Simulation Hypothesis:

If we take the simulation hypothesis seriously, then it would be safe to say that the process of simulating a highly detailed reality would be a resource-intensive endeavor for the simulators.

The core assumption is that our reality is not of supernatural origin and our creators are not of infinite power. That means the simulators must use the resources in their disposal efficiently.

A known efficient way for resource allocation is the price system.

The simulation should bring return on investment to its creators. A simulation that doesn’t generate much economic value is in danger of being shut down.

Our existence in a reality that does generate economic value for the creators is of a greater probability over the one that doesn’t.

Economic Model:

Assuming that the simulation is computational in nature that would mean that information plays a central role in our reality. For the simulated reality to be a worthwhile venture the information that the simulation consists of must hold potential economic value.

Treating the emergent events within the simulation as commodities is a straightforward approach. Emergent events can be defined as any type of information that can be represented as a commodity and traded on simulators’ market.

Economic Activity:

The treatment of emergent events as commodities would generate two basic economic activities:

Event mining: systematically looking for novel events inside the simulation that can be potentially turned into valuable commodities. Only simulations capable of generating diverse events would sustain continued event mining activity. Simulations low on event diversity would be shut down for not generating enough economic value. Event commodity trading: treating events including future events as commodities and trading them on the simulators’ market. The process of complex event formation guarantees the difficulty of prediction of future events for outside observers and makes prediction markets possible.

Simulation Structure:

Information must be defined in order to exist. The ability to define information is a property of consciousness.

We know that self defining information exists within the simulation — our own conscious experience is a self-evident fact.

Self defining information generates objective reality. There is no need to trust any third party to validate the emergence of novel events or interfere with event formation which guarantees the existence of a fair market for event commodity trading.

The self defined objective reality prevents the possibility of running (prior creation) secret simulations that can undermine prediction markets.

Novel event formation by self definition must be efficient in order to make economic sense for the simulators. The degree of consciousness within a particular system can then be measured by the amount of efficient information processing it does.

The economic need for self defined objective reality should be considered as a possible solution for the hard problem (1).

Law Of Efficiency:

Formation of novel events is not spontaneous but governed by law of efficiency.

Efficiency means that the process of defining information must happen as fast as possible while using the least amount of energy and space.

Law of efficiency dictates that there will be no identical event formation as simulating that type of activity would be a waste of resources and make event commodity market obsolete.

Introductory Material:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_Calendar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_effort

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_intelligence

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_automaton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_system

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_complexity_theory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_developmental_biology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy_(order_and_disorder)

Further Reading:

https://www.simulation-argument.com/simulation.html

https://fee.org/articles/economics-and-the-calculation-problem/

http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/digitalphysics.html

http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Integrated_information_theory

https://accelerating.org/articles/transcensionhypothesis.html

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/neutral-monism/

References: