Is the world just a simulation?

[Frenemy90210]

How we can be sure that we are not living in matrix kind of virtual reality where we even do not have our bodies but all we have is our brain kept in jar of some liquid ? then also how we can be sure that the history as we know it till the last microsecond is totally made up and has been implanted in our brain by the computers running the virtual universe ( which we think as the real universe). How we can be sure that whatever we think has happened has actually happened ? (Hinduism has said since thousands of years that we humans are living in a matrix like reality called "MAYA" created by god and that nothing is real.)

 

[Borek]

We can't. I suggest you start with a wikipedia artcile on reality, as the subject itself was analyzed zillions of times since ancient times.

Just note we don't discuss philosophy at PF.

 

[stoomart]

You may be interested in the idea of Boltzmann brains.

 

[gmax137]

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism

 

[phyzguy]

How we can be sure that we are not living in matrix kind of virtual reality where we even do not have our bodies but all we have is our brain kept in jar of some liquid ? then also how we can be sure that the history as we know it till the last microsecond is totally made up and has been implanted in our brain by the computers running the virtual universe ( which we think as the real universe). How we can be sure that whatever we think has happened has actually happened ? (Hinduism has said since thousands of years that we humans are living in a matrix like reality called "MAYA" created by god and that nothing is real.)

You're probably right. So the money in your bank account probably isn't real so you lose nothing by sending it to me. I'll accept cash or check, whichever is most convenient.

 

[XZ923]

How we can be sure that we are not living in matrix kind of virtual reality where we even do not have our bodies but all we have is our brain kept in jar of some liquid ? then also how we can be sure that the history as we know it till the last microsecond is totally made up and has been implanted in our brain by the computers running the virtual universe ( which we think as the real universe). How we can be sure that whatever we think has happened has actually happened ? (Hinduism has said since thousands of years that we humans are living in a matrix like reality called "MAYA" created by god and that nothing is real.)

Since you're using The Matrix as the inspiration for the question, how do we know that the machines aren't living in another Matrix? That's a question I always had about that movie. Morpheus states that the early 21st century was when mankind created AI. Since the Matrix is based on the late 20th century, if they iron out the Anomaly of free will (which they've now done via Neo), does that mean the humans in the Matrix will again create AI? Will that AI create a new Matrix inside the old AI's Matrix? Will that Matrix go through the same 6 Anomalies until it gets smoothed out, then the humans in THAT Matrix create another AI that creates a Matrix within the previous AI's Matrix which exists inside the Matrix of the AI before that? And so on and so forth. The Star Trek TNG episode "Ship in a Bottle" had a similar plotline where they struggled to figure out what was the holodeck and what was real; they ultimately won by trapping Professor Moriarty in a hard drive he thought was the real world.

Ultimately though, science is about what's observable. Whether or not our reality is "real" or a projection of an external system is philosophy (not to mention the philosophy of how you define the word "real").

 

[DrClaude]

Since you're using The Matrix as the inspiration for the question, how do we know that the machines aren't living in another Matrix?

Indeed, it's Matrices all the way down...

Time to close.