Simulation scenarios in the Star Trek universe reject solipsism

Abstract

WE RARELY THINK to question the true nature of reality, which seems unambiguous and clear to our senses – a Materialist viewpoint. However, since that which we sense and come to know comes about through a potentially fallible sensory interface, it may well be that the nature of reality is different to that which we perceive, experience, and take as given. Many thinkers have attempted to come to grips with this contentious issue, and a short list includes Plato, Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Mill, Heidegger and many others. The essential questions are: what constitutes reality? Is reality comprised of objective matter and energy that are directly accessible to our mind through our senses? Does this then provide an accurate description of the very quintessence of things rather than their possibly imperfect representation as offered to us through our senses? Or is our perceived reality constructed of abstractions, with thoughts reified as subjective concrete experiences? Several schools of thought have endeavoured to answer these questions, including idealism, existentialism, pragmatism, phenomenology, logical positivism, metaphysical subjectivism, deconstructionism, and post-modernism. Naturally, the very characteristics of the arguments preclude any definitive conclusions, but the increasing realism of 3D high definition television and cinema, videogames, etc. inevitably make us pause, wonder and reconsider. Indeed, it has been speculated that this universe of ours is some form of computer simulation. The possibility of the mind being fooled into believing in a false reality is an old SF trope, as famously depicted in Gunn’s The Joy Makers and more recently in film such as the Wachowski brothers’ The Matrix and Weir’s The Truman Show. Jones et al have posited six hypothetical simulation scenarios – that is, theoretical alternative constructs of simulated reality: physical presence, intercept, avatar, android, infinite regression, and monism. In Star Trek (ST), reality can be altered in two ways: through non-Federation techniques and through Federation holodeck technology. The former may be further subdivided into procedures that deceive the mind and techniques that truly transform the very fabric of reality. Examples of such simulations will be investigated within the ST universe which has depicted almost all of these scenarios. The discussion will then focus on how mind may be duped through the senses and how the possibility of humanity acquiring holodeck technology may have both beneficial and harmful consequences.