General discussion

You are a self-aware being. That’s no great revelation. And while there are many unknowns about self-awareness in need of continued research, it’s ultimately grounded in physics, chemistry and biology. The real mystery is why you have one realisation of self-awareness in one body, not two or more realisations of self-awareness in two or more bodies. What prevents that from happening? What stops you from having more than one self-aware awareness right here and right now? There seems to be a self-awareness limit – one per customer, and that applies to both human and animal.

From the get-go (circa 1947), UFOs (initially called 'flying discs' or 'flying saucers') were not viewed as a scientific issue or problem but rather one of national security - after all, unknown aerial objects were being tracked on radar and observed by credible witnesses including pilots and especially military pilots, invading the sovereign airspace of nations. By the time it became obvious UFOs were a scientific problem (as in are they alien spaceships), it was too little, too late for scientists to risk their careers on this topic.

Arguments in favour of the Simulation Hypothesis include...

*That we 'exist' in a simulated landscape as virtual reality beings is a highly probable scenario given the ratio of really real realities (one) to virtual realities (many).

*Simulations are NOT a theoretical concept.

*Simulations are useful in explaining 'natural' anomalies, enigmas, paradoxes, inconsistencies, and contradictions as well as stuff-ups.

*The Simulation Hypothesis has a logical relationship to the Holographic Universe Hypothesis (i.e. - depth is really an illusion).

Is the Simulation Hypothesis up to explaining theological themes? Consistent themes in religions include:

Either there is an immaterial / non-physical component to the human species or there is not.

The ordinary run-of-the-mill Placebo Effect is one thing (one mind; one body), but when mind-over-body gets taken to extreme and even ludicrous lengths (many minds; one body) then special effects programming seem like a logical requirement.

An interesting question is, how can you simulate consciousness? How can you give a simulated virtual reality character free will? Now if we are virtual reality does that mean it is possible to create Artificial Life with consciousness and free will? Will Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) have free will and consciousness by our design? Probably not in both cases. Take one of our space probes that lands and roves around and explores the surface of a distant planet. That space probe cannot rely on instructions from say NASA's Command Centre back on Earth due to the time lag in communications.

When you were conceived there was no neural you; no brain, no hard-wiring. Hard-wiring fell into place as you developed in order to successfully carry out the physiological functions that would keep you alive and kicking over after you were hatched. However, in the absence of learning and experiencing your environment, either formally or just through living day-to-day, it's difficult to explain where your visions of immaterial concepts - those Carl Jung "collective unconscious" archetypes for example - come from.

Can the Simulation Hypothesis help explain the ins and outs of cryptozoology? Crypotzoology itself is the investigation of anomalous animals that have been witnessed, yet which remain outside of the realm of normal zoology.

Cryptozoology is yet another example of [Con] "It can't be therefore it isn't" versus [Pro] "I know what I saw".

[Pro] The sightings of anomalous animals are geographically unique and pretty consistent.

[Con] These animals shouldn't / couldn't exist.

[Pro] But ordinary people with no ulterior motive have reported seeing them.

One might try and think of our Universe as just a big version and variation of "Star Trek's" Holodeck but programmed from the outside like a computer simulation or a computer / video game. How so? Here are eight possible reasons why.

*Probability. The Reason: Really real reality is a one-off / a one-and-only. Really real reality can however contain multi-millions / billions of virtual realities / simulations. Place your bets.