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Boston Globe
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
What's it like to believe we live inside a video game?
Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up But even though people who are drawn to the simulation hypothesis frame it as reasoned thinking informed by science and technology, it's remarkably like religion: It is fueled by faith and works only as an allegory. Advertisement That is my main takeaway from Advertisement The title of the book reveals a contradiction in this idea. Start with the term 'hypothesis,' which is misleading. The claim that we are in a simulation is not falsifiable, because any evidence seemingly to the contrary could just be part of the simulation. So it's not a hypothesis in the scientific sense. No one says Christians have a 'Jesus hypothesis.' And indeed, by the end of the title, Virk is past conjecture and expressing belief. The book didn't My interview with Virk has been edited and condensed. How confident are you that we live inside a simulation? When I wrote the first edition of this book, I said it was more than 50 percent. Now I think it's over 70 percent, maybe as high as 80 percent likely that we are inside a video game. Rizwan Virk at a 2017 event for Play Labs, an MIT accelerator program that he founded and ran. MIT How does this shape your worldview? I have to explain what I call the NPC ('non-player character') versus RPG ('role-playing game') flavors of the simulation hypothesis. In the NPC version, everyone is just AI running on a computer, and that's it. As soon as the game is over or it's shut down, that character no longer exists, that world no longer exists. I think when most academics talk about the simulation hypothesis, that's what they're talking about. Advertisement At the other end of the spectrum is the RPG version. This is closer to what was depicted in the movie 'The Matrix.' In that version, you are a player that exists outside of the game, and inside the game you have an avatar or a player character. And that would be us — our avatars would be our bodies inside the simulation. I think you reach very different conclusions depending on where you end up on this axis. In RPG video games, you choose your particular character that you're going to play and you choose a particular storyline. You still are free to make decisions along that storyline that will affect the game. So when something happens in my life that's difficult, like a physical difficulty or financial or other difficulties, I think of it as a kind of quest: 'OK, this is a more difficult quest or achievement. Let me see if I can get through it.' In what other ways does this play out for you? There is this idea in quantum physics of a multiverse, where there are different possibilities and we're trying them out in different universes. There's not a good understanding of exactly how that would work in a physical universe. But in a computational universe, you can think of it as perhaps there's a part of me, the player, that's actually trying out different things. In my life I chose to become an entrepreneur and spent most of my time in Silicon Valley, but I've also had an affinity for more of an academic path. I didn't get a PhD earlier, but that was one of those paths — I felt that there was a version of me that had tried it out and was interested in trying out that path. And so later in life, I have returned to academia as a professor, getting a PhD as well. In a simulated universe, I could try out different possibilities in my life. Advertisement Virk writes that his intuitions about the simulation hypothesis arose from "many different threads of my life." Penguin Random House Then there is the question of how we should play the video game of life and what its purpose is. I don't think we're playing a game like 'Grand Theft Auto,' where your goal is to inflict a bunch of damage on other people. Within the religious and spiritual context, there's this idea that how we treat other people matters. It's one of the core ideas across religions and even in people who've had near-death experiences: that we have to review the deeds of our life and how we affected other people. And with a virtual reality model, there's a technological basis for how that might work. It's called the life review. The life review is a replay, if you will, of the things that we did in our lives. And you're going to have to replay the game from [other people's] point of view — not just see but feel what it was like to be these other people. This changes my perspective on how I treat other people and relationships, because I think that may actually be the bigger point of the game. I am not sure how much you're using video games as a metaphor, and how much you really believe that they describe the essence of reality. Both interpretations would apply to what you just said. Advertisement Well, I think it's a bit of both. I think of the simulation hypothesis as having a few basic underpinnings or assumptions. One is that the universe consists of information. The second is that that information gets rendered in a way that looks real. And then the third is that it's some kind of a hoax or a game, if you think of it from the RPG perspective. I think that's what religious scriptures have done for a long time, saying that the world is like a dream, which was the metaphor that was used in, say, Buddhism and in other religious texts as well. I'm using our technology to describe it. I think it's the best metaphor to date for the underlying nature of reality, because video games are built on computation and information processing, and so is the physical universe. I'm not disagreeing that it's a metaphor, and it's a metaphor that may not be complete, but it's way more complete than anything else that we've come up with. There's a meme going around that anyone who doesn't exhibit much original thought is a mere NPC — an automated, non-player character. Right. Yes. So are we living in a world where some of us are actual characters and other people are just filling the background? What I've come to believe is that it's better to assume everyone is actually a player character or an avatar because that affects how you treat them. And this gets back to my earlier statement about how I don't think we're living in 'Grand Theft Auto.' Advertisement That said, I think we all enter NPC mode. In NPC mode, we are just an AI that has been trained by our life experiences. So if you think of AI today and large language models like ChatGPT, they are a certain type of neural network that's been trained on a certain amount of data. And similarly, we also have a neural network that gets trained on our life experiences and how we've been trained, whether it's from the time we were brought up, it's religious training, or indoctrination within different philosophies and political parties. I think what happens is we get into NPC mode and then we play different roles for different people. So it's possible that other people are playing a role for us in a quest in our lives, but that doesn't mean that we should treat them as expendable. Somebody once said to me, 'I think my husband is an NPC.' I said, 'Well, I don't think that's a healthy attitude. Assume that they have their own set of stories and quests, but maybe they're playing a role for you for certain challenges and for certain adventures that you're having in this life.' Was that person who said that to you a woman? Yeah. That's interesting to me, because I think I've only ever heard the simulation hypothesis espoused by men. Well, I think that was true initially. I'm finding that if you are not just talking about the NPC version, if you're not talking about 'everybody is an AI,' then I find many more women interested in the idea. Here's a worry I have about the simulation idea. If you think all this is probably a video game, then it doesn't seem like a stretch to say, 'It might not be so bad if we destroy the environment by filling every single square foot of earth with a data center, as long as doing so lets us create quintillions of simulated worlds that could be as beautiful and meaningful as ours is.' How can the simulation idea comport with traditions that tell us to take care of creation as the only world we've got? Well, I don't know that the simulation hypothesis is necessarily saying that any worlds that we create are as valuable as this world, because now you're thinking of layers of the simulation. But this gets back to the central issue that I've been talking about, which is the NPC versus RPG version. We're here for a reason: We've chosen to go through what many, many ancient traditions have called the veil of forgetfulness, to be here and to forget that we're players from outside this world. So it doesn't mean we shouldn't enjoy this particular world. And more importantly, it doesn't mean we should destroy this world. In an ongoing role-playing game, others will enter after us, and we have a responsibility to them. Rizwan Virk will be talking about his book before a screening of ' in Brookline on July 28. Brian Bergstein is the editor of the Globe Ideas section. He can be reached at
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
Reena Virk's killer has day parole revoked over positive drug tests, 'negative' behaviour
Canada's parole board has revoked day parole for the woman who killed 14-year-old B.C. teen Reena Virk, following a series of positive drug tests and behaviours the board said represent "an undue risk to society." According to parole documents, Kerry Sim — who was known as Kelly Ellard in 1997 when she killed Virk — first saw her limited release into the community suspended last January when she tested positive for methamphetamine following months of "negative and non-compliant" behaviour. Although she denied using drugs — blaming prescribed medication for what she claimed were false positives — Sim again tested positive for non-prescribed medication in prison in April and later admitted that she "had taken another offender's medication." In a decision issued last month, the Parole Board of Canada told Sim "you present with an anti-social or delinquent value system, that you have an unwillingness to accept responsibility for your own actions and your rebelliousness puts you at a high risk for future delinquent behaviour." "Your behaviour in the community prior to your suspension is inconsistent with what is minimally required or expected on an earned release," the decision says. "You disregarded minimum supervision expectations and when this was addressed with you, you became hostile, argumentative, antagonizing, lacked accountability and deflected blame." 'Antagonizing, threatening and insulting' Sim is serving a life sentence for second-degree murder in the 1997 killing. The decision describes a 42-year-old struggling with children, single-parenting, substance abuse — and the consequences of her actions. The impact of Virk's murder continues to reverberate years after Sim and Warren Glowatski followed the teenager across the Craigflower Bridge and dragged her into Victoria's Gorge waterway following a savage beating by a swarm of teens Virk thought were friends. The case has inspired books, plays, podcast episodes and a recent Hulu true-crime TV series — starring Oscar-nominee Lily Gladstone — based on the 2005 non-fiction book of the same name, Under the Bridge. Sim — who has had a troubled history before the parole board — has long stood in stark contrast to Glowatski, who was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 but sought forgiveness from Virk's parents, meeting with them to express his remorse. Sim stood trial three times for the murder before the Supreme Court of Canada finally upheld her conviction in 2009. She was released on day parole in 2018, but has been hauled back in front of the parole board multiple times for domestic violence and positive urine tests. According to the parole documents, Sim was arrested in 2021 because of a deterioration in behaviour. She returned to a community residential facility in the Lower Mainland in 2023, but was in and out of trouble. Staff described her behaviour as "antagonizing, threatening and insulting." 'An undue risk to society' According to the parole board, Sim was ultimately apprehended at the facility following the positive drug test last January, but would not leave her room, making "vague suicidal comments" and "screaming and kicking" before she was taken into custody. Sim — who is the mother of two young children — has "struggled emotionally" due to her child's behavioural issues, being a single parent and "managing legal custody issues" with her ex-partner. WATCH | Reporter Jason Proctor recounts what it was like to cover the high-profile murder case in 1997: The parole decision says she also voiced safety concerns following the release of the television mini-series. At the time of the series release, the board noted that Sim had "demonstrated some remorse and victim empathy after a discussion about an upcoming television series based on your crimes." "You said the series is disrespectful to the victim and her family, and that the index offence was so horrendous that it would re-victimize the victim's family," the board noted in a previous decision. The parole board noted that Sim has been working as a cleaner since returning to jail and has "demonstrated positive behaviour" but concluded the risk of releasing her was too great. "Despite the time you have had for self-reflection since returning to custody, the board finds you continue to engage in behaviours and thinking that contributed to your suspension," the decision concludes. "You will, by re-offending before the expiration of your sentence, present an undue risk to society."
Vancouver Sun
7 days ago
- Vancouver Sun
Kelly Ellard, who killed B.C. teen Reena Virk in 1997, has parole revoked over drug use
VANCOUVER — Day parole has been revoked for the woman who drowned Victoria teenager Reena Virk 28 years ago. A Parole Board of Canada decision says Kerry Sim, known as Kelly Ellard when she was convicted, breached her conditions to abstain from drugs. The decision says Sim at first adamantly rejected the test result for methamphetamine, and instead argued it was a false positive from her own medication. The board says that Sim, at 42 years old, still has an anti-social and delinquent value system and is unwilling to accept responsibility for her own actions, putting her at high risk for future delinquent behaviour. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. She is a single parent of two children and the decision says she has struggled emotionally due to one child's behavioural issues and she also voiced safety concerns after a TV miniseries documented Virk's murder. Fourteen-year-old Virk had already been badly beaten by a group of teenagers under the Craigflower Bridge before Sim, then 15, drowned her in the nearby Gorge waterway. The swarming attack on Virk and subsequent trials and appeals gained international attention, with the judge saying that Virk was the defenceless victim of a prolonged and brutal attack in which Sim played a central role. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
Calgary Herald
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Calgary Herald
Calgary teens win BMO contest and spend a day at Stampede as news reporters
Article content Both Ovat and Virk said they found out from their parents, who got the calls that the two had won the contest. Article content 'My parents didn't even tell me until like an hour later because they were just (so excited),' Virk said. 'And then the whole day, they threw me a celebration.' Article content Ovat said she was in school when her mom got the call. 'My mom called the school and I called her back and then I celebrated with the office ladies,' she said. Article content Now done for the day, Ovat and Virk will get to go home and take a well-earned nap — earnings to the tune of a $2,500 kickstart into their own registered education savings program account, along with some money for their respective schools. Article content The contest has been running for over a decade and while it's unclear if the winners ever do go on to pursue a career in journalism, Seipp said the program could very well be a child's first introduction to journalism. 'They may not be the finalist that wins, but their interest in all things Stampede evolves,' he said.
Business Recorder
31-05-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
FBR document submission process highlighted
LAHORE: In a recent awareness lecture on withholding tax at the Lahore Tax Bar, Member Inland Revenue Muhammad Mohsin Virk shed light on the process of filing and pursuing cases before the Appellate Tribunal. Virk emphasized the importance of following proper procedures when submitting documents to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). According to Virk, when documents go missing and cases are decided against taxpayers, they often argue for case restoration, claiming that the documents were submitted to the FBR. However, they fail to provide proof of submission in the form of a receipt. He clarified that the only way to ensure proof of document submission is by getting the documents recorded in the FBR's record. He stated, 'If documents are submitted without proper recording, it becomes the taxpayer's responsibility to prove submission.' He stressed that once documents are properly recorded, it becomes the department's responsibility to safely keep them. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
