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The Reality Self-Simulation Principle: Reality is a Self-Simulation
It is with great pleasure that we present the following reprint of “The Reality Self-Simulation Principle: Reality is a Self-Simulation” by Christopher Michael Langan, originally published in a peer-reviewed journal Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, along with two additional sections – FAQs About Simulated Reality and Supplemental Glossary – to give a wider perspective and provide historical context.
Abstract: The Simulation Hypothesis is the widely discussed conjecture that we inhabit a directly experienced but nevertheless artificial reality which, while supporting human consciousness and perception, is produced and displayed by a host system occupying a higher-level reality unseen from below. Reality is thus implicitly defined to have at least two levels, the one in which we seem to exist, and another associated with the host system. As the term "reality" is undefined beyond this hypothetical relationship, the Simulation Hypothesis is indifferent to the details, e.g., where the host system is located, how the host system works, who or what created and/or controls the host system, and in what respects the simulation resembles the higher reality containing it. But in any case, there must be an ultimate all-inclusive reality or "ontic ground state" that contains and supports whatever reality-simulations may exist, and it is natural to ask whether some aspects of the simulation concept may apply to it. The Reality Self-Simulation Principle states that ultimate reality is itself a natural reflexive self-simulation in which all intelligible levels of reality must exist whether simulated or not. Where ultimate reality is a global self-identification operator configured as the CTMU Metaformal System (Langan, 2018), i.e., the identity-language of intelligible reality, the Reality Self-Simulation (RSS) can be identified with the Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe (CTMU; Langan, 2002), which thus describes reality as a self-simulating identity operator R*:Rint|Rext and details its structure and dynamics, showing that it possesses its own universal form of consciousness (coherent self -identification and self-modeling capacity), an unbreakable quantum ontology, and a new paradigm for self-organization and emergence.
Abstract: The Simulation Hypothesis is the widely discussed conjecture that we inhabit a directly experienced but nevertheless artificial reality which, while supporting human consciousness and perception, is produced and displayed by a host system occupying a higher-level reality unseen from below. Reality is thus implicitly defined to have at least two levels, the one in which we seem to exist, and another associated with the host system. As the term "reality" is undefined beyond this hypothetical relationship, the Simulation Hypothesis is indifferent to the details, e.g., where the host system is located, how the host system works, who or what created and/or controls the host system, and in what respects the simulation resembles the higher reality containing it. But in any case, there must be an ultimate all-inclusive reality or "ontic ground state" that contains and supports whatever reality-simulations may exist, and it is natural to ask whether some aspects of the simulation concept may apply to it. The Reality Self-Simulation Principle states that ultimate reality is itself a natural reflexive self-simulation in which all intelligible levels of reality must exist whether simulated or not. Where ultimate reality is a global self-identification operator configured as the CTMU Metaformal System (Langan, 2018), i.e., the identity-language of intelligible reality, the Reality Self-Simulation (RSS) can be identified with the Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe (CTMU; Langan, 2002), which thus describes reality as a self-simulating identity operator R*:Rint|Rext and details its structure and dynamics, showing that it possesses its own universal form of consciousness (coherent self -identification and self-modeling capacity), an unbreakable quantum ontology, and a new paradigm for self-organization and emergence.
- GenresPhilosophyNonfiction
70 pages, Paperback
First published May 6, 2020
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52 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Michael Langan
11 books94 followersChristopher Michael Langan is a noted independant researcher and reality theorist whose extraordinary intellect has not prevented him from living a rough, unsheltered, and excitling life. He is best known for his groundbreaking theory of reality, the Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe (CTMU).
Challenged from early childhood by extreme poverty and inadequate schooling, after working as a cowboy, firefighter, construction worker, and bar bouncer in various nightclubs throughout the New York metropolitan area, he came to the attention of the media in 1999 for combining one of the world's highest IQs (estimated ~195-210) with limited formal education. He was described by some journalists as "the smartest man in America" or "in the world".
Having conducted original investigations in the fields including logic, mathematics, physics, cosmology, biology, philosophy, language theory, theology, economics, and the cognitive sciences, he has contributed articles on such topics to a number of scholarly journals and alternative intellectuals perdiodicals.
Challenged from early childhood by extreme poverty and inadequate schooling, after working as a cowboy, firefighter, construction worker, and bar bouncer in various nightclubs throughout the New York metropolitan area, he came to the attention of the media in 1999 for combining one of the world's highest IQs (estimated ~195-210) with limited formal education. He was described by some journalists as "the smartest man in America" or "in the world".
Having conducted original investigations in the fields including logic, mathematics, physics, cosmology, biology, philosophy, language theory, theology, economics, and the cognitive sciences, he has contributed articles on such topics to a number of scholarly journals and alternative intellectuals perdiodicals.
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January 5, 2025So the basic idea is that reality is a self modelling, self processing, self simulation computed by operations performed on a formal language which (spoiler!) is reality itself... it was like reading Kant, but the terms are formalised, and all the concepts are couched in the language of computation.
June 5, 2025
The author's biography says "independant." This should be fixed...
I found the argument for why the universe is profoundly teleological to be compelling and introduction of the concept "syndiffeonesis" to be fascinating.
I found the argument for why the universe is profoundly teleological to be compelling and introduction of the concept "syndiffeonesis" to be fascinating.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews