Rizwan Virk

The book’s title is the idea that what we call “the universe” is in fact a gigantic computer-generated simulation, one of those ideas about which, in recent years, there’s been plenty of discussion on the internet but few properly thought-through books. What this one covers, broadly speaking, is as follows: first, computer-science stuff (the history of video games, virtual reality, artificial intelligence; and possible future developments of these); then the universe itself (a number of features of which, at both the quantum level and on the grand scale, are interpreted as hints that we may be living in a simulation); similarities between the ancient teachings of (particularly Eastern) mysticism and the simulation idea; and the implications of all this, if it turned out to be true.
    The central theme here is that what we think of as the physical world actually consists, at bottom, of information, and at times I almost found myself convinced—by some of the parallels between software and physics in particular. For example, many of the programming rules software follows while running a simulation such as an online video game closely resemble the “rules” our universe seems to follow—particularly the peculiar stuff down at the quantum level (“indeterminacy”, “entanglement” and so on). There’s also the fine structure of spacetime itself, which may be granular rather than smooth; it seems to have minimum, indivisible, distances (and durations) not unlike pixels.
    The author makes a decent case with the physics, but I was less enthusiastic about the section on ancient mysticism (there’s more variety there, compared with just one physics!). There then follows another short section (a single chapter) in which the Simulation Hypothesis is used to account (or perhaps not) for an assortment of oddities: out-of-body experiences, synchronicity, telepathy, UFOs and so on.
    To summarise: this book details why “…computer science, quantum (and relativistic) physics, as well as Eastern (and some Western) mystics all seem to be describing a world that is better explained by the simulation hypothesis.” Am I convinced? Not yet. It’s a very interesting read though and recommended if you’re at all curious as to what Elon Musk was on about.… (más)

I liked the analogy between quantum indeterminacy and optimisations in games. That's probably the only convincing argument in the whole book. Of course there are many interpretations of that phenomenon and none of them have any experimental backing and this one is no different. There is a chapter on supposed "experimental" evidence but it never presents any (anyway, if there was one you'd hear about in the news).

Overall, I have read posts on /x/ that were better thought out and more coherent. This is just some guy with an overinflated ego who smoked just a bit too much weed and wants to start another religion.

I think this stems from the need to believe in an afterlife, because otherwise even uploading your mind into a computer won't save you since the heat death of the universe will kill you. This way, if it's a simulation maybe there is a way out of this universe.

One funny term I came across in the book was "recording angels" - are those the sound engineers in music recording studios who have to put up with annoying musicians' whims?… (más)