Relativity of reality

In the context of simulated reality, people face the difficulty to tell the world we are living in is virtual or real. Such a confusion leads people to investigate the possibility that we are living in a simulation (simulation argument). For example, Nick Bostrom argued about the simulation hypothesis based on the premise of sufficiently advanced technology . Physicist Frank J. Tipler envisaged a similar scenario to Nick Bostrom's argument but based on a physically required cosmological scenario in the far future of the universe (called ) . In this context, Bin-Guang Ma has suggested the "Relativity of reality" in his article , which can be summarized as the following.
Relativity of reality
As to the question: whether are we living in a simulated reality or a 'real' one, the answer may be 'indistinguishable', in principle. This is something about the 'relativity of reality'. Recall the relativity principle in physics, which is mainly about the relativity of motion, stating that the motion has no absolute meaning. To say if something is in motion or rest, one must take some reference frame. Without a reference frame, one cannot tell the state of being in rest or in uniform motion. Similar thing happens here for reality, meaning that without a reference world, one cannot tell the world one is living in is real or a simulated one. Therefore, there is no absolute meaning for reality. The principle of relativity of reality is a generalization of the principle in special relativity or general relativity, and may be called 'super general relativity' principle, or 'super relativity' principle for short. Similar to the situation in special relativity or general relativity, there are also two fundamental principles here for the relativity of reality.

# All worlds are the same real.
# Simulated events and simulating events coexist.

The first principle says that the reality is relative and thus viewpoint (observer) dependent. For a world, one calls it reality or virtuality depends on whether one lives in it: one calls the world one lives in reality, and other worlds virtuality. For example, if one lives in world A, one calls it reality and another world B virtuality. However if one's consciousness is transferred from world A into world B, then, one shall call world B reality and world A virtuality. The first principle (maybe called 'same real principle') is a strong proposition, stating that all worlds are equal in being reality, even for partially simulated worlds. Even in a partially simulated world, if there are living beings, they feel the same level of reality just as what we feel here. Therefore, there is no absolutely real world just as there is no absolutely resting system. In this context, the question of "whether are we living in a simulated reality or a 'real' one" is meaningless, because they are indistinguishable in principle. 'same real principle' doesn't mean that we cannot differentiate a concrete computer simulation from our own world, since when we are talking about a computer simulation, we already have a reference world (the world we are in). With a reference world, the other one is of course differentiatable. The reference world can be a sub-world (the world simulated by a simulator in the current world) or a super-world (the world in which there is a simulator simulating the current world).
The second principle states a fact, maybe called 'coexistence principle'. Nowadays, there are mainly two kinds of simulators available: computers and human brains. For computers, suppose there is a glinting ball in the simulated world by a computer, the counterpart of it in the simulating world is the combination of zeros and ones (high and low electrical levels) of the running computer's circuits. In fact, for anything in the simulated world, there is its counterpart (combination of high and low electrical levels of the running computer's circuits) in the simulating world. For human brains, suppose there is an apple in someone's imagination, the counterpart of it in the material world is the biochemical reactions in one's brain. In fact, for anything in one's imagination, there is its counterpart (biochemical reactions, for example) in the material world. In sum, simulated events and simulating events coexist. The second principle says "simulated events and simulating events coexist", which doesn't mean that simulated events and simulating events exist in the same form. Actually, they can be quite different in existence form. Taking the above-mentioned apple in someone's imagination as an example, its existing form in the simulated world is a apple, while the existing form of its counterpart in the simulating world is biochemical reactions in someone's brain.

The above two principles about simulation relationship (the relationship between simulating and simulated) unify the three kinds of worlds: the material world (where we are), the mind world (imagination, dreaming), and the world in computer simulation. In the context of nested simulations, a vertical structure of multiverse is implicated. Based on the above two principles, a physics theory depicting such a mixed (simulating and simulated) reality may be explored, which is beyond the normal level of a physics theory and may be called "super physics" (or traditionally, metaphysics). Some preliminary ideas in this direction can be found in the above-cited article.
Interreality physics
In the context of mixed reality, a 'physical' system may be defined across two or even more realities. Physics theories might be developed to describe such a interreality system , which may be called 'interreality physics'. In the above-cited Bin-Guang Ma's article, the space-time transformation between two across-reality bodies (one is in real world and the other is in virtual world) was supposed, which is an example of interreality system. However, no experiment has been conducted by that author. The first 'interreality physics' experiment may be the one conducted by V. Gintautas and A. W. Hubler, which was published in a 2007 Physics review E paper . In that experiment, a mixed-reality correlation was indeed observed between two pendula (one is real and the other is virtual). 'Interreality physics' depicts a physical system across realities and thus it is some kind of 'super physics', above the normal level of a physics theory.
Generalization of relativity principle
Certain principles of relativity have been widely assumed in most scientific disciplines. One of the most widespread is the belief that physical laws of nature should be the same regardless of the observer measuring them. Actually, the relativity principles in physics can be discussed in terms of 'phenomenon' and 'law'. In the case of Galilean relativity, two observers with a non-zero relative speed may have different opinions on some kinetic phenomenon, for example, the speed of an object; one observer may see it stationary (if that object is resting in his local reference system), while the other observer see it moving; but the mechanical laws (particularly Newton laws) are invariant between them. In the case of special relativity, two observers with a non-zero relative speed may disagree about the simultaneity of something happening (see Relativity of simultaneity), but they will agree about the same electrodynamics laws (also the Newton mechanics laws as an approximation of the special relativity mechanics). In the case of general relativity, the physical laws are invariant even in noninertial reference frames (two observers with a non-zero relative acceleration) if a gravity field is properly assumed, but the phenomena seen from the two observers can be quite different (see general relativity effects). In all the above cases, the observed phenomena change while the physical laws keep invariant, because physical laws are by nature more fundamental than phenomena. However, in the context of simulated reality, where physical laws themselves become programmable, meaning that they are also phenomenal (being equal with phenomena) when a proper viewpoint (observer) is selected. In such a sense, there is no absolute distinction between what is called phenomenon and what is called law (metaphorically, it's a reflection of the symmetry (no distinction) between a computer program's code and data). Super principle of relativity is about the relativity of reality, which claims that all the worlds are equal in being reality, but not necessarily keep to the same physical laws. Super principle of relativity shows the symmetry between 'law' and 'phenomenon', associated with the conservation of existence. In sum, being existent is more fundamental than physical law.

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