Simulation (Chat GPT3 Translation 2023)

This is a result of Chat GPT3 translation for my past article which was written in Japanese, May 2017. I post this without even reading, in a same manner as the translation 2019 so that you can compare past two  outputs of google auto translations and evaluate progress, however. I'll keep putting same text into the latest translation engine a year or half later, again and again.

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Let's free-associate on the simulation hypothesis, which posits a 50% chance that the universe is a computer simulation, without referencing any prior research. I will type whatever comes to mind.

The reason this discussion is happening now is because humans have become capable of imagining the ability to create a simulated universe. While limited, simulators capable of complex weather forecasting have already been put to practical use, and much of our social behavior, economic activity, and life experiences occur via the pathway of information space and virtual reality. The only remaining issue is the computational power of the CPU, which time will solve. Research institutions will likely construct SimEarth for various research purposes, examining the survival-of-the-fittest model of planetary ecosystems and scrutinizing complex systems engineering. In tandem with the improvement in computational power through quantum computers, SimEarth will expand (or increase in resolution) to SimSolar and SimGalaxy.

The primitive life algorithm generated by SimEarth will autonomously grow an evolutionary tree. This is because SimEarth is directed to mimic Earth, in order to scrutinize the Darwinian evolutionary model in physical Earth as we recognize it, and parameters will be adjusted as needed. Almost all of the completely random histories that are not adjusted will fail, with only a few histories falling into thermal equilibrium and even fewer continuing to evolve steadily. All of these histories will continue to be observed for research purposes, but SimEarth's main purpose is to trace the evolution of Earth as it exists now. This is because it provides us with a deeper understanding of ourselves, and therefore funding is allocated to it. Thus, parameters are continually adjusted and evolution is arbitrarily directed. We can only simulate the world we know.

The simulation research on humanity, who acquire language and develop complex societies, has flourished as an independent field and will be integrated into existing simulators as computational power increases. There, the emergence of consciousness, the rise and fall of civilizations, the development of the brain and behavior patterns of the nervous system, religion, ideology, war, and so on, will be verified by adjusting various parameters. Here, the parameters will be adjusted as appropriate. Intelligent life and its civilization, which have cognitive abilities, values, and economic systems that are completely different from ours, are rarely found or have a limited number of variations, and are unlikely to receive significant funding. We are seeking knowledge about ourselves, and simulating what we know about ourselves is the main objective.

Now, after our cognitive world is built stably in the SIM environment at a certain resolution, it will be time to tackle the big question of what qualia really is. At that point, a simulation of neural chemical qualia will have been achieved to a certain extent, but there will still be philosophical debates about whether it is what we call qualia. Practical research will be conducted separately from philosophical discussions on the subjectivity and qualia of SIM humans who express emotions, have doubts, and initiate songs, dances, festivals, and wars. In other words, fieldwork. Since we are simulating it to resemble ourselves, developing a SIM-qualia conversion device is also easy. Simulation cultural anthropologists will infiltrate the SIM reality as agents and conduct brave and daring on-site investigations. In the process, the priority of the debate on the definition of qualia will be slightly lowered. As long as we jump in with lively qualia, discuss with SIM humans, love, and continue to observe the forefront of science, art, and culture, our immediate needs will be satisfied.

At this point, it is natural for some humans to choose to migrate to SimReal. They will connect a qualia conversion device to their brains and transfer most of their life experience to SimEarth while their bodies are closely protected. It is like the current trend of social isolation. In SimEarth, "time" is merely a parameter to us, so life experiences of hundreds of years will be compressed appropriately and converted into our neural and chemical cognitive processes. We can fast forward or skip chapters at will and pursue knowledge, art, and love. Of course, we can experience death in SimReal as well (which will become a flagship product of the commercial SimReal connection service and the booming Sim industry), but the ecosystem of SimHumans and interference with social evolution are legally restricted. It is like a provider agreement. We should not walk on water or split the sea on a whim, or live for hundreds of years under one personality and be witnessed all over the world. The general account has an expiration date of the average lifespan in SimReal, and the option to hold memories or social assets or forget them becomes available when reincarnated. It is possible to forget that we are "players" accessing SimEarth from the real world, which provides a more thrilling Sim life, and although security vulnerabilities are a concern, it will become a popular option.
Well, you may have thought that the SF worldview I have imagined so far is quite ordinary. And that's true. These kinds of things have already been imagined to the fullest extent. From here on, I will offer some philosophical reflections based on my vague memories and ideas.

Such imagination, which is likely to become a reality sooner or later due to the development of computing power and market principles, poses some philosophical challenges for us. One is that this SimReal is just a simulation of the real world that we know. While our understanding will be updated to some extent based on the knowledge gained from SimReal, it will not reveal an entirely unknown universe. Bias, as a constraint in research, works to prevent that from happening. We cannot control or make sense of SimReal that we cannot understand. We have no choice but to focus on reproducing our own Umwelt in simulation. Scientists and religious people may find solace in interpreting the significance of this simulated simulation as a universal model of Darwinian selection. However, the historical log of science shows that we ourselves have arbitrarily intervened and directed our own world into something we can understand, casting doubt on the universality of the Darwinian selection model.

Next, through this intervention, we create the Sim universe, which is a copy of our own Umwelt, and experience it as Quoria. After that, it becomes convincing that the non-SimReal is also a simulation that is operated, observed, and intervened by scientists in higher dimensions. This is probably the simulation universe hypothesis that is whispered about today. I don't know the details, but that's what I think. The problem is not proving the truth of it, but extracting something useful, new knowledge, methodology, or philosophical thought from it.

For a simulated human, a real human is akin to a god-like existence. Occasionally occurring super-simulated natural phenomena are caused by parameter adjustments for operational reasons, specification changes, hacking, and the like. However, simulated humans project religious thoughts onto these events and develop various mystical theories, occult theories, yoga and meditation techniques, etc. This world was undoubtedly created by a creator, but the creator is not perfect, and this is the reason why the world is imperfect. The Gnostic thought that the SimReal would naturally occur, and simulation religion scholars celebrate their great achievement with a cocktail party. Then, they may suddenly become silent and look back, or look up at the void.

If this real universe that we recognize as real is only a Meta-Sim for us in the Real-Real... Well, that's an ordinary conclusion of a mediocre religion like that! It has already been pointed out by Wittgenstein. What we should consider is something else. In other words, we have indeed created a universe, but it is just an imitation of the Real-Real that we already know. If this Meta-Sim was created in a similar way, then the question arises as to what kind of intelligence imitated what, and it can be resolved immediately. They and we only share the same environment, and we are just the same "we."

At the same time, Sim-Simulation religion scholars in the SimReal may have looked back, looked up at the sky, and reached the same conclusion in silence. "At the same time" is a literary embellishment. Time in the SimReal is just a parameter, merely an absolute amount of calculations, Proof Of Work, so it is possible that the history that calculated the sluggish inspiration of the Sim-Simulation religion scholars in this SimReal is at least one moment after the stable operation of the SimReal began. God is us. And we are not God. We are computer nerds who could not fit into the party, and silently looked up at the sky from the balcony.

Here, everything from God, ourselves, to the Sims, all have been integrated into "me". And the next question is, why am I continuously reproducing this simulated world? What was the original purpose of this simulation study? I won't deny the irresistible temptation to retreat. But as a general theme, it is to gain deeper insights into the origin of our universe. One of the dreams initially discussed was to dataize the correlation between countless Sim galaxies and calculate the probability of the existence of intelligent life or civilizations that are equal to or even more advanced than us, at what time and where. Perhaps exploring the reproduced simulation internally and externally, towards the micro-macro bipolarity of this real (maybe even meta-Sim), which was once called the universe and has vivid memories of it as our homeland, must be continued. Even if it is meta-Sim, even if there are obvious contradictions or jitters in the speed of light, we must continue to explore this universe with more precision and farther. Otherwise, it's just something I don't want.

The simulation religious scholar who was gazing into the void on the balcony suddenly turns his gaze back to the Sim Viewer. It's not good manners to play with the Viewer at a party, but he can't help it. And he looks up "here" in the Sim Earth, searching for a lonely balcony thinker who is equally puzzled.

There are a few more things I want to write, quite a lot, but it's too much trouble, so I'll stop here for today. The continuation will become a nonlinear fragment of a hallucination, so I might post it as appropriate, maybe even try that. A paid note. A dream. Well, I don't know, but for now, let's stop here today. I'll take a break on the balcony.

Next, I'll try to write about "gaze".