Thread: Fine-tuning

Are we just a simulation, created by another, smarter civilisation? Are we just a game like The Sims, Age of Empires, or Spore, played by a child?

SimCity, by Maxis, started the trend of games in which the player is like a god. The Sims, also by Maxis, took it a step further, where you could actually control the people and their feelings. Spore, also by Maxis, takes it to a whole new level, presenting the chance to take on a single-celled creature to the conquest for a galaxy. Just a few more games like this, developing further every time, and we could create a rudimentary, small simulated civilisation. A few more centuries, if not decades, and we could go far. Eventually, we will be able to simulate a full universe, like our own. The characters would be fully self-controlled, appear to have feelings and common sense.

Are we one of those simulations?

Our universe shows some evidence of it. For instance -- if some of the constant values were slightly higher or lower, the universe wouldn't be here. Like the strength of the bonds that hold particles together. If they were a smidgeon higher, they'd become unstable. If they were a little lower, the particles wouldn't even be together.

So what do you reckon? Will we wake up, one day, to find a big black sign that flashes "Game Over" on and off? Or is everything just a total and complete coincidence, we just happen to be living in a habitable universe with thousands of fragile constant values just right?