
Neil deGrasse Tyson thinks the universe might be a simulation - d0ugie
http://www.businessinsider.com/neil-degrasse-tyson-thinks-the-universe-might-be-a-simulation-2016-12
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woodandsteel
>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.

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contravariant
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.

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ankurdhama
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.

