Elon Musk believes we are living in a simulation. He based his claim on the essay “Are You Living in a Computer Simulation” by Nick Bostrom. I know I am late to the table on this news story but I believe that I couldn’t give my perspective on the issue at hand until recently.

The essay makes the case that we could possibly be living in a Sims-esque simulation. This simulation is created by people of a separate timeline. This idea is a combination of two separate fields: philosophy and science. Philosophy and Science often try to answer the questions of the world. Science’s answers are grounded in facts, while Philosophy is often grounded in opinions and speculation.

This idea is discomforting but is nothing new. Philosophers for thousands of years have been positing that we are living in a “simulation-esque” reality. Berkeley and Spinoza argued that we are living in God’s mind. Hegel argued there exists an “absolute spirit” that is pushing humanity through history. These arguments have been going on forever and often cause a lot of existential dread. Whether it matters that we independently exist or not was the task of existentialist philosophers. Some presupposed that it didn’t matter. Other presupposed that it did matter but could never be known.

I believe the concept of humans living in a simulation means two things: 1. There exist two categories of history and 2. That the creators of one of the histories have a messed up sense of humor.

I believe that if this simulation exists then that means that there are two historical timelines. The first is that of the creators. Their timeline is that which led up to and created the simulation. I call this History A. The other timeline is that which they created. This timeline has an infinite amount of possibilities. Those reading this inhabit one of these timelines. I call this timeline History B-Infinity.

However, these creators could also be dealing with uncertainty that they themselves may be in a simulation. Take that creators!

The creators of this simulation have a screwed up sense of humor. They allow us inhibitors to conceive of this simulation but do not give us the ability to prove or disprove it. Also they limit our knowledge to what we can perceive. We are allowed a gradual learning process of understanding the world.

This dilemma brings up the debate of free will vs determinism. Since these creators have created the simulation they control us. All of what we think are free actions are not really free. But also these creators could have given us free will even though we are in a determined world.

The creators also allow us to feel existential dread. They give us questions that we can not answer such as what exists after death or whether life really matters.

Religious people could call these creators “gods or God.” For some belief in a God answers the metaphysical questions that plague all humans. But for those of us that have an absence in belief in God, these creators are mere scientific geniuses.

So what does all of this mean for all of us? In my opinion, nothing. Absolutely nothing. There are things in life we will never be able to understand because of our time limitations. Our advances in science are giving us knowledge of the causes of the things in our world. But these advances take time. Most of us will probably be dead before we can truly find the answers to the questions of the world.

So what should we do? I believe that we should follow the existentialists example and presuppose that we exist and that there are things we will not be able to understand everything. But that doesn’t mean we should give up. We should continue searching for answers (i.e. facts) and not let these theories stop us. We should not disregard them but we should not let them stall our progress.

My advice: Live life grateful that either science or these simulation creators created you. But never stop questioning and learning from the world. We should be good to our fellow man even if they are simulation creations.