We are definitely living in a simulation | Roman Yampolskiy and Lex Fridman

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GUEST BIO:
Roman Yampolskiy is an AI safety researcher and author of a new book titled AI: Unexplainable, Unpredictable, Uncontrollable.

PODCAST INFO:

SOCIAL:

[LexClips]

Guest bio: Roman Yampolskiy is an AI safety researcher and author of a new book titled AI: Unexplainable, Unpredictable, Uncontrollable.

[Bropes]

The problem with the “we exist at the most interesting time in history” theory is that every other group before us thought the exact same shit 😂

[HAL-vuef]

I had an experience that made me think we are in a simulation: back in the 1990’s everyday at work I would get my lunch from a local shop next to a busy road. One day a second hand bookshop opened up on the other side, it looked interesting but the road was so busy and my lunch break so short that I didn’t bother for a few weeks. Then while sitting at work one morning I had a sudden impulse to own a book about the 1962 Ferrari 250GTO, not entirely sure why, just a sudden urge. Being very particular about what kind of books I like I imagined it would be of a certain size, design and technicality (I am very fussy). So during my lunch break I made my way to the second hand bookshop, it was pretty disappointing, mostly the kind of stuff that people don’t want anymore like old Lonely Planets and Guinness World record books etc. Anyway, I made my way to the Motorsport section which was just one small shelf of about twenty books. There I was struck to see the spine of a book saying Ferrari 250GTO, a perfect size, hardback. I took it down and the front cover was exactly to my taste so I opened it up to a random page feeling very lucky. The first page I opened, in bold print at the top of a paragraph was my full name, spelled the same. I started laughing to myself because it felt just too odd. I have an uncommon name, if I check on Facebook now it comes up with less than 30 people worldwide.
Apparently, according to the book, there was a chief Ferrari mechanic in the Le Mans 24 hour races in the 1960’s with the same name.
What are the odds that I would have a random thought to buy a special interest book, that was to my taste, in stock across the street and the first page I turn to has my name. Pretty weird. I always felt it was some kind of Easter egg just to hint that life was not what it seemed.

[TimJohnston]

My simulation story: I was a psychology major in college, and in this class I was in we were learning about the simplest form of learning called habituation, which is when we learn to ignore certain stimuli in our environment such as the hum of an air conditioner. As the professor explained the concept I thought to myself “Oh, it’s like if you’re watching Jeopardy on TV while a train is going past your house and you’re like ‘Who is George Washington?’ without even noticing the train.” And then as soon as I finished my thought the professor said “It’s like you’re watching Jeopardy on TV while a train is going past your house and you’re like ‘Who is George Washington?’ without even noticing the train.”

[GroundbreakGames]

From the looks of things, I am guessing our current simulation was created by Ubisoft.

[tylerhardman]

guys its not that hard
just shove your face into the corner and keep jumping until you glitch through
might need to stand on a crate or something while you do it, but persistence is key

[davidasher]

Suggesting reality is an artificial simulation, I believe, reflects our digital age's advanced computing and virtual realities. Historically, civilizations have understood existence through their prevailing technologies. Ancient cultures likened life to a grand play or divine dream, while the mechanistic views of the medieval era mirrored the precision of clockwork. Our current fascination with simulations is just the latest way to interpret our reality using the tools of our time.

[jleo]

"Once upon a time I dreamed I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awakened, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man."
~Zhuangzi
@ 4th century BCE

[WILD__THINGS]

You have to define "simulation" first. Very few people do. Everyone just says "simulation" and assumes we are talking about the same thing.

[vanessabahr]

I don’t understand why no one is referring to all the traditional wisdom that has dealt with these questions for thousands of years. Stepping out of the identification with our material self is called the path to enlightenment and there is a ton of information out there describing the process of developing the consciousness.

[olsonspeed]

If life is a simulation... I want my money back.

[anthonymichaels]

Outside of the simulation, Lex wears tracksuits

[flanaj]

Me and my brother joked about a very esoteric line of dialogue in the film "Titanic" when the antagonist says "look at me you filth!" We laughed at how that line would be funny in a wrestling promo. I specifically said "it's funny because it would never be used in a promo in a million years".

That VERY day, we watched a live segment of a wrestler called Dalton Castle say "look at me you filth". Before him, no one has EVER said that in wrestling before. He said it the very day I joked about it being too weird to be used in wrestling.

That was odd.

[SgtRandoni]

Lex: Can we escape this sim?
Me: I can't even escape youtube.

[nathanwood]

We are just using modern language to describe the same concepts from ancient religious ideas. A 'simulation' is just a metaphor to describe something metaphysical we don't understand. It's a good analog but likely not entirely accurate.

[DanielHayes-pu]

Reality isn't a simulation like a computer one. It is like a sleeping dream. We are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively in this dream reality

[WheelBite]

The funny things is that if we are actually in a simulation (and I am pretty sure they use the word simulation for lack of a better term) then the real world (also calling it the real world for lack of a better term) is completely different from the one we are currently in. The real world might have different laws of physics, time, and space or it may not have them at all. Kind of like when you have a vivid dream where everything is absurdly different from our world that we currently live in, yet not matter how absurd the dream is, the dream feels very real.

[ChessDownUnder]

When the simulation topic comes up I often ask myself - if we are indeed in a simulation then what is the scope and boundaries of the simulation. For example, is our entire universe simulated, just our solar system, just our planet, or just my life? I have heard different takes on this point - what is the scope of the simulation, what things are simulated "just in time" as we make the observations.

The more and more I think, and the more humanity discovers - I feel that the likelihood of a localised simulation (i.e just my life, or just our planet) is highly unlikely. We are constantly making new discoveries in fields such as astronomy, about how the universe formed, how our galaxy formed, etc. The thing with these discoveries is that in general they tend to reinforce each other, they tend to reinforce that what we currently understand about how things went down after the big-bang is somewhat on the right track. Albeit there are some things we still don't understand, i.e if there is a need for Dark Matter and Dark Energy to help balance out some of the observations.

If the simulation was somewhat localised (i.e just our planet, just our solar-system) - why would the rest of the observable universe be so consistently accurate in the story that it tells about our past? How could that be? Why did the Earth need to go through "The Boring Billion" phase just to simulate my life? We know that phase happened, we have a lot of archeological evidence. If only our local area needs to be simulated then why is the rest of the observable universe so incredible at obeying our understanding of how it came to be? We have a lot of very strong archeological evidence to track many phases of our evolution as a species, and also the evolution of life during Earth's early periods. Why was any of this necessary - if simply to simulate just one life, or some local type of simulation. That seems extremely unnecessary and unlikely.

That is why when I think about this topic - if we are in a simulation, I am more of the mindset that either the entire universe as we know it is part of the simulation - or we are indeed in base reality. The more and more I think about things the more I am a believer that we are in base reality, although I understand why a lot of very intelligent people end up concluding otherwise.

[Andyman]

Escaping the simulation is what some call enlightenment. Becoming truly pure of heart is the way out. Outside the simulation is no matter, just consciousness, pure creative consciousness. Yes, the simulation is about love in the end, and I know you feel this Lex.

[nickmeyer]

The book of Job gave me an experience I cannot put into words. It was like it was written for me. I went through everything Job went through just not on such a degree. I was born with it all. Had it all. Then we lost it all. I cursed God (like Job) but for many years. Then I found a Bible and said why not... Opened it up. First page of The Book of Job. I don't think I had cried since I was a toddler trying to get my way. But these tears were different. Powerful stuff.