Simulation Theory has been around for more than two decades since Nick Bostrom proposed it in 2003, but current tech leaders seem to keep referencing it with the assumption that it might be true.
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and Elon Musk have both seemingly agreed that there’s a chance that we could currently be in a simulation. “Simulations are the future, & one of the main tools we’ll ultimately use to understand and predict things about the universe,” Hassabis had posted on X.
Elon Musk seemingly agreed with the sentiment, but took it one step further. “Perhaps the present too,” he replied, hinting that it was possible that we were currently in a simulation as well.
“Yes, and this is what we need to find out with the help of AI, in other words understanding the fundamental nature of reality,” Hassabis replied.
Simulation theory posits that our reality is a sophisticated computer simulation, potentially created by a highly advanced civilization. This idea suggests that everything we perceive, from our physical world to our own consciousness, is a digital construct rather than a fundamental, independently existing reality. The theory explores the possibility of simulating entire universes, leading to the question of whether we are living in a simulation at some level within a larger, more complex meta-universe.
Elon Musk has previously said that there’s a very good chance we’re living in a simulation — he says that based on pure probabilities, it seems likely that we’re in a simulation. Demis Hassabis, on the other hand, has previously said that he doesn’t believe that we’re in a simulation, but says we’re in a computational universe. “(We aren’t in a simulation) in the way that Nick Bostrom and people talk about,” Hassabis has previously said. “I don’t think this is some kind of game, even though I wrote a lot of games. But I do think that ultimately underlying physics is information theory. So, I do think we’re in a computational universe, but it’s not just a straightforward simulation,’ he had added.
But the fact that the CEOs of some of the biggest AI tech companies in the world — Google DeepMind and Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink — are discussing Simulation Theory is a big stamp of legitimacy for the somewhat fringe theory of reality. Simulation theory states that given how humans have been able to create video games that are now nearly indistinguishable from reality, given enough time, the characters in these video games will be able to create their own simulations, and so on. As such, there are likely billions of “simulations”, and only one base reality, and the probability that we’re in the base simulation is vanishingly small. As such, it’s much more likely that we’re in a simulation, and some of the world’s top minds including Demis Hassabis and Elon Musk seem willing to give some credence to this view.