Recursiondo we live in a simulation?
The simulation argument is a serious philosophical argument, but there is no evidence for it. The real research behind the Cosmos Era ending “Recursion”.
Do we live in a simulation? Nick Bostrom's simulation argument, published in 2003, is a serious philosophical argument, and in 2012 physicists proposed a way to test whether the universe is being computed on a lattice. But there is no evidence at all that we actually live in a simulation. The game's ending “Recursion” takes the idea one level further: the civilizations inside the simulation run simulations too.
This page first explains how to unlock the ending, then covers the real science behind the two nodes “Video games” and “Recursion”, and then the theory of computation and information, which any "simulation" depends on.
How to unlock it
- Hint: Civilizations inside a simulation make games too.
- Condition: First witness the ending “All the planets”. Then unlock “Video games” and “Recursion”, and witness the end of the universe.
- Reward: The interface gets an extra "nesting doll" border.
The ending belongs to the Information category.
Two dates in the simulation argument
- 2003: Bostrom's simulation argument is a serious philosophical argument, not science-fiction imagination.
- 2012: Physicists proposed a way to test whether the universe is being computed on a lattice. In other words, the question is not only philosophy, because someone has proposed a way to test it.
The real background of the two nodes
- Video games: In 1962, students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wrote Spacewar!, in which two ships shoot at each other in the gravity of a star.
- Recursion: Civilizations inside a simulation can run simulations too. Bostrom pointed out that simulations can nest layer within layer, with the computing power discounted at every layer. The question the game's “Recursion” node asks is: have you played a game called "Cosmos Era"?
What a simulation needs: computation and information
Any talk of simulation leads back to the theory of computation and information, and the foundational work is all here.
- Computability: Alan Turing imagined an abstract machine that defined what "computation" is, laying the theoretical foundation of modern computers (Turing, Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, 1936).
- Information theory: Claude Shannon turned "information" into a measurable quantity, and the bit was born (Shannon, Bell System Technical Journal, 1948).
- The transistor: A single piece of semiconductor can amplify a signal. It replaced the vacuum tube and shrank the computer from the size of a room to something that fits in a pocket (Bardeen and Brattain, Physical Review, 1948).
- The World Wide Web: An internal proposal that the boss annotated "Vague but exciting" later became the World Wide Web (Berners-Lee, CERN, 1989).
All of these are related real research. They show how humans built, step by step, machines that can "simulate" things. They are not evidence that the universe is a simulation.
How complete can a simulation be?
Liu Cixin's Mirror (2004) is about a superstring computer that simulates the entire universe from the Big Bang onward, so the mirror shows everything in the past and the future, and no secret can stay hidden. Its scientific background is this: a complete simulation of the universe would need more information than the universe itself can hold, limited by the Bekenstein bound.
Daniel F. Galouye's Simulacron-3 (1964) is about an engineer who builds a virtual city for market research. Its inhabitants believe they are real people, and then he begins to suspect that his own world is not real either. Its scientific background is this: in 2003 Bostrom turned the question into a formal philosophical argument.
The end of the universe
The fate of the universe trillions of years from now and beyond: stars burn out, protons may decay, and black holes eventually evaporate (Adams and Laughlin, Reviews of Modern Physics, 1997). Unlocking the ending requires witnessing the end of the universe, so this is related background.
Game lore, not real
There is no evidence at all that we actually live in a simulation. The reward is an extra "nesting doll" border on the interface, matching the recursion of "a simulation inside a simulation".
Want to read the originals? Search these titles
- Turing (1936): "On computable numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem"
- Shannon (1948): "A mathematical theory of communication"
- Bardeen and Brattain (1948): "The transistor, a semi-conductor triode"
- Berners-Lee (1989): "Information management: A proposal"
- Adams and Laughlin (1997): "A dying universe: the long-term fate and evolution of astrophysical objects"
Real basis
Bostrom's 2003 simulation argument is a serious philosophical argument; in 2012 physicists proposed ways to test whether the universe is being computed on a lattice.
Video games: In 1962 MIT students wrote Spacewar!: two ships shoot at each other in a star's gravity.
Recursion: A civilization inside a simulation can run simulations too. Bostrom noted that simulations can be nested layer within layer, with computing power discounted at each layer.
Simulacron-3 (Daniel F. Galouye, 1964), the science: Bostrom turned this question into a formal philosophical argument in 2003.
The Mirror (Liu Cixin, 2004), the science: a full simulation of the universe would need more information than the universe can hold, bounded by the Bekenstein limit.
Related research
These studies relate to this topic but are not direct proof of this page.
Computability: Turing imagined an abstract machine that defined what “computation” is, laying the theoretical basis of modern computers.
Source: Turing, Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society 1936, "On computable numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem"
Information theory: Shannon turned “information” into a measurable quantity, and the bit was born.
Source: Shannon, Bell System Technical Journal 1948, "A mathematical theory of communication"
The transistor: One piece of semiconductor can amplify a signal. It replaced vacuum tubes and shrank computers from room-sized to pocket-sized.
Source: Bardeen & Brattain, Physical Review 1948, "The transistor, a semi-conductor triode"
The World Wide Web: An internal proposal, which the boss annotated “vague but exciting.” It later became the World Wide Web.
Source: Berners-Lee, CERN 1989, "Information management: A proposal"
The last chapter of the universe: Worked out the fate of the universe over trillions of years and beyond: stars go out, protons perhaps decay, and black holes finally evaporate.
Source: Adams & Laughlin, Reviews of Modern Physics 1997, "A dying universe: the long-term fate and evolution of astrophysical objects"
Game lore (fictional)
- There is no evidence that we actually live in a simulation.
- Node “Recursion”: Have you ever played a game called “Cosmos Era”?
- Summary of the novel Simulacron-3: An engineer builds a virtual city for market research, whose residents think they are real people. Then he begins to doubt his own world.
- Summary of the novel The Mirror: A superstring computer simulates the universe from the Big Bang onward, so the mirror shows everything in the past and future, and no secret can stay hidden.