Exobiology: Terrestrial Life: Do We Exist?

Exobiology was the original term given to the sciences central to the question of life-in-the-Universe. It’s now been largely replaced by Astrobiology, but I’ll stick with the original. The possibility that extraterrestrial life exists but only as a virtual reality in a simulated universe is well, possible. Of course that suggests that we too are just a virtual reality existing in that same simulated universe. But the entity that created that simulated universe in the first place might be extraterrestrial!

Do you exist? I mean really, really exist and have a physical reality? That’s a pretty dumb question you’ll probably ask! The answer is an obvious ’yes’. But, what if I were to suggest that the odds are very high that you have no actual physical reality, and that I have no actual physical reality, and that in fact all terrestrial life, Planet Earth, perhaps the entire observable universe has no actual physical reality! In other words, what if we are a computer simulation!

Let’s suppose, for argument’s sake, that in the real physical universe, there exists some tens of thousands of extraterrestrial civilizations which have evolved technology our equal or better (even more advanced).  The odds are high that most would have invented computers – hardware and software.  Any one civilization, such as our own, have (to date) produced multi-thousands of computer programs, many of which simulate life forms – think of the hundreds, indeed thousands of computer/video games. No doubt these programs will grow, over time, ever more complex and lifelike until virtual reality is indistinguishable from actual reality.

If even one advanced civilization produces multi-thousands of individual computer programs that simulate an actual, or imagined, reality, what are the odds that we aren’t one of those thousands vis-à-vis being that one advanced civilization that actually exists? How could you know if you were real (hardware), or imaginary (software)? I maintain there’s no way of you knowing.

There’s only a relative few actual civilizations, but untold number of created false realities – again, what odds we are one of the real ones and not one of the imaginary/simulated many?

Perhaps our concept of ‘God’ is nothing more than a mythological version of some advanced, but hardly supernatural, extraterrestrial computer programmer! Now as long as nobody hits the delete key!