"The theory that we are living in a computer simulation may sound bizarre, but it has found adherents."

"The technology entrepreneur Elon Musk has said that the odds that we are not simulated are 'one in billions.' Professor Smoot estimates that the ratio of simulated to real people might be as high as 10¹² to 1.... [I]f our universe has been created by an advanced civilization for research purposes, then it is reasonable to assume that it is crucial to the researchers that we don’t find out that we’re in a simulation. If we were to prove that we live inside a simulation, this could cause our creators to terminate the simulation — to destroy our world. Of course, the proposed experiments may not detect anything that suggests we live in a computer simulation. In that case, the results will prove nothing. This is my point: The results of the proposed experiments will be interesting only when they are dangerous."

From "Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? Let’s Not Find Out/Experimental findings will be either boring or extremely dangerous" by philosophy professor Preston Greene (NYT).

Greene overstates his argument. I see the danger. In fact, I see more danger than he does. Whether the higher civilization would destroy us if we caught on to their game or not, knowing that we are only somebody else's simulation would change the meaning of life for us. It would disrupt how we care about ourselves and other people. I think we could still find value in our existence, but it would be different and difficult. What if I'm nothing? Well, I'm still all the me I ever was, so I'll carry on, perhaps more carefree. But what about the next generation and the next?

But where Greene goes wrong, I think, is in undervaluing the knowledge that we don't live in a computer simulation. Once the idea of a simulation is out there and growing, with very smart people saying it's almost certain that we do live in a simulation, it's having an effect on us. It's dispiriting! If the idea catches on and people come to believe it, really believe it, the way masses of humanity believe in God, then what happens to human life? Finding out that the theory is wrong would have a big effect!

Now, I can see that Greene is careful when he says "the proposed experiments may not detect anything that suggests we live in a computer simulation." To fail to detect the simulation is not to prove there is no simulation. But it's some assurance, and that could be quite meaningful to those who've fallen into the Muskosphere and have come to really believe that all of our world is some aliens' computer game. It can stop Muskism from spreading and fostering strange new behavior and nihilism.

And if we're worried, as Greene is, about the effect of the experiment on the "higher civilization," it's not just that if they knew we knew about them, they might destroy us. They're also seeing that we're beginning to figure out what's going on, and if we do an experiment that makes us think the theory is false, the aliens are more likely to keep the experiment going.