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Comment by RufusJacksons | Hacker News Reader

I’ve been reading a lot about simulation theory after recently watching the Matrix again, and hot damn does this fit right into that narrative…

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I have good news: everything can fit into that narrative.

Always find it interesting how people (not OP particularly) can hate on religion, but can entertain the ‘simulation theory’.

The problem with religion is not the stories that they tell, from those about Amaterasu to those of Zoroaster[0], but that people take those stories and mistake them for truths.

In this regard, I agree.

[0] Is it just my imagination (or perhaps someone trolling Wikipedia), or does Zoroastrian eschatology seem a bit suspiciously like the Book of Revelation? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism#Eschatology:_Re...

1. Those stories do contain truths about humanity. Simulation theory doesn’t from what I gather, it’s purely a materialistic concept.

2. Abrahamic religions are extremely influenced by Zoroastrianism. Christianity maybe the most influenced due to it competing with Persian monotheism for the dominant near east religion.

To the extent that I would accept that religious myths and legends contain truths about humanity, I assert that so too do all the other good stories — that The Fellowship of the Ring was popular because of the Fellowship rather than because of the Ring, that Star Trek and Doctor Who are popular because they gel with the political issues at the time of filming rather than anything to do with subspace fields and the polarities of neutron flows. (Yes, all the settings and technobabble/magical conlangs also allow for very spectacular scenery and events, but I don't think that's what sells them in the long term (it sure does for pure popcorn-spectacle blockbusters, but those are quickly forgotten), for good fiction it's just the icing on the cake).

Likewise for religion, the Greek[0] myths about jealous and infidelious gods speak to mortals in the same situation, and gods playing games with mortals echos with politicians doing the same with their people (especially given the various times and places where leaders have been deified in their own lifetimes).

But there was no Helios driving a chariot across the sky, and Icarus never flew too close to the sun; Ilúvatar never turned the world into a sphere in order that mortal men could no longer sail The Straight Road to Aman; and not only is Noah's Ark nowhere near large enough if taken seriously[1], a majority of Herod biographers and "probably a majority of current biblical scholars" consider the story fabricated or unhistorical[2]. (Also neither of the two kings called Herod line up with the Christian calendar, but a few years here and there is only really a problem for fundamentalists, not normal believers).

[0] now I think about it, it's kinda weird that the Greek ones are more famous than the Roman ones… I suppose the Roman Empire turning Christian part way through has something to do with that?

[1] Depending on which value of cubit you use, about the size of Berlin Zoo's monkey house.

[2] page 171 https://books.google.de/books?id=mWnYvI5RdLMC&q=Herod+and+th...

> Always find it interesting how people (not OP particularly) can hate on religion, but can entertain the ‘simulation theory’.

The Simulation hypothesis is a rational extrapolation of possible things. Quite different than religion.

No it’s literally people just rediscovering religion after it’s been made taboo by the zeitgeist

I think it's people rediscovering The Matrix, which itself was used by my A-level Philosophy teacher when discussing Descartes' evil demon.

As a religious person, I find it fascinating how my concept of God could fit into simulation theory. Miracles, prayer, afterlife, healing - all these Christian concepts can be explained very easily if we imagine a futuristic neckbeard sitting in front of his gaming rig playing our world like a giant game of the sims.

If you’re into that stuff and also like animes, recently I finished watching the “Pantheon” series and it has an even more interesting and somewhat more realistic plot compared to Matrix and super scary and exciting at the same time.

I’ll check it out! Thanks!

Yes! It is a very exciting concept in science fiction, indeed!

Some other similar ideas that come to mind are the multiverse quartz megaspheres in the second half of Diaspora and the message embedded in pi in Contact, the novel.

These are stories of course, but the cosmic microwave background radiation is a real life megastructure that encodes the remnants of the Big Bang and that is terrifyingly fascinating.

Another real world one is the giant foreboding galaxies in the background of the Angular Diameter Turnaround xkcd: https://xkcd.com/2622/

What other examples, fictional or real, are there of giant monumental pieces of information encoding?

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