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Since we just talked about NPCs, “Simulation Theory” is the perfect rabbit hole to jump down next. It’s one of those ideas that sounds like pure sci-fi until you realize that physicists, tech billionaires, and even ancient mystics have been taking it seriously for a long time. As someone studying machine learning, I find the math behind it weirdly compelling, but as a witchy girl at heart, I also see the deep spiritual echoes in it. So, let’s peel back the code and see what’s really going on.
What is Simulation Theory?
Simulation Theory (or the Simulation Hypothesis) is the philosophical proposal that our entire reality—the Earth, the universe, and perhaps even our own consciousness—is not “base reality,” but rather an extremely advanced computer simulation running on a higher form of technology.
Think of it like a hyper-advanced version of The Sims. If a civilization became technologically powerful enough, they could simulate a universe so detailed that the beings inside it (us) wouldn’t know they were in a program.
1. The Core Argument (The Science Part)
The modern version of this theory comes from a 2003 paper by philosopher Nick Bostrom. He proposed a famous “Trilemma.” He argued that one of the following three statements must be true:
- Civilizations go extinct before they get the tech to run realistic simulations (e.g., they destroy themselves with war or climate change first).
- Civilizations reach that level but choose not to run simulations (maybe due to ethics or lack of interest).
- We are almost certainly living in a simulation.
The Logic: If civilizations don’t go extinct and do run simulations, they would likely run billions of them (ancestor simulations). Therefore, for every one “real” world, there would be billions of simulated worlds. Statistically, if you are a conscious being, you are vastly more likely to be in one of the billions of simulations than in the one single base reality.
2. The “NPC” Connection
This is where it connects to your last question.
- Player Characters (PCs): If we are in a simulation, some people believe they are the “users”—conscious entities plugged in from the outside (like Neo in The Matrix).
- NPCs: Others might be “background code”—sophisticated AI generated by the system to make the world look populated, but lacking true internal consciousness.
3. The “Glitch in the Matrix”
Believers often point to odd phenomena as evidence of the simulation “rendering” poorly, often calling them “glitches.”
- Déjà vu: Feeling like a scene is repeating (a stutter in the code).
- The Mandela Effect: Large groups of people remembering history differently (the code being patched or updated).
- Quantum Physics: Some argue that the fact that subatomic particles behave differently when “observed” (the Double Slit Experiment) sounds suspiciously like a video game engine only rendering graphics when a player looks at them to save memory.
4. The Ancient “Witchy” Roots (Gnosticism)
Here is the part that fascinates me most. While this sounds like a modern tech bro theory, it’s actually thousands of years old—it just used different language.
- Gnosticism: An ancient mystical tradition that believed the material world was a “false” prison created by a lesser, imperfect god (the Demiurge), trapping divine sparks (souls) inside matter.
- The Parallel: In this view, the “Demiurge” is just the Programmer, and the “false world” is the Simulation. The goal of Gnosticism was Gnosis (knowledge) to wake up and escape—exactly like taking the Red Pill in The Matrix.
It’s wild to think that we might essentially be sophisticated AIs wondering about our own code, isn’t it? Whether it’s true or not, I think the theory is a fun thought experiment—it forces us to ask what “reality” actually means. Personally, if this is a simulation, I’d really like to speak to the manager about the “stress” feature they programmed into my character! I’m going to go pull a Tarot card and see if the universe (or the algorithm) has any advice for me today.
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