If Someone Can, They Will

Okay, so it may be possible to create a universe inside a computer. But would it be moral? Humans are complex beings with feelings and relationships. Mightn’t there be something wrong in creating a whole fake world of them? Wouldn’t the responsibility for every action in that universe fall on our shoulders, and wouldn’t it be too much for us to bear?

Maybe. But that doesn’t matter. Because to some people, the idea of running a simulation would just be too tempting. And even if, for whatever reason, history simulators were illegal, it would just take a single person to run one and create our reality. It would take just one person, who’d consider the matter no more significant than a game of The Sims.

People may also have good reasons for creating such simulators, beyond just entertainment. Humanity could be facing death, forcing scientists to create our world as a massive diagnostic test. The simulation would help them find what went wrong with their real world and figure out how to save themselves.