So where does this leave us? Good question. Although in principle it’s possible to simulate anything in a sufficiently powerful digital computer, there’s one inescapable difference between being simulated and being real. If we’re real, we just exist. If we’re simulated, we exist only so long as the simulation runs. And since, presumably, the simulation will run only so long as whoever is running it finds it useful or interesting, if we’re living in a simulation, it behooves us to be interesting.

Fortunately, that’s something we’re pretty good at. Which has a bright side. Being a bourgeois, classically liberal kind of guy, I mostly wish that people would just get along, treat each other well and live in peace. And this seems like it would be pretty good though it also seems kind of unattainable given human history. But maybe that unattainability provides a clue in itself.

Because the thing is, if we’re living in a simulation that’s there for entertainment purposes, living in peace and harmony would also be fatal. People getting along and treating each other well are boring. And if we’re boring, the most likely result would be that whoever is running the simulation would shut it down, leading to the end of the world, at least as we know it.