The post You Could Be Living In A Simulation, But Can You Wake Up? appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Simulation theory, or the idea that we’re living in an advanced computer simulation, is a concept that can no longer be dismissed. It’s becoming increasingly prevalent, both in philosophical discussions and underground culture, with one of the most vocal proponents being none other than Elon Musk. 

One of the central ideas to this theory is the idea that the vast majority of “people” are actually just “non-playable characters” or NPCs that exist only to make the simulation feel as if it’s real, and it’s not all that easy to disprove the idea. 

You might be tempted to dismiss the concept of NPCs as utter nonsense, but as an educated person, bear in mind that it’s first necessary to explore the reasons why a growing number of people do believe they’re living in a simulated world. There’s evidence of this everywhere. The word “NPC” has become almost everyday parlance among younger generations, and there are wild discussions all over the web. There are even memecoin projects like NonNPC that go so far as to promote a kind of “collective awakening”.

You might have come across NPCs yourself – that store assistant at your local convenience store who constantly repeats the same mundane pleasantries, the colleague at work who responds with a blank stare to any deep questions you ask of them. The acquaintance you bump into in the street who can’t remember who you are. They all seem a bit… automated, for want of a better word. They’re really not all there. 

NPC can be defined as a person who lacks proper awareness and the ability to think independently. The term stems from the AI characters found in video games that only ever interact with players in a scripted way. They simply follow a predetermined routine that endlessly repeats over and over.

Is The World Real? 

Rapid advances in technology have helped to strengthen the idea of simulation theory over the years. New developers in virtual reality, AI and computer graphics enable us to create incredibly realistic digital worlds. Assuming our tech continues to advance at this pace, it’ll soon be possible to create a world that’s every bit as realistic as the one we live in. Think Star Trek’s Holodeck… That’s where we’re headed. 

But who’s to say that a virtual world hasn’t already been created? Who’s to say you’re not living in it now? 

Moreover, there’s a distinct lack of evidence for the existence of anything that we cannot perceive with our own senses. Sure, you might’ve heard about countries like Western Samoa, Bhutan and Togo, but how can you know they really exist? All that we know stems from the way our brain interprets the signals perceived by our physical senses. But if these senses were actually created by a computer program, you would have no way of knowing it. 

Reality could in fact be something that’s rendered by your consciousness, and if so, then it makes sense to populate the world with NPCs as a matter of resource management. Assuming that the simulation has limitations, as any computer program does, it could quickly be overloaded if every single character was capable of independent thought and decision-making. By having NPCs, the simulation creates the illusion of a busy, highly populated and interactive world. 

Experts including Neil Degrasse Tyson and Elon Musk have said there’s a decent prospect that humanity is living in some kind of simulation. Musk famously discussed the theory with the podcaster Joe Rogan, insisting that if we can make video games that are virtually indistinguishable from reality, then why not reality itself? 

The Rise Of The Awakened

Believers in simulation theory often suffer what’s known as “main character syndrome”, where they see themselves as playable characters in the simulation. They view themselves as protagonists as the center of a grand narrative, where most others exist only as supporting actors. They represent the select few “Awakened” and some believe they have a mission to somehow put an end to the simulation they’re in.

The Awakened take it upon themselves to try and enlighten the few other playable characters that live in the simulation, in an effort to try and somehow “break the system” and perceive the real nature of their existence. They theorize it’s possible. If they’re living in a computer, then that machine’s available computing power is not infinite, which leads to the possibility that they might somehow be able to overload it and find a way out. 

An alternative might be to get help from someone who created the simulation. That’s one of the longer term goals of No NPC Society, a Web3-native movement that’s dedicated to raising awareness about simulation theory. It wants to create a “glitch” in the matrix through the dissemination of $NONPC tokens, which represent a value-exchange protocol that’s governed and used by the awakened souls. By holding $NONPC coins, a kind of cryptocurrency, you’re showing that you reject living in a simulated existence. 

In effect, the Awakened are making a discreet declaration to others that they’re “not NPCs” and they’re aware that reality is not as it seems. As $NONPC propagates, more people will become awakened and the illusion will slowly lose its grip. Perhaps, in time, the movement may even get the attention of those who created the simulation. And if so, who knows what they might do? One day, the Awakened may be able to obtain the release they seek. 

Perceptions Change

There’s a good chance you’ve already dismissed the Awakened as crackpots. But consider that simulation theory has an intriguing parallel with the historic debates that arose during the 17th century, when the telescope revealed to humanity that there are other planets, other suns and even other galaxies.

At the time, the vast majority of people rejected these astronomical discoveries. There was huge resistance to the thought that the Earth somehow doesn’t sit at the center of the universe, similar to how some react to the notion that we might be living in a simulation. Men of science were laughed at, and some were even persecuted for their beliefs. But they were not wrong.

Today’s reluctance to acknowledge that we may not know the boundaries of reality mirrors society’s response to the ideas that challenged our way of thinking about our place in the universe. But these new ideas ultimately revolutionized our understanding of it. Perhaps, just perhaps, the dialogue around simulation theory might one day result in the broader acceptance of more abstract realities than the one we understand now.