Slashdot Mirror
Bank of America Analysts Say There's A 50% Chance We Live In The Matrix (independent.co.uk)
Bank of America analysts have suggested that there is a 20 to 50 percent chance that the world around us is a "Matrix-style virtual reality." The report stated, "It is conceivable that with advancements in artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and computing power, members of future civilizations could have decided to run a simulation of their ancestors." The idea is certainly nothing new, as many influential visionaries have come to similar theories. What some may find most unusual about the report is who issued it. According to Business Insider, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America's wealth management company, sent out a briefing to investors outlining their Matrix theory. In response, Slashdot reader marmot7 writes: Personally, I'd like to see all that brain power go toward a better and more stable banking system, not toward the promoting the nihilistic and self-indulgent idea that this might be the Matrix. Don't worry that banks behave in ways that create instability, it's not real. Just relax and enjoy the ones and zeroes. I have no doubt there are good, well meaning people there. I just don't really need my bank weighing in on the mystery of reality any more than I need them to come up with a unified theory of physics at long last. Well, unless it's in their spare time then by all means.
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
Why not e, or 12.44426268%? And haven't they something better to do? They are a bank, not a research institute, are they?
Although BofA is HQ'd in Charlotte, NC it was historically a California company and has a large presence in Washington and Oregon--states where pot is either legal or decriminalized and widely used. Just sayin'.
My impression is that banks are about the bottom line and profits. Why is someone at a bank doing that research?
This is just a ploy to further reduce banking regulations. Who needs regulations when this shit is all just a computer simulation anyway?
As with God, one has to ask what kind of morality would lead our descendants to (re)create the pointless cruelty and misery seen in the media.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
The entire vast expanse of the cosmos is a simulation aimed at getting me a Slashdot first post. Now I just need to devise some way to test this hypothesis.
Religions use a god to forgive them of doing wrong and the belief in an afterlife allows them to not care or take responsibility for negative things they do on earth. If you're agnostic or atheist, you lose that, all you have is nihilism to justify it's all fine to yourself, but now they have this convenient "simulation" to serve the same purpose. "Hey, we're all just AI and the bullshit we and the companies we work for do is all part of this non-consequential simulation!"
So we've now heard from a bank and from a guy who got rich facilitating online beanie baby auctions. I think we can now check off this scientific problem as solved.
All the actual physicists with their knowledge and experience and research can go home.
To be fair, when the Bank of America analysts were asked this, they were all high on designer drugs after celebrating their record bonuses.
You are welcome on my lawn.
... so they have something else to blame about past and future catastrophic financial collapses - The Matrix is to blame!
So, what are we all running from?
Somebody took the wrong pill...
Seriously, 50% chance this is all just a high powered simulation? I guess a whole bunch of somebodies believe everything they see on a screen and read on the internet and they happen to work for BofA? How sad, that somehow, anybody could come to the conclusion that this is all just make believe... However, what's frightening are the logical conclusions being reached if that's a possibility. What is a life worth if it's just simulation? Nothing, just toss that one into the bit bucket if you like. The holocaust didn't even make a dent in the effort to fill up /dev/null even if it did fill up a lot of graves.
Is it no wonder society is coming apart?
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
let me toss a coin then. oh wait, is there a coin?
It's in the way pennies are rounded, it's in the way your insurance is counted. It's in the investment strategy trees growing money, it's in the bronze bull of the Meryl Lynch, looking like honey. It's in the investment matrix and the risk models in your bank's GPU farms. Although you might not see it, it still got its charms. The Matrix has you.
At least, now you know where you should NOT put your money.
I say there's a 98.765% chance BofA pulled that statistic straight out of their ass.
If The Matrix were able to simulate chemical reactions, such as we are seeing in abrupt climate change, then there would be no need for humans to be used as batteries. Just because a banker in the necrocene can't accept that his precious capitalism is causing our immanent extinction, in no way should he be allowed to speak for the algorithm that controls his mind. Come to think of it, why can't we have an algorithm, crowd sourced by mathematical truths and overseen by humanity, to run for President?
Is there any chance these were a bunch of analysts BOA picked up on the cheap from the 5300 people Wells Fargo fired recently for setting up phony bank accounts?
Actually, if you read TFA past all the sensationalist clickbait, what the report really said was:
Many scientists, philosophers, and business leaders believe that there is a 20-50 per cent probability that humans are already living in a computer-simulated virtual world.
Which is really not that jaw-dropping, since the summary says practically the same thing.
Breakfast served all day!
How about these odds, a coin can either land on a face or on the edge. Are the odds of landing on the edge 50%?
PS - Is this a joke. Seems a bit past April 1st. But I can't wrap my head around it being anything else.
It's bullshit pseudoscience PR clickbait.
Real news for nerds, please.
What narrow thinking in these comments. I know, "get off my lawn, Slashdot used to be amazing!" has been said before, but all of these comments are simple "LULZ BofA is stoopid!" Come on people, think bigger and more cynically! Why not devote a few analyst cycles to ponder the reality vs simulation question if you're a major finance company? If we are in a simulation, isn't there a healthy chance that simulation includes bugs that could be exploited by economists living within it?
How many billions could you make if you were able to predict glitches in the Matrix?
Maybe their analysts have got bored with the whole banking and economics thing and realised it is a fools errand. So idle speculation should actually be seen as a positive thing.
Bank of America has a 20 to 50 percent chance is does NOT exist in the real world? Tim S.
It's the kind of shitty world a capitalist would make. Seriously, better planes of existence tumble right out of my asshole every day.
But the human minds kept rejecting it. Entire crops were lost.
So B-of-A was formed instead.
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
Sault's law says a thing cannot make an artifact as complex as itself. It is an asymptotic goal. And it is unlikely any civilization would get even close to simulating the universe it lives in.
E Proelio Veritas.
Maybe this is just a tactic to clog internet news search engines with irrelevant information to distract people from BoA's other "interesting" adventures such as these (copied and pasted from Wikipedia):
BANK OF AMERICA CONTROVERSIES
***
Parmalat controversy
Parmalat SpA is a multinational Italian dairy and food corporation. Following Parmalat's 2003 bankruptcy, the company sued Bank of America for $10 billion, alleging the bank profited from its knowledge of Parmalat's financial difficulties. The parties announced a settlement in July 2009, resulting in Bank of America paying Parmalat $98.5 million in October 2009.[133][134] In a related case, on April 18, 2011, an Italian court acquitted Bank of America and three other large banks, along with their employees, of charges they assisted Parmalat in concealing its fraud, and of lacking sufficient internal controls to prevent such frauds. Prosecutors did not immediately say whether they would appeal the rulings. In Parma, the banks were still charged with covering up the fraud.[135]
Consumer credit controversies
In January 2008, Bank of America began notifying some customers without payment problems that their interest rates were more than doubled, up to 28%. The bank was criticized for raising rates on customers in good standing, and for declining to explain why it had done so.[136][137] In September 2009, a Bank of America credit card customer, Ann Minch, posted a video on YouTube criticizing the bank for raising her interest rate. After the video went viral, she was contacted by a Bank of America representative who lowered her rate. The story attracted national attention from television and internet commentators.[138][139][140] More recently, the bank has been criticized for allegedly seizing three properties that were not under their ownership, apparently due to incorrect addresses on their legal documents.[141]
***
WikiLeaks
In October 2009, WikiLeaks representative Julian Assange reported that his organization possessed a 5 gigabyte hard drive formerly used by a Bank of America executive and that Wikileaks intended to publish its contents.[142]
In November 2010, Forbes magazine published an interview with Assange in which he stated his intent to publish information which would turn a major U.S. bank "inside out".[143] In response to this announcement, Bank of America stock dropped 3.2%.[144]
In December 2010, Bank of America announced that it would no longer service requests to transfer funds to WikiLeaks,[145] stating that "Bank of America joins in the actions previously announced by MasterCard, PayPal, Visa Europe and others and will not process transactions of any type that we have reason to believe are intended for WikiLeaks... This decision is based upon our reasonable belief that WikiLeaks may be engaged in activities that are, among other things, inconsistent with our internal policies for processing payments."[146]
In late December it was announced that Bank of America had bought up more than 300 Internet domain names in an attempt to preempt bad publicity that might be forthcoming in the anticipated WikiLeaks release. The domain names included as BrianMoynihanBlows.com, BrianMoynihanSucks.com and similar names for other top executives of the bank.[147][148][149][150] Nick Baumann of Mother Jones ridiculed this effort, stating: "If I owned stock in Bank of America, this would not give me confidence that the bank is prepared for whatever Julian Assange is planning to throw at it."[151]
Sometime before August 2011, it is claimed by WikiLeaks that 5 GB of Bank of America leaks was part of the deletion of over 3500 communications by Daniel Domscheit-Berg, a now ex-WikiLeaks volunteer.[152][153]
***
Anonymous
On March 14, 2011, one or more members of the decentralized collective Anonymous began releasing emails it said were obtained from Bank of America. According to the group, the emails document "corruption and fraud", and relate to the issue of improper foreclosures. The source,
About the same odds as BoA foreclosing on your house and sending the sheriff to physically remove you despite the fact that you don't have a fucking mortgage.
If we live in a simulation, then some intelligent being designed that simulation. Period.
ID may get touted a lot as some sort of pseudo-scientific camouflage for creationism, but in the end, it's still just about an alternative origin to our beginnings than just evolution. Suggesting we are living in a simulation is not only compatible with the notion that we were created, but it would seem to imply it.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
"I have an ass and must pull stats out of"
While it is a possible world-model, there is absolutely no basis for a probability estimation with a reasonable error margin. These people do not understand what they are doing or, alternately, they are lying in order to get publicity. Oh, and look, it worked!
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
The overlords are fucking with the matrix to see how much mental gymnastics right wingers in this country would have to do to justify to themselves to support an ostensibly leftist (have you seen his actual fucking proposals?) good friend of Vlad Putin for president. Or perhaps the matrix is actually powered by ronald reagans corpse spinning in his grave and Trump gave them the highest RPM.
I've no doubt that a matrix style VR world eventually would be feasible if our current tech continues to improve.
But why would it automatically be here? Why does its existence necessitate our involvement? Wouldn't it be just as likely that some alien species in the Andromeda Galaxy built such an environment? They can have their own play-things living in their own virtual world, completely removed from our existence.
So, living-in-matrix implies intelligent design. You seem to act as if this realization would stop people from musing about the matrix. Or suddenly make people accept ID as fact. Or something. I really can't figure out the motivation behind the tone of your post.
Logically, a matrix would have been intelligently designed. Yes, that makes sense. So what?
One thing that this matrix notion has in common with religion is that it is all just speculation. People who have studied philosophy formally (in class, not just by picking up a few books) have analyzed these concepts to death, and (for the most part) moved on. People who have never done so tend to think they are coming up with something new every time they are introduced to a concept like this, and they get a lot of attention from other people who have also not studied. It is an ongoing cycle, and I find it trite.
When I hear a weather-person say there is a 50% chance of rain tomorrow, my brain translates that into "maybe it will rain, maybe it won't" The weather prediction is 100% accurate.
So, in this case, my brain translated this as "maybe we live in The Matrix, maybe we don't", which as far as I can tell is just restating the question. 100% accurate? Yes. Information (valuable or not)? No.
Don't be sad, fellow AC, I hear ya. It is just that there are a lot of Elon Musk fans and a lot of folks who have heard about (but never read) the fantasies of Nick Bostrom out there, and they really do want their mystical cyber escapism.
I think that we might live in someone else's simulation, but it doesn't and can't matter. Reality is perception, what we are incapable of perceiving has no meaning for us.
With all of the negativity that No Man's Sky has been receiving, largely rightfully, it did pose some interesting ideas about simulated reality. A character in the game uncovers evidence that the universe they exist in (the game universe) isn't the base reality and here I was playing in their universe simulator/glorified RNG from the base reality. Obviously NMS isn't anywhere close to being complex enough but maybe in a few hundred or thousand years from now there could be true AI and machines powerful enough to handle it.
Have gnu, will travel.
It was OK.
The problem whit this assumption is that technological advancement will give us unlimited power or/and a way to overcame physical-natural limitations (break physical laws).
Computation has physical-natural limits like everything else. Computation demands power and time, this can't be overcome, this cannot be hacked or worked out.
To simulate a universe the size of ours will demand an amount of energy greater than the universe itself (energy-mass of the universe plus the overhead of computation).
So, in order to produce a simulation of the current universe an advanced civilization will need to live in a universe without the physical (laws) and energy (production) limitations of the one we live (plus an enormous amount of energy)... In this scenario computation (simulation) becomes meaningless, a civilization in a such universe could simple âoecreateâ our universe (using they unlimited technology, and they unlimited power, and broken-weird physics).
For me, this argument is not based on reality/evidence, and incur in a logical fallacy (unlimited technological power of a future civilization).
When somebody dies that is a member of your family even if it is an animal like a dog, I say before they die even though I don't believe in Gods, I say: Please please! if you are out there God leave this person alone because if you make this person suffer even more when it is my turn to die by hook or by crook I will come and find you and I will torture you I will make you suffer like no one has ever suffered. Now fuck off and leave this person / animal in peace
So if we are now in a "matrix" Virtual reality, then I should be threatening another kind of sadist.
Hey you sadist bastard! delete Hillary Clinton, for goodness sake enough already..
"How we profit on that?" given the fact its a bank.
There is a 50% chance that the money that appears in your BOA account balance does not really exist...
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
As several here have noted, if it's true, they're likely looking to hack the Matrix for profit. So if the Matrix is our reality, you don't want the banks to grok it. They manipulate reality enough already. My theory is that people who sense a Matrix are intuitively sensing the presence of spirit so they seek to explain it using a familiar metaphor, a computer generated simulation. That said, I don't need BoA to check into this idea for me, thanks. I see that investors don't exactly have confidence in BoA at the moment. I'm not sure exactly why. I know that I'm hoping that BoA and all banks work on restoring society's trust. It's unsettling to worry about a whole sector that can bring a lot down with it. Why not save the stoner talk for *after* work and weekends? There's plenty of time to talk about the Matrix then.
So, Now that BoA knows the truth, we can pen test the meta system and hack the world!! Certified ethical wizard will be a new job title!
They survived? No nuclear armageddon? No global warming turning their planet into a second Venus? Then why make the simulation where this stuff could happen?
Probably I'm the only one in the simulation. A student homework assignment, started 5 minutes ago complete with a bunch of memories culled from various other computer runs.
The good news is we're in a huge particle simulation. The bad news is, you're still just composed of virtual particles and will become virtual worm food when you die.
I'm betting on extinction and a slow reboot
So someone somewhere did a powerpoint preso at a staff function with some info pulled off the Internet, and this makes the Slashdot front page?
Is this what Slashdot has become? How long before we get a daily update about the Kardashians?
basically, what they are saying is that they are not sure if anything is real. are they the kind of people you want controlling your economic future? it's bad enough that they are fools enough to think the way they do, but to let their victims -- us -- know they think that way proves they are not only fools but madmen. vote for Trump! he's crazy enough to destroy the whole, worthless system.
It's just freaky when a bank states this. Ranks up there with Microsoft Lingerie.
Table-ized A.I.
y'all need to put your money in credit unions, stat. and while i'm here in this textarea element, why don't i try and offer some good refutations as to why such a theory is kinda balderdash: + the universe is patterns (?) and freedom is the chucking away and letting go of harming patterns, adopting helpful patterns, and eventually being beyond patternalia + when have we ever successfully run a simulation? are people suggesting that something that is simulated doesn't occur at all, much like yesterday or tomorrow? + we're in space + does the universe really require someone to hit the start button? this is the trouble with people who are around too many buttons or ignition switches, they assume that all things need a person to hit the button. the sunrise don't need no button, foo.
Either we are living in the Matrix or we are not. Sounds logical.
This seems to rest on the argument that the universe operates according to some computable process. If No Man's Sky only simulates a fraction of the universe, say .0001%, then, so goes the argument, you simply need a simulation that is 10^6 better than what we have currently got and we will be able to simulate a universe with the same fidelity as our own. And even more clever, even though we might blow ourselves up before we get there, we could imaging some other alien creatures who were able to get past human levels of self-destruction to make the 10^6 improvement.
Now, where is the evidence that the universe operates according to a computable process? To be compuatable it has to be something that can be calculated on any member of the set of computing machines. I just need the smallest example of this. A calculation of the path of a particle along some path.
you fucking degenerates.
When philosophers and physicists do this it's a fun way of pointing out interesting edge cases or stuff that we need better understanding of.
In this case it just sounds like these bankers are taking those thought experiments far too seriously and not seeing them for what they are.
It's like assuming that a smooth massless elephant is real instead of just a way to model a great big hairy and heavy thing.
Jim: "Things are looking bad. We've lost a lot of money. How can we hide it in this presentation?" .... ummm... hang on. What did you say?"
Bob: "I don't know. We're so screwed, man! Any ideas, Jill?"
Jill: "Huh? Sorry I wasn't listening. I was watching the iPhone 7 keynote. Did you know they are dropping the headphone jack?".
Bob: "How can you be not paying attention at a time like this! We're screwed! We need to find a way to distract people from
Jill: "They're removing the headphone jack from the iPhone. I haven't noticed anything else different because that's all I can think about."
Bob: "Perfect! That's the ticket! We'll just include some sensational nonsense in the presentation and no one will notice the terrible news! But what to include...Jim?"
Jim: "Huh? Sorry. I was spaced out watching my Matrix screensaver....".
website: www.simulation-argument.com
In the early 2000s the University of Oxford named Nick Bostrom as the Director for the newly founded institute: "Future of Humanity Institute".
He thinks about "existential risk". If we are indeed living in a simulation, an existential risk is that it will be turned off.
He has collected and summarised the various aspects ("how would you change your behaviour if you knew you were living in
a simulation?") at the above website.
It is unlikely that any one of us here has more to contribute on the topic than what this guy has already forgotten.
Enjoy.
Oliver
oh fuck.
Matrix is real. Use the force, Neo
One possibility is that some sort of god-like creature, or creatures, use a matrix like situations to test systems and find potential flaws or benefits. Another possibility is that humanity exists as a potential AI life force generator. We have seven billion people on the planet. Suppose each person has a computer running a matrix of its own design, complete with things like entirely altered laws of physics, chemistry or even mathematics. After these universes ran for a period of time some would be found to be superior to others. If we can create a matrix better than the one we now live in our true purpose may be at an end. Perhaps we could transfer to the new and better matrix or perhaps that big hand in the sky just hits the off switch on our universe.
It kind of bugs me that people like these geniuses keep saying the we live in the matrix, but what I really think they mean is that we live in a simulation. When they say these things, and acting all profound, you expect them to get the basic constructs right! Matrix = real universe, but with a big Mofo electrode sticking in your spinal cord fooling your real brain. Simulation = simulated universe, simulated brain, ghosts all the way down. And I didn't read the article - i just wanted to sound like I knew what I was talking about.
It would appear we may well be "The Ghosts in the Machine"
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
This idea seems to be hip right now, although it is just a variant of Kants critical idealism or the arbrahamic revelation psycho-cults (Christianity, Islam, Judaism) idea of a god from which all things come.
It's really weird when you see institutions that have so much power perpetrate such nonsense. And goes to show that 'civilized' society isn't to far from societies who think they have god on their side when they blow themselves and innocent bystanders up. Or think it's a brilliant idea to gas 11 million innocent people and invade Stalingrad. Anything can be justified if you can tell the people you have God on your side. Or that we are all living in a simulation.
It seems that people, with abrahamic religion and new age out of fashion people are turning to other bullshit to justify immoral actions.
After all, if this is a simulation, then a bank misbehaving isn't all that bad, right? I can see were this is intended to go again.
Straight into a new version of the dark ages, with some cyberpunk aspects to it perhaps.
Evil people at work with evil plans are spreading this nonsense. You're best off taking it with a pound of salt.
My 2 cents.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Where is the terminal so I can type in sudo rm -rf /
It's confirmed. Even people of high intelligence can be full of crap and have stupid ideas. Hurray for dark matter and cosmic inflation!
The narrative behind the "Matrix" or "computer simulation" interpretation of the world is just a sequel or variant of the very old religious idea of the human created to live in a world controlled by God or gods. There is nothing new and nothing to see here. It is very boring it gets so much public attention.
Achille Talon
Hop!
...huh, I guess they were really serious.
âoeOnce a new technology rolls over you, if you're not part of the steamroller...you're part of the road.â -
I don't think I've ever read a sentence of such unfathomable stupidity on this site. Good job I guess?
On the one hand we have bible thumpers shoving bullshit at us, on the other hand "wake up sheeple - we all live in the Matrix!!!" Anyone wanna cook up more fairy stories about why we exist? We're here (and we're fucking up the planet we live on - we need to stop doing that as it's the only home we've got at the moment), the universe is before us and that's all that really matters.
If you are into belief systems, the sky is the limit, or is it?
People (or analysts) who believe in nothing, will believe in anything. (All that expensive "education" goes right out the virtual window.)
I think that if a technology like the Matrix has already been invented, that is quasi-indistinguishable from reality then the probability is > 99.99%. Because there is only one reality, but if a Matrix like technology exists then it would probably be used to run simulation scenarios by the millions hence the probability is > 99.99%. Otherwise the probability estimate is it's like in the following joke: "What's the probability of hitting an advanced airplane with high precision SAM? Answer: 50% because you either hit it or you don't".
This is speculation not science or analysis. It's not much different than people who lived centuries ago speculating about the nature of gods without any real evidence.
Remember that time...Neo got his butt whipped?
Yeah, he told the Tick there was no spoon. That didn't turn out so well.
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
It definitely puzzles me how on Slashdot the two links are to a popularist academic and an entrepreneur with no theoretical standing instead of the originator or any other number of real articles over the last decade.
Just curious - should I care what marmot7 has to say about BOA? Any other random people want to chime in?
Do you have ESP?
Who the fuck cares what some bank analyst has to say about the nature of perception and reality?
Scary crazy
You would think if this were a simulation, the designers would have come up with a more plausible set of circumstances.
Only you could be so accommodating of such bull crap. Sorry I've been on /. since the 90's (sorry didn't feel like login in) and sorry to break it to you but it hasn't changed with the exception of more social issue crap and less scifi I'm sorry syfy my MOBO can crank at x10FSB type comments
Do not try to collect the debt. That is impossible. Only recognize the truth. There is no debt.
BA analysts were recently replaced with a world class AI system
their culpability for the 2008 economic meltdown?
mark
Gosh to think there might be life on another planet - but darn they are so far away we'll never be able to find them.
Of course - now it all makes sense. If I wanted to keep my subjects from discovering the outside world - I'd put it so far away that they'd think it was impossible to travel there and find it.
There is a 20% to 50% chance that that's like your opinion man.
By the simplest probability model, there is a 50% chance of any particular individual being alive. Therefore, we ARE in the Matrix with a probability of 1!
Most linux users don't know this, but the man pages were named after Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris fsck'ing hates noobs!
Three escalations to get BOA to pay an insurance premium from money already in my escrow account and they have time for this?
In the laws of physics??? I'm not sure what you are getting at here.
Of course they'd think we were. They *are* the Matrix.
Someone forgot to lock their screen, and somebody else had a few martinis at lunch.
If it's just the Matrix, it will be reset before anything too catastrophic happens anyway.
That's like ... 16 walls!
Either we do live in a Matrix style environment or we don't.
We simulate weather, but it never rains in the simulation. If we are simulations, we might be simulating something very different from ourselves.
Because I need to know whether I need to be good, or go on a stealing, raping, pillaging spree.
It's a way of looking at things in a different way and identifying what stands out when you do so.
Consider it being like staining a microscope slide to increase the contrast between two different cells. The cells don't really look like that but you can't get much information about them as they really are.
Simple logic if not enough sometimes. How about this - you have a box and you want to keep things inside dry, so you imagine where the water could get in. Simple logic tells you to just not expose it to water but that's fairly pointless. It's the same sort of thing, thinking about possibilities. Thinking of the impossible can be a tool to identify real possibilities that are similar.
When the question about a simulation make you understand that we don't know enough about thing X for it to be simulated then you have a start on some understanding on thing X which didn't really stand out as an unknown before.
That's what it's really about.
Feynman had some good stuff to say about thinking of the impossible as a way to get to the possible but I'm not sure where to find it (google Feynman diagrams and you'll eventually find something that describes this well). Treating stuff as if it was going back in time resulted in finding real relationships between particles in that case. The reality was not so mathematically simple (like the simulation idea is mathematically simple) so was a lot harder to see than thinking of the impossible than seeing what possible things came close
Thinking of the impossible is sometimes just a polarizing filter to make possible things stand out.
Something as mundane as engineering design often starts with impossibly simple forces on impossibly simple objects to make everything easier to calculate - for example finite element analysis. With each interation you build up towards something closer to reality, say an aircraft instead of a massless cube. The aircraft is initally modeled as a lot of little massless cubes (and sometimes triangular prisms) then relationships between other cubes and different properties are added so that really difficult problems can be solved in easy little chunks. It may take a lot of steps but you get there in the end by considering a complex thing in terms of much simpler things.
As soon as I plugged the microsoft in behind my ear I knew I was hooked. I subscribed to the first three seasons of Taylor Swift Takes a Shower and I can't stop staring at my tits.
not sure, but maybe he's trying to say that math *may* not be the universal language of all the possible universes, but just a result of how out particular simulated universe is organized.
i certainly can't imagine how a universe with non mathematical laws would be like; I suspect nobody does. It could, however, just be a distortion field of our point of view, I. E. a lack of perspective. I also can't imagine a quantum world, but I accept its because I didn't evolve in one (ok, I did, but you know what I mean)
"Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong." (Oscar Wilde)
After the 2007 financial crisis, millions said that the bank financial analysts were useless! The rabid mob screamed for blood, but I said NO!! These bank analysts have some use, perhaps unknown, hidden from view, kept from the public for our own good!
It might be to hold open doors. It might be as seat warmers. It could be that they are required to fill up the bank buildings, so that the buildings don't collapse from a vacuum inside. There must be a reason said I!
Today, we have learned that reason. They have successfully broken the code of our existence. What is the meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything? What is real? If a tree falls in the forest, and no one hears it, has the tree really fallen? Is it a tree after all, or is the tree a symbol for us all?
Thank goodness we have those Bank of America Financial Analysts to solve these existential puzzles. What would we do without them?
" I just don't really need my bank "
"Your" "bank". LOL.
The "banks" that got their privately-issued bank notes written into law as "legal tender" (federal reserve, but before that
too -- see "the coming battle -- walbert") -- unlawful conversion is just one of their many "features"
http://home.hiwaay.net/~becraft/mcfadden.html
The "banks" that you can't even know who own them due to "national security"
http://humansarefree.com/2015/06/the-federal-reserve-cartel-rothschild.html
I could go on, "bail ins" and "bail outs", countless other commonplace practices.
"Fractional reserves" pretty much guarantee anyone not a "banker" is getting screwed. Eternal usury slavery with that alone, never mind anything else.
The "Treasury" even uses the private "Federal reserve" as their "primary deposit". And sells "bonds" in exchange for private bank credit so the "treasury account" at the "federal reserve" gets more imaginary digits (a.k.a. they voluntarily take bribes for nothing in return, indebting the "government" to fraudulent debt + interest, which is then passed on to you). see "a primer on money, banking, and gold"
[written by a federal reserve researcher, not a "conspiracy" book, author defends the whole system (paraphrase) "the banks get first dibs on all created money, isn't that great? no more panics! they always have more to loan you! wonderful! they are propped up to maintain the illusion their "credit" and "checkbook digits" (bartering, voluntary, optional) are worth as much as actual "dollars" . Oh, and their actual "dollars" are just IOUs too. It is one thing for government to needlessly "borrow" actual money, even worse to just perpetually borrow make-believe "credit" with absolutely no inherent value, that is not even legal tender, and have to pay back fraudulent "interest" on this. ]
Plus the "interest" on the national debt hasn't even been created yet -- this is super hyper extra mega conglomo stellionate -- not just hypothecating other's assets (the national credit, inserting themselves as parasitic middle men leeches) they are hypothecating things that don't even exist yet, charging you "interest" that doesn't even exist, forcing more borrowing (usury is a hydra, cut off one head, 2 more grow back) so the debt can never be paid, by design!
I could go on. "Your" banks. LOL. You don't even have a functioning treasury for over a century, let alone any "banks"
"Your" banks. That's a good one!
This is why I invest every bit of my money with Bank of America.
The know things. . .
Define "computable".