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Neil deGrasse Tyson thinks the universe might be a simulation (businessinsider.com)
4 points by d0ugie on Dec 25, 2016 | hide | past | favorite | 3 comments



>Maybe everything that's happening is just a simulation being run on a computer by some smarter, higher order being

But if assume that, then maybe deGrasse Tyson thinks it is so not because his mind has the ability to objectively detect reality, but because that higher order being programmed it to so think. And maybe reality is in fact completely different, so the whole idea cancels itself out.

You know, once you decide to assume it is possible that reality is radically different than it seems, you are falling freely, intellectually speaking, and it is a long, long way to the bottom.

And let me add that science done properly assumes that things are mostly as they seem, and moves to differences from that in a much slower and more careful fashion.


In cases like this I often recall the following quote:

> All models are wrong, but some are useful.

Assuming we're in a giant simulation and assuming things are as they seem are both rather incomplete models, but the latter is more useful.


Why don't people understand the idea that a calculation based simulation is done to predict some information about stuff and not to actually create stuff. A nuclear reaction simulation will tell you how much energy is generated, it will not actually generate the energy.




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