Well, I was in the mood for a “weird” philosophical article today. This was mostly because, the night before I wrote this article, I found myself falling into a rabbit-hole of watching eerie philosophical sci-fi videos from a Youtube channel called “Pursuit Of Wonder“.
These videos often explore various philosophical topics in mildly unsettling ways, and I ended up watching at least two with the theme of “What if all of this is… *dramatic organ trill*… a SiMuLaTiOn?!?!?“.
Of course, having watched sci-fi films like “eXistenZ” (1999), “The Matrix” (1999) and “The Thirteenth Floor” (1999) – seriously, people thought about this topic a lot in 1999 – and done my fair share of introspection about the nature of reality, this idea was nothing new to me.
And it’s basically just the modern “scientific” version of more traditional spiritual/philosophical ideas about reality being an illusion, a dream and/or the creation of a higher being.
Anyway, the reason why I mention this topic is because of one of the comments below one of the videos (possibly this one) which suggested that – if reality was a simulation, and you knew it, then you would turn into a monster.
The film “The Thirteenth Floor” explores this topic to an extent, but the comment seemed to use open-world crime videogames like “Grand Theft Auto” as an example. How even “good” people can cause virtual mayhem and chaos when they play these games because they aren’t real, because nothing in them has serious consequences. It’s a deeply chilling idea when taken at face value.
However, I found myself strongly disagreeing with it for at least a couple of reasons.
First of all, anyone who has ever got seriously immersed in a really good film, novel or game has probably had the experience of seriously and deeply caring about the characters. Feeling affection towards characters and being emotionally invested in what happens to them. It’s why stories can make us laugh, cry, smile, shiver etc…
If you’ve ever experienced feelings of warmth, empathy and/or love towards a completely made-up fictional character, then you’ll instinctively know that “simulation theory” won’t turn you into a monster. If this is indeed all some giant cosmic videogame or work of art, then how on… Earth?… would it be any different to some of the very best works of art you have already experienced?
Secondly, using “Grand Theft Auto” – or similar open-world crime games like that explore this concept even further, such as “Saints Row IV” (2013) – as an example seems to be slightly misleading for one obvious reason. These games have been explicitly designed around the idea of causing mayhem and destruction.
Although, to appease the censors, they will have a “main story” you can follow and an ostensible in-game “punishment” for breaking the rules (often a short-lived, and enjoyably thrilling, fictional car chase and/or fight sequence of some kind) – they are designed around the idea of the player being able to “let off steam” by causing anarchic chaos in a safe fictional world.
However, other games at the time when these games were popular weren’t designed around this. In some other games, it impossible to harm any other character outside of the context of self-defence. In some other games, it’s an instant “game over” if the player breaks any kind of serious moral rules. The point that I’m trying to make here is that game design has a fairly powerful effect on how good or evil the player’s character can be.
And, if reality is a simulation of some kind, then let’s look at its design. Yes, it obviously isn’t some kind of Disney-fied “wholesome” thing – after all, except for most plants, all complex lifeforms have to consume other life (eg: mammals, plants, fish, birds, insects, plankton etc…) in order to continue existing. Likewise, the existence of things like diseases, poisonous plants, earthquakes, floods, fires, death etc… in the natural world show that, if it is a simulation, then it isn’t exactly a “PG-rated” one.
However, saying all of this, there are still all sorts of “built-in” limits and moral nudges. We feel pain when in physical danger, humanity has almost always built civilisations, emotions like anger/bitterness/hatred/guilt/disgust feel utterly terrible, emotions like love/joy/amusement/fascination feel amazing, some taboos are genuinely universal etc… If reality is a simulation or a work of art, then it’s probably more like a serious and complicated “15+” rated drama film than an ultra-edgy “18+” rated crime videogame.
Thirdly and finally, just look at yourself right now. Chances are, most of the time, you are a reasonably good person anyway. Probably not some kind of pious paragon who spends hours pondering the morality of every miniscule thing, but someone who – in their own way and by their own conscience – tries to be at least reasonably good as much as possible.
It’s why, across thousands of years and hundreds of civilisations, things are usually reasonably peaceful most of the time (even if things like wars, crimes etc… get very heavy coverage in history books or news broadcasts. Ordinary peace is so common and ubiquitous that it is barely noteworthy most of the time). Most people aren’t “perfect” saints, but they aren’t outright villains either.
Yes, there are obviously outliers – especially good and especially evil people – but the majority of people aren’t “superheroes” or “supervillains”. This is perhaps best seen when people get drunk or high. Both are situations where people have less control, fewer inhibitions, stronger emotions etc… Yes, a small number of people obviously treat it as a licence to do seriously evil things when these limits are removed – but the overwhelming majority don’t. And this is the key point.
The point I’m trying to make here is that, even if there was conclusive proof that this is all a simulation, you’d probably still essentially be as good or evil as you are right now. Yes, you might mess around a bit or feel a bit less inhibited in some ways, but – beneath it all – you’d still be you. You’d still have the same conscience and emotions. You’d still feel pain and love. You’d still care about everyone and everything that you genuinely care about.
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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂
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