Virtual Immortality

There is a chance that we are living in a simulated universe. If that is true, what if that simulation is an extremely advanced video game? And we are a character in that game with predefined actions? We act in a way in which are coded by the creator of this game of life.

And if this is a game, there must be some number of lives we have to live. What if we have an unlimited number of lives? What if we never die, until we complete the mission?

This is only possible if we are in a simulated universe, if this is a real universe, we may never be immortal without the help of medical science. But we don’t know this yet whether we are in a simulated universe or not, because we cannot differentiate between the two. This may be a simulated universe but it seems real to us.

“There is a one in a billion chance that this is base reality” -Elon Musk

Coming back to the game analogy, if we are in an extremely advance video game, with unlimited lives.

Am I the only one who is immortal? Or we are all immortals? If we all are immortals, why do people die? I never died before, perhaps I am immortal. But the idea that only one or few of us are immortal seems rather bizarre. How is this possible? Or it isn’t? We don’t know that yet.

But what if this is an extremely advanced video game, and I am the only conscious character in it, or I am the only main character being controlled by someone, possibly the gamer.

Does this sound possible? Nobody knows that. Because your attempt to disprove this might be due to the algorithm governing our actions.

You say, “I am real and a conscious being” because you are programmed to say that.

You say, “I am real, and you are not, you are acting in a particular way because you are programmed to do so” because you are programmed to say that.

This assumption may be wrong or incomplete, but what if it isn’t? What if I am actually the main character or an only conscious character in this extremely advance video game with unlimited lives?

Now does that make me immortal? Does this mean I can never be killed? Or does this means if I die, I can respawn to the last saved checkpoint?

If I die and respawn at the last saved checkpoint, will I remember I died? Will I know that I respawned?

For this to be proved I need to kill myself and wait to be respawned again. But I won’t be able to prove this if I don’t remember that I died and respawned. What if this isn’t a video game? What if there are no unlimited lives in this game? What if I am not immortal? And what if this is the base reality?

This again leaves us in a situation will never be proved or disproved.

Killing yourself to prove this is not a good idea because we are not sure, or I should say that I am not sure, that whether this is a simulated video game or not.

Considering all the possible outcomes and probabilities, from the best of my knowledge, I came up with a number. I calculated that there is a 4.16666666667% chance we are immortals or at least I am immortal.

As I doubt my mathematical skills, I have reasons to believe that this number is inaccurate. As we consider more and more factors, this number will change, most probably it will further decrease our chances (or my chances) of being immortal(s).

Here how I came up with is number:

Philosopher Nick Bostrom in his research paper “Are You Living In A Computer Simulation?”, said that there is a 20% chance that we are in a simulation.

On the other hand, Elon Musk says that the chances that we are in a computer simulation are much higher.

Nick Bostrom in this paper argues that one of the following propositions is true:

  1. The human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a post human stage.
  2. Any post human civilization is extremely likely to run a significant number of simulations.
  3. We are most certainly living in a computer simulation.

From this, I have given all the three possibilities an equal chance to be true. That is 1/3. Therefore, there is a 33.33% chance that we are living in a computer simulation.

Further, the idea that we are in an extremely advanced video game is only possible if we are in a computer simulation.

That is, there is a 50% chance that we are in a video game if this is a simulation.

Now I further divided the idea of being in a video game into two possible outcomes.

If we have more than one life, there are again two possibilities.

If we have unlimited lives, then we are virtually immortal.

From the above assumptions, I made few calculations, (1/3)(½)(½)(½)(100) = (1/24)*(100) = 4.16666666667%

Hence, there is a 4.16666666667% chance that we are virtually immortals or at least I am virtually immortal.