April 19, 2026 ·
All sufficiently complex simulations are computationally equivalent but ultimately simulations nonetheless. I disagree with the idea that we live in a simulation, but I deeply agree with the one that says we are capable of universal simulation via computation. This distinction is important because I often hear people mistake my preference for a computational worldview as an implicit acceptance of the simulation hypothesis, or some kind of reduced mathematical formula, or a model of the world and universe in which I dogmatically assert it works a particular way. Whereas I simply think that computation as a substrate is a good one to build worldviews with. Other universal ones seem to be language, empirical and/or rational reasoning, and symbolic logic.
I liked what the Pope said in the tweet I will link below. It's a good callout. Though I will add that the realization must exist and persist within the same individual and not be split in two, which is what one finds increasingly frequently; in which the person doing computations is being lectured by an academic on perceived higher truths or something like that. What instead is better is the person doing computational simulation themselves understand the difference between simulations and reality, the more human aspects of life, ethics and morality, beauty, and all those warm and fuzzies.
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