Am I Too Pixelated?

In 2003, Nick Bostrom published his highly influential “Simulation Argument” in Philosophical Quarterly(Bostrom, 2003), an idea taken so seriously that even Bank of America has sent out alerts to its clients. But what, exactly, would that mean? And, more importantly, why is the idea of a simulated universe not being pursued in regard to cancer—and every other disease? We understand, in magnificently precise, granular ways, exactly what is going wrong in the body. But do we understand, in a coarser way, what the granules are made of? In a holographic universe, the images we perceive are not necessarily what they appear to be; they might exist against a background. But the background would create a context that participates in the image that emerges. Green can be rendered as green. Or as “blue yellow blue” or “yellow blue yellow.” Perhaps the act of rendering generates variables that have been overlooked in our understanding of illness: scale and spin.