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If you believe computing power can be brought to the stage where it is possible to run a simulation of a planet then think about this.
Would a simulated object on that simulated planet know that it was a simulation, or would it just carry out the functions that it's simulation allows ?
A very basic simulation, Conway's Game of Life, follows simple and set rules. The cells have two possible states. Alive or Dead. When the simulation runs depending on the location of individual cells they either multiply or die.
Now take the Game of Life even further, given it's many years old, and apply modern computing principles to a more sophisticated simulation, one run on neural networks. Then ask the question, do the neural networks know they are carrying out a simulation ?
If it is possible that computing power can ever replicate complex organisms in a simulation, we can already simulate the conditions that apply in the laws of physics, then how does an organism know if it is in a simulation ?
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