Yesterday, we looked at doomsdays — both natural and AI-driven. And also at the surprisingly popular idea that we live in an AI simulation universe — perhaps one of an apparently endless series of nested AI universes.
If so, it turns out that nothing is — or ever was — real, not even an apocalypse. In turn, that means that we cannot ever have any idea how such a process was set in motion.
That may be one of the attractions of this surreal theory. It is an answer to evidence for fine-tuning of the universe: “Sure, it’s fine-tuned. The simulation that generates it works too.”
News for the Christian Clergy
But now for something from the universe of simulations that is completely different from the usual red pill/blue pill stuff. From Stacey Liberatore at the Daily Mail:
A leading computer scientist believes one of the most controversial theories in modern science could actually strengthen Christianity rather than undermine it.
Rizwan Virk, who studied computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), argues that if humanity is one day proven to be living inside a computer simulation, it would not disprove the Bible but instead offer a modern explanation for many of its central teachings.
That will surely be news to the many Christian clergy who work hard to convince congregations that everything, including the Four Last Things, is quite real — especially their final choices and eternal destiny. Could the clergy be wrong about that?
According to Virk, many of Christianity’s core beliefs fit naturally within that framework. He believes the soul exists outside the simulated world as the true ‘player,’ while the human body functions as its avatar.
In his view, the biblical Book of Life resembles a complete recording of every action taken inside the simulation, while the life review reported by many near-death experiencers mirrors replaying those recorded events after death.
Virk also compared the Genesis account of God creating the universe by speaking to the way modern AI systems generate virtual worlds through simple prompts.
‘So I think that it’s more likely we’re in a simulated world if Christianity is true, or even if any of the other religions are essentially true,’ he said.
Virk goes on to say something else that is surprising: that his approach to cosmology is a branch of intelligent design:
Far from contradicting Christianity, Virk argued that the simulation hypothesis actually reinforces the idea of intelligent design.
‘In a simulation, it requires an intelligent design,’ he said. ‘The simulation doesn’t just come from nowhere. It requires a creator.’
Where Christianity Doesn’t Fit the Simulation
Virk is, among other things, a game developer who has written about the simulated universe theory in some of his books. It sounds as though he feels freer than most thinkers would to adapt reality to his thesis rather than the reverse.
For example, given that Virk focuses a fair bit on Genesis, the first book of the Bible, it’s not quite clear why he points to Christianity rather than Judaism as the religion that best fits reality.
If by “intelligent design,” Virk means awareness of evidence for design in the universe, that is a general feature of religions worldwide. Indeed, in his defense of the explicitly Christian interpretation of salvation, the apostle Paul implicitly acknowledges that fact. He treats design as a matter of reasoning from evidence that is available to everyone, not of Christian revelation.
Most Christian thinkers would thank Virk for his efforts but apply Occam’s razor to the idea that we live in a simulation. It’s a needlessly complex picture of our universe — though it does make for good games and science fiction.
More important, we simply cannot see the Almighty as a game developer. Indeed, in the Christian tradition, salvation of the human race became excruciatingly real for God himself. If Virk reads through any of the four Gospels to the end, he will see why the tradition, taken seriously, is deeply unfriendly to the concept of a simulated universe.
What if Many in Big Tech Really Believe Stuff Like This?
At Skeptic Magazine, Michael Marshall makes short work of Virk’s endorsement of Christianity:
Obviously, this is deeply unserious and requires far less refuting than the other theories outlined here. It cherry picks what it thinks it can make fit, but misses all of the parts of Christianity that do not fit this context.
But he offers this warning as well: “ … his ideas get the attention of the Daily Mail precisely because they aren’t particularly out of step with where Silicon Valley is right now.”
If we go by the rise and fall of longtermism, that sync might be worth keeping an eye on.
Cross-posted at Mind Matters News.