Rewind
From Simulism
Contents |
[edit] Introduction
In simulations, it is not difficult to add functionality that allows 'rewinding' the simulation. This would mean that the current course of events is erased up to some point in the past, and a part of the simulation is re-executed.
[edit] How it could work
In most computer games, the player can save the game at a time of his choosing, and later play the game from the exact moment that the game was saved. For a simulation, this concept can be applied as well. This would take storing the entire state of the simulation. Depending on the complexity of the simulation, this may take a lot of disk space.
If storing the state would be trivial and not time-consuming, an alternative to 'save games' would be to record the state of the simulation at all times, so that one could rewind to an arbitrary point in the past of the simulation.
[edit] Why would one rewind the simulation?
[edit] Closer study
One reason for rewinding the simulation might be to replay some event to be able to study it more closely. By simply rewinding and starting again at some point, the person running the simulation could study the details more closely.
[edit] Alter the course of events
Another reason for rewinding the simulation might be to 'change history'. If anything goes wrong, or if anything happens that the creator does not want to happen he can rewind the simulation. An example might be that someone finds proof that the world is a simulation. The creator may not want that and rewind the simulation. One implication of this is that it may never be possible to prove Simulism, if the creator of the simulation does not allow this. (This wiki may have contained proof already, but at that point someone pressed the rewind button).
There is one important thing to consider when thinking about altering the course of events. If the simulation has common laws of physics that adhere to 'cause and effect' (as the one we are in), then rewinding the Simulation to a previous point in time and restarting it from there, will just mean that the same course of events will happen all over again. To actually change something, Intervention is needed. Either by doing something different in the re-run (this would mean the creator of the Simulation is actively taking part in the Simulation, as a kind of 'player'), or by changing some of the state of the Simulation before starting again. This might be difficult, as the state changes must be done in such a way that the history of the simulation until that point would still have to appear to adhere to the 'cause and effect' rules.
[edit] How is rewinding different from Time Travel?
The concept is similar. Time Travel is a concept applied to a character in the simulation, whereas rewinding is applied to the simulation as a whole. Both concepts are closely connected however. If Time Travel is done in such a way that the course of events from the point where the traveller 'lands' onwards is different from the original course, the entire Simulation may have been rewound.
