games like Titanfall punish cheaters in a fairly clever way, by sending them to play in servers populated entirely with other cheaters. If we were living in a simulation, we could just send criminals to another server where every time they steal a car, it gets stolen from them the minute they park it. We’ll play The Sims, let them have their Grand Theft Auto.
Medical science is a field hindered by the mysteries of the human body. Almost any bug or virus or damaged part in a computer system can be repaired by an experienced technician. Too often, in medical science, there’s simply no fixing something. Doctors have yet to perform a successful head transplant, but anyone with a screwdriver and a phone to read Wikihow can replace a hard drive in their computer. Imagine if you could cure cancer or repair a broken bone with a keyboard and a little javascript knowledge.
The simulation hypothesis dates back at least as far as “Maya,” an Indian concept through which one might look at life as a series of illusions that might as well be concrete and real. In any event, while movies like The Matrix might see a digital landscape as a prison, you have to admit, it would take a lot of the pressure off of our daily affairs at work and at home, wouldn’t it?
