Why Reality CANNOT Be A Simulation - A Clear Answer

• Reality cannot be a simulation: The claim that reality cannot be a simulation is explored, criticizing the popular trend of speculating about reality being a computer simulation or virtual reality. The suggestion is made that it is possible to definitely know that reality is not a computer simulation.
• Flaws in the simulation theory: It is argued that the simulation theory is flawed as it fails to address what reality, the supposed simulation, is made of or where it is happening. Similar to theism, where God is posited as the origin of reality, simulation theory shifts the substance of reality problem back one level by suggesting its creation by a computer. Such theories have been backed by people like Elon Musk and considered by researchers around the world due to the advent of high-quality virtual reality and video games.
• Emphasis on the substance of reality: The idea that an alien advanced civilization might have created such simulations is also addressed. However, these theories do not solve the problem of the substance of reality, i.e., what the computer and the virtual reality are made of.
• Virtual Reality and consciousness: The argument is made that simulations do not answer what the simulation itself or the machine it is housed in is made of. It is questioned how the computer creates the simulation and what its elements are made of. The idea of a physical reality is rejected; instead, it is asserted that the reality is 'infinite consciousness' that manifests in experiences and direct interaction with the environment.
• Scientific community and the simulation theory: There is criticism of the scientific community and academia for subscribing to the simulation theory. Leo argues that they lack the ability to think metaphysically about these topics, which leads to flawed and misguided interpretations of reality.
• Materialism and simulation theory: Leo criticizes the materialistic view, which sees the world as composed of matter or physical objects, such as atoms and energy, and says that the simulation theory is an exaggerated version of this perspective. Even concepts such as The Matrix movies, which were a big cultural phenomenon due to the rise of the Internet and the future possibilities of AI, are criticized for propagating a flawed understanding of metaphysics.
• Rejection of a digital future: The video discards preconceptions about a digital future where individuals might become engrossed in an indistinguishable virtual reality. It emphasizes that reality is about what individuals experience and the consciousness they derive from those experiences, rather than physical or virtual realities.
• Misunderstanding of Consciousness by Simulation Theory: According to Leo Gura, simulation theory fails to grapple effectively with the metaphysical question of substance - the stuff anything is made of, whether it be a cat, dog, video game or computer. Simulation theorists mistakenly couch one thing within another, in an infinite nesting similar to the Hindu analogy of the earth being supported by elephants resting on a tortoise. This act of dodging the question doesn’t solve the problem of what reality is made of. They often fall back on known familiar substances, like computers. Ultimately, it's simpler to say the earth requires no external support.
• The concept of 'Turtles all the way down': This Hindu concept further illustrates the fallacy of locating one substance within another ad infinitum, complicating the existential mystery unnecessarily.
• The Limitations of Materialist View: Materialists and scientists disengage from metaphysical discussions, preferring tangible speculation or known phenomena, creating a cognitive bias.
• Facing the Substance of Reality: The solution to the problem of substance requires addressing the issue head-on within the realm of direct experience, or consciousness, instead of sidestepping it with theories of external reality governed by mysterious extra-terrestrials, gods or an unseen objective reality.
• Consciousness as the Key to understanding Reality: Leo asserts that direct accessibility to reality through consciousness is a major refutation of the principle of simulation theory. He challenges the notion that reality can be concealed within an impeccably simulated world crafted by super-intelligent aliens, where humans remain obliviously ensnared. He suggests that consciousness as the grounding substrate itself generates the perception of all conjectures and things, like atoms, energy, mathematics, the physical world, etc., reversing the cause-effect relationship currently professed by scientific thought, thus revealing that the allegories of an external objective reality, aliens, simulations, gods and the like are mere imaginations of consciousness.
• Reality of Consciousness: Leo suggests that if one can become fully conscious of what’s here in the present moment, they would realize that everything being experienced is exactly what reality is. Consciousness is not a byproduct of brain functions or biological processes but rather the very essence that imagines everything as reality. He emphasizes that achieving full consciousness dissolves the need for an external anchor in the understanding of reality, arriving at the profound revelation that the constituents of reality are imagined through this foundational consciousness.
• Misconception about the nature of reality: Leo Gura criticizes the common belief that physical existences are real while conscious experiences are personal, secondary, and unreal. He argues that reality is actually reversed - qualitative experiences such as feelings and emotions are real, directly interfaced without mediation via sensory organs.
• How the mind perceives reality: Gura explains how the ego and human psyche struggle with admitting that reality is made of pure consciousness, as this threatens their sense of stability and grounding. The human psyche constantly constructs reality in a way that conceals its own construction, enabling us to regard it as reality instead of product of imagination or consciousness.
• Mind's resistance to understanding reality: The difficulty in comprehending reality lies not in the lack of scientific or mathematical knowledge, but in the mind's resistance to understanding, due to the distressing realization that commonly held beliefs about reality are ungrounded. This notion provokes fear, prompting people, including scientists, to hold firm to their presumptions of reality.
• Redefinition of objectivity: Gura challenges the notion of objectivity upheld by many scientists, who believe they can stand outside of reality to analyze it neutrally. He argues that there is no exclusive objective reality; instead, what is regarded as objective is a construct of consciousness. Science, mathematics, atoms, energy - all these are elements within consciousness.
• Consciousness as reality: Reality, according to Gura, is not separate from consciousness; instead, you are intimately part of reality, and reality forms part of your consciousness - a union negating the possibility of an external viewpoint on reality.
• Interconnection of elements in reality: Material items, processes, and concepts, including human history and the brain, exist within consciousness, not independent of it. Gura refutes the notion that the brain is the hosting site of consciousness, insisting instead that the reverse is true - the brain is an occurrence within consciousness.
• Existential impossibility: Gura reasons that stepping outside of reality is an impossibility. He emphasizes that the very fabric of reality consists of multiple elements like reasoning, thinking, and communication - all interwoven within consciousness - making an external viewpoint nonviable.
• Identification of consciousness: Though the exact nature of consciousness has been subject to millennia of philosophical inquiry, Gura asserts that consciousness is understood via conscious awareness - becoming fully aware of one's consciousness. He derides the possibility of learning about consciousness externally, for instance, through textbooks, as these are mere manifestations within consciousness, incapable of defining consciousness itself.
• Immediate acquaintance with consciousness: Gura encourages direct subjective experience of the 'here and now' as the means to comprehend the nature of reality. He discourages the speculative or conceptual approach and focuses on the experiential, suggesting that grounding in immediate experience demystifies consciousness.
• Imagined Distinctions Construct Reality: Gura explains that reality and consciousness are not derived from tangible elements such as atoms or stardust but rather from the distinction of these elements. This highlights our ability to differentiate and categorize items around us, which we perceive as reality. Stardust and atoms, for instance, are considered distinct concepts within our consciousness.
• Critique of Simulation Theory: Gura quashes the hypothesis of simulation theory due to its lack of understanding on what consciousness is. From this perspective, simulation theory divides reality into two sides: the simulated world and the non-simulated world. Gura counters this argument stating that this bifurcation of simulation and non-simulation fails to recognize the interconnectedness between the two entities.
• Wrongful Segmentation of Reality: Gura argues against the idea that different components of reality are made of various substances. He views our reality as a product of distinctions imagined by our consciousness, rather than separate tangible elements like carbon, water, or silicon. There is only one singular consciousness according to Gura, that possesses the ability to draw distinctions that construct our reality.
• Interplay of Real and Virtual Worlds: Gura criticizes the differentiation made between real reality and virtual reality, stating their existence as a distinction we create. He presents a radical notion, claiming that Mario within the game world is just as real as our physical bodies and made of the exact same 'thing' - consciousness. He recognizes that these statements disrupt the boundaries between reality and fantasy, challenging our predisposition towards distinguishing between reality and unreality.
• Merger of Sanity and Insanity: As Gura blurs the line between fantasy and reality, he additionally collapses the distinction between sanity and insanity. He challenges preconceived notions of the distinction between 'good' citizens and 'bad' terrorists or the difference between science and myths. These differences, he argues, are just products of our imagination.
• Call for Self-Reflection: Through his examples, Gura presses listeners to challenge their biases and the distinctions they make to define their reality. He suggests that these biases and complements are potentially leading us to misunderstand the fabric of our world - consciousness.
• Identification with Rational and Evidence-Based Personhood: Leo Gura discusses the existential crisis many people face when they are faced with the potential that their rational, evidence-based beliefs, including scientific ones, could be illusions or fairy tales. People often create narratives defending their beliefs when faced with this possibility.
• Distinction Between Fantasy and Reality: Gura mentions that people often mistake their imagined realities for true reality because they have formed complex stories in their minds filled with such distinctions.
• Limitations of our Consciousness: He notes that our current states of consciousness limit our comprehension of distinctions. For example, from our perspective, a brick wall and a unicorn are distinct because we perceive that the wall is tangible, while a unicorn is an imaginary creation. According to Gura, this distinction only exists if we believe it to be true.
• Understanding Consciousness and Distinctions: Gura believes that consciousness is an absolute substance from which all distinctions are created. This understanding requires us to become conscious of what a distinction is and what consciousness actually is. He asserts that these two elements are made of nothingness, which is not the absence of something but the realization that all perceived realities are merely imagined distinctions within the vastness of consciousness.
• Goal to Understand Reality: Gura emphasizes that the key to understanding reality lies in becoming directly conscious of the distinctions we believe and perceive. He suggests that by looking carefully at our own experiences, we can understand how erroneous distinctions between reality and fantasy are formed.
• Rejection of Simulation Theory: Gura criticizes the simulation theory for positing two separate substances: the virtual world and the physical real world. He believes there is only one substance, absolute nothingness, which he concludes is the true nature of reality. He encourages the viewer to consider the possibility that there may not be anything real unless they imagine it to be real.
• Paradoxical Nature of Reality: Gura characterizes reality as paradoxical and says it is a feature of reality, not a bug. He asserts that the materialistic paradigm of atoms, molecules, and external realities is also a part of this imagined reality.
• Embrace of the Absurd: In this section of the video, Gura lays bare the absurdity of our understandings of reality and challenges his viewers to look beyond their currently held beliefs and to consider his radically different perspective on the nature of consciousness and reality.
• Assertion of the primacy of consciousness: Leo argues that everything - from realities, brains to science - are aspects of consciousness, stating that consciousness is the most fundamental substance of existance. He emphasizes that all distinctions or characterizations we create arise from consciousness, therefore consciousness precedes the ability to say anything about anything.
• Critique of relying on external constructs to understand reality: Leo criticizes the tendency to believe that the present moment relies on external constructs like atoms, molecules, history of the universe, big bangs, multiverses, and mathematics, asserting instead that the present moment doesn't depend on these constructs. He suggests that we mistakenly create these fantasies when in fact, everything exists here in the present moment and this present moment is essentially "nothing".
• Argument against the possibility of ever living in virtual realities: Leo argues that even if we are able to create flawless virtual worlds, it will always be within the realm of consciousness (as are computers and their virtual worlds). He contends that regardless of how many such virtual worlds are nested within one another, an individual could always be able to "break out" and awaken to realize their true nature as consciousness.
• Emphasizing the interconnectedness of all realities through consciousness: Leo explains that while it's easy to become lost in different manifestations, or 'forms', of consciousness, it's always possible to break free because everything is interconnected and made up of the singular substance of consciousness. He argues that a sufficiently deep awakening can provide the realization that one is an embodiment of infinite consciousness itself.
• Relativity of virtual and real worlds: Leo suggests that the distinction between virtual and real worlds is somewhat arbitrary, and that they are both expressions of the same consciousness. He argues that even if one grows up completely immersed and lost within a virtual world, they wouldn't be permanently deceived by the illusion because there isn't a fundamental distinction separating the two world types.
• Contending the finite nature of consciousness and reality: Leo asserts that consciousness, and thus reality, is infinite. Conversely, he refutes the idea that there could be an infinite nesting of realities or simulations. Leo concludes that reaching a state of absolute consciousness enables an individual to cut through the illusion and understand reality, definitively ascertaining that reality could not be a simulation.
• Invitation to realize infinite consciousness: Ending this transcript section, Leo invites the viewer to work towards realizing the infinite nature of their own consciousness, offering his future guidance in achieving this level of understanding. He reaffirms the argument that no level of technology or simulation can trap or delude an individual who has become fully conscious and understood reality.
• Discussion on meditation, yoga, and psychedelics: Leo Gura explains that he will continue to share more about these topics in future episodes, including new psychedelics that can be used to catalyze the awakening process.
• Critique of science's dissociation from consciousness: According to Gura, a shortcoming of science is its disconnection from consciousness. It attempts to be excessively objective, missing the absolute nature of pure empty subjectivity.
• Challenge to skepticism and demands for proof: Gura argues against skeptics who request proof of his assertions. He states that proof is a secondary notion occurring within consciousness, making it insufficient for proving the nature of consciousness itself, which is absolute nothingness.
• The necessity to understand and be conscious of consciousness: According to Gura, understanding consciousness requires awakening and realization, and this understanding cannot be provided by external entities. He discourages seeking evidence or argumentation because consciousness can only be recognized directly, nothing external can convince one to recognize it.
• The importance of right actions to deepen understanding: Gura encourages viewers to start practices such as meditation and yoga, and recommends reading books from his curated list to deepen their understanding of consciousness.
• The power of right books and reading: Gura emphasizes that reading the right books can set one up for life by providing a deep and profound understanding of self and the world. He insists that the quality of books one reads is more important than the quantity.
• The value of deep understanding of life: Gura outlines that a deep understanding of life, obtained through a decade of serious study and contemplation, can bring about profound changes in a person's life. This understanding can be applied universally to all aspects of life, leading to practical wisdom.
• Criticism of traditional philosophy: Gura criticizes traditional philosophy taught in universities, describing it as mental masturbation. He emphasizes the importance of practical philosophy, which he associates with real wisdom and spiritual awakening.
• Association of philosophy with love of wisdom: Gura concludes that real philosophy is euqivalent to the love of wisdom, and asserts that philosophy and spirituality, when done correctly, are identical. He expresses his intent to share more of this philosophy in future discussions.