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simulation hypothesis
In THE UNIVERSE IN A BOX, the ‘simulation hypothesis’ describes the possibility that everything, including our own bodies and minds, is inside a computer.
This would be that when computers develop and artificial intelligence with consciousness becomes a feasible civilisation, it will be interested in simulating the history of the universe, or parts of it, and will eventually create an extremely sophisticated ‘simulated universe’ in which intelligent life forms are born and evolve.
Such a hypothesis is portrayed in the form of the computer programmer protagonist played by Keanu Reeves in the film The Matrix, who realises that everything he has ever done in his life has occurred in a simulated reality, and tries to liberate humanity and bring everyone back to the real world and so on,
Also mentioned in Frederik Pohl’s The Tunnel Under the World and six more stories, Daniel F. Galoy’s novel Simulacron-3, “The Science Fiction Novel ‘Three Bodies’, the Three-Body Problem and Machine Learning Technology“. Also mentioned in Dan Simmons’ Hyperion series.
Furthermore, it is connected to the theory that reality is more like a dream, as in Zhuangzi’s “The Dream of the Butterfly” in “How Can the Mind Be Free“, The story is also connected to the theory of whether reality is more like a dream, as stated in the following passage: “Was I dreaming that I had become a butterfly?
Perspectives on classical logic
There are several approaches to thinking about whether where we are now is real or simulated.
One is the dualist approach, one of the most representative of which is Descartes’ ‘entity dualism’.
Descartes’ ‘entity dualism’ begins with the famous proposition ‘I think, therefore I am’ (French: Je pense, donc je suis, Latin: Cogito ergo sum), which Descartes proposed in his French book, Discours de la méthode. The proposition here refers to the proposition of logic.
The propositions here are the linguistic expression of judgement from a logical point of view, and are the Japanese equivalent of the English word “proposition”, as translated into Japanese by Nishi-Amane, a Choshu-born thinker of the Meiji era, in his book “Kaido yuku – Choshu-ro“. The propositions are the truth values (truth values).
A proposition is a statement with a truth value (true or false), and in logic, as described in “Creating Logic Part 1: Beginning Logic Reading Notes“, it is common to treat propositions symbolically using logical symbols (e.g. ∧, ∨, ¬, →, ↔) and propositional variables (P and Q), as follows
- ∧ (logical product/AND): P ∧ Q means ‘P and Q’.
- ∨ (logical OR): P ∨ Q means ‘P or Q’.
- ¬ (NOT): ¬P means ‘not P’.
- → (condition/implication): P → Q means ‘Q if P’.
- ↔ (equivalence/BIONDITIONAL): P ↔ Q means ‘P and Q are equivalent’.
Using this formula, the aforementioned ‘I think, therefore I am’ can be expressed as follows
- P: We think
- Q: I am
- P → Q
In such a system, interpretation is carried out in the system of ‘classical logic’, which uses rules of logical reasoning based on bivalence and has the following characteristics.
Principle of Bivalence: any proposition is defined on the basis of the idea that it is always assumed to have a truth value of either ‘True’ or ‘False’ and that no proposition can be ambiguous and is always determined.
Law of Excluded Middle: for any proposition P, either P or ¬P is said to be necessarily true, with the principle that the proposition must be either true or false
Law of Non-Contradiction: for any proposition P, it is said that P and ¬P cannot be true at the same time, with the principle that the same proposition cannot be true and false at the same time.
When we look at Descartes’ propositions from the perspective of classical theory, which is always classified as true or false, it can be interpreted that even if everything in the world, including oneself, is false, only the self that is aware of itself as such cannot doubt its existence, and that thinking “why am I here” is itself a proof of one’s existence. This active thinking entity is called the soul, spirit, ego, psyche or sometimes consciousness, and together with the other entity in the world, the physical entity, is the ultimate element of the world, which is called ‘entity dualism’.
Non-Classical Logic Perspectives
In contrast to this dualistic approach based on classical logic, as described in “Making Logic Part 4 – Logic is interesting from here onwards Non-Classical Logic Reading Notes“, current logic constructs a logic different from dualism by changing the rules applied to it.
For example, the rule of the Bivalence Principle, which states that “any proposition has a truth value that is either true or false”, is replaced by the rule of the negation of the Bivalence Principle, which states that “a proposition is not necessarily either true or false”, or “for any proposition P, either P or ¬P is always true”. For any proposition P, either P or ¬P is always true, and the proposition must be either true or false”; Many-Value Logic, which is a logical system with multiple truth values; Modal Logic, which is a logical system that introduces the notion of aspects such as necessity and possibility; and Proofability Logic. Logic, which is a logical system based on provability, and Intuitionistic Logic, which is a logical system based on provability.
From this perspective, when we consider whether “the place we are in now is real or simulated”, we can consider a variety of interpretations. For example, from a pluralistic (pluralist) perspective, the answer can be interpreted as depending on a variety of perspectives and factors, or from the perspective of the negation of the binary principle, it can be interpreted as probabilistic, in that both answers are possible in a certain percentage of cases.
The anything-goes world of non-classical logic can also be said to be Zen thought, as described in “Zen Thought and History, Mahayana Buddhism, Path Thought and Christianity“.
From a practical point of view, it is useful for acquiring diverse perspectives for problem solving, as described in “Problem Solving Methods, Thinking and Experimental Design“, and as an artificial intelligence technology, it is the base concept for probabilistic approaches, such as the “Probabilistic Approach to Machine Learning“.
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