[zoroaster]

I agree - and why?

My fun answer for this one is that there is a future civilization facing collapse / extinction / "great filter" and they're (humans or AI) running infinite life simulations to try to determine what actions will give them the greatest probability of escape / survival. We're living in one of those simulated worlds. But that's very human / AI centric, and doesn't answer any of the same questions higher up. Maybe they know.

[Pietertje]

Exactly... Now you could argue there is an even more complex civilization running simulations of the simulation-running civilization. But you are creating this ever increasing complexity you cannot get away from. In that aspect it's a bit similar to the Gods hypothesis

[zoroaster]

Very frustrating and you end up with the same problem.

I have some fun thoughts around this problem which is maybe just as a lonely sculptor might sculpt a human-like figure that they can converse with to feel less alone (and from "one" make "two"), maybe a universal consciousness decided to create something & the illusion of "separatedness" (from one, many) in consciousness to feel less alone. Hence make a universe with lots of manifestations of consciousness to observe and interact with one another, and keep any true knowledge of itself a mystery to preserve the illusion.

But that's not a very scientific perspective, and all the questions above still remain.

[prewett]

Science doesn't apply to anything outside the universe (since we cannot observe it), so the question of who/why is a philosophical one. In fact, "why are we here" is one of the functions of religion, although not all attempt to answer it. For instance, the Jewish and Christian answer is we are God's children. But the only way we can know is if whatever is beyond the universe (if anything) communicates with us. Then there is the question of how and what form can such a being communicate with us. Any such communication would, by definition, be super-natural, but once the communication happens (via an experience of some sort or as an artifact) it necessarily becomes part of the natural world, either as part of our neurons that record the experience or as the physical artifact. So we cannot see the super-natural part (which is sort of obvious), and if any such being has communicated with us, we will need some sort of faith to accept it the physical experience/artifact as from the outside, especially if we did not personally receive the communication.

[Euphorbium]

It is either nation state actor trying to breed a defence AI, or a private entity trying to get an edge trading. Those are the most powerful forces I see.

[LegitShady]

they're just making small realities in order to transform text queries into novel graphic artwork, by creating billions of AIs some of which make new art, some of which create conditions for new art to be created, and a simulated space-time to give some base physical references to the ais, all of which is simulated.

Krang inputs 'teletubbies having tea with elon musk in the style of milo manara' and somewhere on deviantart someone makes it and the universe has a reason to be kept going.