I think your summary of the question conflates a couple very different things. One of those things is the possibility of a simulation like the matrix, where you could attach computer IO to a human brain with the brain unable to tell the difference. But "we are living in a simulation" requires that technology be possible, and it also requires that at some point everyone did that, and they never left, and that something in the real world causes all their offspring to get wired in young enough that we don't notice it happening at any point in the process of pregnancy, birth, and infancy.
I don't see any reason to assume it's entirely impossible to make a computer system that provides brain IO indistinguishable from the real world. It'd obviously be very far beyond us, but it seems possible that a sufficiently advanced computer could manage it. But accepting that doesn't mean I have to accept that enough people did it to establish a population, they did so permanently, they forced it on their offspring (conceived both in the real world and simulation), and they never told anyone or left clear signs in the simulated world.
Alternatively it could assume that we are ourselves simulated, just programs unaware that we're programs. But that leaves many of the same questions (who did it, why keep it going forever, etc). We currently could dedicate all of humanity's exaflops of computing power to Monte Carlo simulations of Snakes and Ladders, but why? I don't think there's any reason to step from "theoretically it's possible" to assuming any amount of likelihood.
Comments
I think your summary of the question conflates a couple very different things. One of those things is the possibility of a simulation like the matrix, where you could attach computer IO to a human brain with the brain unable to tell the difference. But "we are living in a simulation" requires that technology be possible, and it also requires that at some point everyone did that, and they never left, and that something in the real world causes all their offspring to get wired in young enough that we don't notice it happening at any point in the process of pregnancy, birth, and infancy.
I don't see any reason to assume it's entirely impossible to make a computer system that provides brain IO indistinguishable from the real world. It'd obviously be very far beyond us, but it seems possible that a sufficiently advanced computer could manage it. But accepting that doesn't mean I have to accept that enough people did it to establish a population, they did so permanently, they forced it on their offspring (conceived both in the real world and simulation), and they never told anyone or left clear signs in the simulated world.
Alternatively it could assume that we are ourselves simulated, just programs unaware that we're programs. But that leaves many of the same questions (who did it, why keep it going forever, etc). We currently could dedicate all of humanity's exaflops of computing power to Monte Carlo simulations of Snakes and Ladders, but why? I don't think there's any reason to step from "theoretically it's possible" to assuming any amount of likelihood.