What's the most entertaining way to prove to someone that they aren't real?

Question

Bob is a garage physicist. By some stroke of luck (though Bob would assure you it was his sheer genius), Bob has managed to be the first person to discover that our world just recently became a simulation of itself, and he has managed to gain some rudimentary control over it. He is so excited with this discovery that he wants to share it with his friend Alice. However, Bob is also a prankster. What is the most terrifying entertaining way Bob can prove to Alice without a shadow of a doubt that they're living in a simulated world?

Some clarification:

• Bob has exactly the amount of control you find necessary for your answer. (see other bullets)
• Bob is also very suddenly rich, so flying to a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific for a more... spectacular show is fine.
• The simulation is divided into roughly 20 meter cubic "chunks" which each run on a separate core. The chunk processors are only directly networked to the 6 directly adjacent chunks. Bob currently only knows how to modify the properties of and objects within the chunk he's in. (One idea I'd been playing with for an experiment of theirs after the reveal was modifying the chunk's current timestamp and throwing a paper airplane across one of the faces.)
• Human minds are run in protected memory; they can't be modified or even monitored programmatically. (Sensory buffers, however, are still open.)
• Over the years, Alice has grown to be naturally skeptical of Bob's "discoveries." Your proof must be impossible to explain any other way (beyond, of course, that this is all a dream or things to that effect).

(Sorry if this invalidates some previous answers.)

Answers will be judged based on how complicated the proof is for Bob to set up versus how little Alice can doubt him after the fact.

Answer 1

If Alice is part of the simulation, and Bob can control the simulation, it stands to reason that Bob can control Alice. Now, of course it would be unethical to alter what we might call Alice's soul, but I'd see nothing wrong with changing her perception.

For instance, say Bob takes Alice to hear a symphony. During a particularly intricate piano solo, Bob replaces Alice's perception buffer with that of the pianist (let's call him Chuck). Suddenly, she sees what Chuck sees, feels what Chuck feels, and hears what Chuck hears. Hopefully they're not too close to the stage, because I'd imagine she'd freak out.

But maybe she still doesn't believe Bob. For his next trick, instead of changing Alice's input buffer, he can redirect her output buffer. Suddenly, the conductor (call her Diana) goes into a sitting position, as Alice stands up and starts waving her arms. The two women immediately fall over as each tries to right themselves and instead wrongs the other.

By now, the show is most certainly ruined, so Bob decides to go all out. He runs the input and output buffers of the entire audience through a random number generator, swapping at will. Chuck sees through Diana but moves Edmund. Diana sees through Alice but moves Fanny. Gerald has a tough time as he simultaneously experiences the perceptions of Hilary, Ignatius, and Julia. The concert hall erupts into anarchy as everyone runs in the wrong direction, screaming with foreign lungs and looking though the eyes of strangers.

Then Bob gives Alice his own input buffer, and looks down at her. 'Believe me now?' he asks, and she can feel each word as it escapes his lips. She tries to nod, and somewhere in the third balcony, Kevin bangs his head on the floor.

Answer 2

Giant Rube Golberg Event

This should make use of real life events and coincidences that are nearly impossible to explain. Bob should do this in response to Alice asking him for something - in this example I'll use "Hey, could you get me a coffee?"

A jet airliner falls out of the sky despite all of the engines continuing to work. It crashes a block away in view of Alice's window, sending debris flying everywhere. A separated engine strikes an SUV, causing it to veer and take out a fire hydrant. The column of water (as deflected by the SUV) hits just right to take out a power line, causing the entire office building they're in to lose power. Due to an unforeseen bug, the switch to backup power causes the fire alarms to go off. As they exit the building, they see a man who's car was destroyed in the plane crash arguing with a police officer. His gesticulations cause him to eventually lose control of the coffee in his hand, and it flies out toward Bob and Alice. Bob neatly fields it and hands it to her, promising that it hasn't been touched yet. Despite the wait and that it flew through the air, the coffee is perfect and exactly how Alice likes it.

Further evidence is provided in the fact that despite all of that destruction, no one died or was even seriously injured.

Answer 3

The hardest part is making someone understand that they live in a simulation, is that almost everything you can do can be explained through coincidence, trickery, or even special effects.

But, from my time playing Minecraft, there is one thing that always seemed to evoke that "oh right, I'm in a simulation" feeling.

Prevent an entire chunk from rendering. A 20 meter cubed area of simply nothing rendering, seeing down into the ground, while everything around the chunk continues to work (with people walking into and out of the cube) tends to evoke that "partitioned world" feeling quite well.

This would most likely involve changing the chunk's settings so that it still shows for the rest of the world, or other people would freak out. But the strange thing about extracting a cube over making an object invisible is that it feels very computer-y to do it like that. The whole idea of "object" is a very human feeling; computers deal in geometric areas.

Bonus: this won't damage Alice's psyche as much as most of the other answers :P

Answer 4

This may be a little too obvious, but what about a few demonstrations of inexplicable barroom physics...

Being a "garage physicist" one could assume that Bob enjoys playing pool because there's a good deal of physics involved in the game. Bob decides to invite Alice out for a few games and more than a few drinks.

After they order the first round, Bob offers to pay, but the bartender refuses to take his money. Alice thinks that Bob set it up in advance, but isn't too concerned about the free drinks.

They play their first game, Bob wins, but not through any extraordinary event, he just plays a little better than Alice. Bob begins to rack the balls and offers to let Alice break on the next game.

Alice breaks and inexplicably every ball on the table bounces into a pocket. She immediately assumes that Bob has conspired with the generous bartender and rigged the table. He laughs and assures her that there is no grand conspiracy and offers to rack the balls again.

Alice refuses to let him rack and starts to collect the balls. She takes her time examining each ball and allows them to roll across the table watching for any peculiarities. Bob offers to break, but Alice again refuses.

Alice spots the cue ball and hits it hard, really hard, it flies across the table and bounces off the 1 ball with enough force to send it flying back into a corner pocket, but none of the other balls on the table move at all.

At this point, Alice is fuming, but Bob laughs it off, takes the cue ball in hand and citing the rules of the game places it behind the head string and hits it. The cue ball again flies across the table, but this time only the striped balls bounce into the pockets, leaving the solid balls completely untouched, still in formation.

Alice groans, but being curious at this point, lines up and takes her shot. She hits the cue ball hard out of frustration, but the cue ball crawls across the table slowly. Bob shrugs his shoulders and goes off to get another round. Orders two pints and two shots and returns a good while before the cue ball finishes its trip across the table. When the cue ball finally strikes the 4 ball both of the balls move as if the cue ball had been traveling at a good clip.

Alice drops the pool cue and looks at Bob, fed up, and ready to leave.

Bob stops her before she can say anything "I'll tell you what. Flip a coin. If you win I'll leave you alone, you can go home and tell everyone that I rigged the table. But... If I win you have to take this shot and hear me out."

Alice furrows her brow digs in her pocket and produces a quarter. She pauses for a moment and flips it into the air. "Call It!"

"Neither!"

Sure enough, the quarter bounces onto the table rolls on its edge in a circle around the shot glasses and just stops. Still standing on its edge.

Alice's eyes open wide, and without saying anything, she grabs a shot glass, downs the whiskey, and slams the glass upside down, trapping the still standing quarter.

Bob takes his shot, slowly knocks it back, and starts to explain...

"So... I was messing around in the garage the other day..."

Answer 5

If Bob is THAT excited about this discovery, and wants Alice to know as soon as possible, the most fun solution is also the most simple.

Appear in front of Alice. Immediately. Without any warning. Preferably out of thin air, floating in mid-air, and in a form that cannot possibly be ignored (either a completely flamboyant outfit, or a fantastical creature).

The sudden inexplicable appearance of Bob from thin air would be more than enough proof to Alice that something unusual is going on.

Or, if Bob is feeling particularly lazy, he could just summon Alice to him, preferably when she'd least expect it, and politely explain that he did this by manipulating the simulation that they are in and oh by the way, this is all a simulation.

Putting Alice in an equally flamboyant or embarrassing outfit/form is entirely optional, but additionally fun.

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Edit: With the additional parameters put in, Bob would have to bring Alice to himself, rather than the other way around. I'm not sure if that would be allowed, but if it were, it would still be the most effective way to prove his theory to Alice.

To explain how it is not magic, Bob could simply follow up his initial demonstration with an explanation of the mechanics of the world to Alice - showing her how an individual 'block' can be modified and how. Preferably, by creating something that Alice likes within that block (A well-done steak, a pretty bird, a golden necklace, Alice's crush, anything will do). While she might still think it's 'magic', that's acceptable - we aren't trying to prove that it's technology after all, just that it is a simulation with rules and boundaries, and what Alice decides to call it is irrelevant to this goal.

Answer 6

"If I can't persuade you, Alice, then maybe this guy can?"

In through the door walks a second, identical Bob. Before Alice can speak, he begins,

"If I can't persuade you, Alice, then maybe this guy can?"

A third Bob walks through the door, delivering the same line. Then a fourth walks in...

Shocked, Alice looks out of the door. A row of identical Bobs wave at her. At the far end of the queue, about 20 metres away, a floating arm also waves.

Answer 7

I loved the movie "Bruce Almighty". What if Bob pretends to be God and grants Alice omnipotence for a day, then makes her wishes go all screwy. He could really mess with her mind then. I think this is better than Bob demonstrating the power in himself: it is Alice who needs to manifest the power.

Answer 8

Boy the possibilities are limitless. I mean he could mess everything up pretty bad. Anyway...

1. Bob goes to Alice, rings at her doorbell, Alice opens the door and she finds a Terminator like post apocalyptic world in front of her (she can turn around and find her house perfectly in order), Bob appears from the outer view of Alice (who meanwhile I'm pretty sure is freaking out intensively) on a white, gold plated, armored horse, exclaiming "come with me if you want to live", as she mounts on the horse, they fly high in the sky and the rest is history. They must have some space in memory for Terminator, right?
2. Bob purposes to Alice: "let me give you something", his hand reach the sun, grab it and holds it in front of Alice, no amount of heat changes anywhere, but light does, scaling down as the sun moves from the sky in Bobs' hand. He takes her hand, and puts the sun on her finger, the sun models around it flawlessly, issuing beautiful little flames that do not burn. Pretty hard to explain, considering that in the same time Alice is, let's say, astonished, Bob is surrounded by lawyers claiming he should not keep the kids. Two little kids are also there.
3. Bob and Alice are having a dinner with other friends in a fancy restaurant, Bob pauses the rest of the simulation without stopping himself. At this point starts messing and swapping everything you can imagine: dishes, dresses, windows, doors,floor,ceiling,animalheads,heylookthereisagiantrobotoutside! You got the point. After the confusion, re-pause, all to normal. Only Alice can remember it, in fact is the only one feeling something strange, no one reacts to the changes. This is so R. Lanza: "So while you may think that the kitchen as you remember it was there in your absence, the unquestionable reality is that nothing remotely resembling what you can imagine could be present when a consciousness is not interacting."

At some point during these facts, Bob says "and this is why nothing is real". These are my personal experiences, if you're looking for an idea you get the idea.

Answer 9

I would replicate Alice, and then have her have a conversation with herself, without telling her that it is actually herself that she is talking to (disguising them, talking over the phone or through a screen etc.).

I think this would prove categorically that it is a simulation, as there is no other reasonable explanation of how someone would be having a conversation with themselves.

It would also be quite amusing watching Alice having a conversation with someone who absolutely agrees with all of her opinions. It would be majorly frustrating to Alice, as until she realized that the person she was talking to was actually her, she would surely think this other person was lying about agreeing with everything. The other person would also be having the same frustration having the conversation with Alice.

They would also have all of the same interests, so could go into deep conversations about everything and would have exactly the same level of expertise about everything.

It would also be interesting to see how long it would take Alice to realize that it was a replica of herself.

Answer 10

In the Rudy Rucker novel The Master of Space and Time, the inventor offered that his confidant should himself choose what would be convincing. The Alice role character was sitting in a car with a scale toy car on the other seat. The toy was the same car, as the view out the windows indicated. Manipulating the small car caused that to happen to the car he was in. It was an infinite or circular regression in both directions.

Answer 11

As for the requirement:

terrifying entertaining way Bob can prove to Alice that they're living in a simulated world...

Bob can make Alice his husband for a day.

And why husband but not wife, if Alice asks?

Bob can say: "Yes honey, for this is just a simulation, I can make the stimulation go any which way I want."

Answer 12

Start by planting in her mind (which is part of the simulation) an unreasonable, gnawing doubt. Bob would then cause her (through his control of her simulated self) to confess her doubts about reality to him. He would assure her they were false. Then a few small incongruities would be placed in her environment, a hamster than speaks a single word, a music broadcast that appears to be talking to her, a period of an hour or two where no one in the environment seems to notice or respond to her. All of the same kinds of thing that schizophrenics experience. When Alice confronts Bob about these odd incongruities, he will pretend to be deeply concerned, and recommend a psychiatrist.

Alice visits the psychiatrist. The psychiatrist prescribes anti-psychotic drugs. These of course increase the feelings of isolation and alienation she is experiencing. Her symptoms worsen. She hears strange humming sounds in her ears. No one seems to be listening to her. She sits for hours, watching the crowds walk by, and their activities seem mechanical, purposeless. When she talks with other people, their responses are mechanical and predictable. They appear to her like automatons, seeking simple gratification of pleasure or ego, and not thoughtful soul-containing creatures. Their conversation repeats themes from TV and movies, it has no real originality to it. she catches different people repeating the same topics and opinions, without significant variation, as if the ideas of society were programmed from some central sources.

She picks up a flower. The petals seem to be fabricated out of plastic. She calls he friend Bob in a panic. He is patronizing, distant. The humming sound in her ears has turned into a rushing like a mad waterfall carrying her over the edge.

She begins to speak in disjointed, unconnected sentences. Her boyfriend calls her parents, who have her taken into psychiatric custody for 24 hours. She sits there in the hospital, full of tranquilizers and drugs, and the hours roll by as she stares at the ceiling. She hears the nurses chatting far away, and they are talking about the same topics as the automatons everywhere - politics, sex, pleasure, food. Same topics, almost the same words.

She begins to fade away into nothingness, she beings to internalize the way of the robotic entities that surround her. Perhaps after all, this is reality. Bob visits her. He grins like a maniac. "Psyche!" he says, then floats up into the sky. She floats up with him. "It was a prank, Alice, boy did I fool you!" they float off together.

Answer 13

Most entertaining way is to offer to change whatever world parameters Alice names. Want a green sky? Done. Want 0.05 meters/second squared gravity? No problem. Want everybody to have a giant bobble head? Why not? Run time backward or replay a loop? Sure.

Only problem is there is no logical way to separate controlling Alice's perceptions from controlling the simulation, so it is effectively impossible to prove to Alice that she is in a simulation rather than being controlled. Closest would be to graft the control onto Alice, so that Bob doesn't know what parameters she will change until they happen. Not perfect though - complete control of Alice would give Bob the ability to make her think his thoughts and actions were hers without needing to be inside a simulation.

Answer 14

One word: Retrocausality

Anything else could be the result of other processes: supernatural powers, time travel, or just copincidence, and could be explained away. However, after a day of seeing things happen out of order, it would be pretty clear that the world is not as it appears.

This would not be easy to engineer, but is possible with the given setup - bob just needs to mess with the clock speed and timestamps of the separate chunks, so that they are out of alignment. Then any events that cross chunk boundaries will cause paradoxes, with objects vanishing, duplicating, and events decoupled from causes. Like, you throw a ball straight up, and sometimes it hands in the air for a while before falling, while in a different chunk it falls back down before it goes up.

There are a lot of other good possibilities, but I think this is the only one that is only possible in a simulation.

Answer 15

He can't prove it by causing an impossible or highly improbable physical event

Whatever physically improbable/impossible event Bob causes to occur, the likelihood that Alice is hallucinating (perhaps she's suffering from a mental breakdown, or Bob has drugged her ) will always be greater than the likelihood that Bob has 'magical' powers which allow him complete control over Alice's physical world (which is what most of the other answers here amount to).

If something impossible (or highly improbable) occurs then it is more likely that the person witnessing it is hallucinating (a well-documented phenomenon which occurs regularly all over the world, all the time) than that the impossible event has actually occurred (we have no well-documented incidences of impossible things happening).

In other words, the likelihood that the witness is drugged, confused, deluded or having a psychotic break with reality is always higher than the likelihood that the impossible (or extremely improbable) physical event has actually occurred.

The more improbable the physical event is, the stronger this argument becomes, because hallucinations are quite probable - they happen all the time.

He might be able to persuade her using logic

The 'simulation argument' runs like this:

A technologically mature “posthuman” civilization would have enormous computing power. Based on this empirical fact, the simulation argument shows that at least one of the following propositions is true:

1. The fraction of human‐level civilizations that reach a posthuman stage is very close to zero;

2. The fraction of posthuman civilizations that are interested in running ancestor‐simulations is very close to zero;

3. The fraction of all people with our kind of experiences that are living in a simulation is very close to one.

If (1) is true, then we will almost certainly go extinct before reaching posthumanity.

If (2) is true, then there must be a strong convergence among the courses of advanced civilizations so that virtually none contains any relatively wealthy individuals who desire to run ancestor‐simulations and are free to do so.

If (3) is true, then we almost certainly live in a simulation.

In the dark forest of our current ignorance, it seems sensible to apportion one’s credence roughly evenly between (1), (2), and (3).

Unless we are now living in a simulation, our descendants will almost certainly never run an ancestor‐simulation.

Nick Bostrom, Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?, Philosophical Quarterly (2003) Vol. 53, No. 211, pp. 243‐255. (First version: 2001)

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_hypothesis#Simulation_argument

Answer 16

Making anomalies common.

(for example, bird-riding weasels)

He doesn't even need any special setting to make it entertaining (but could!). One day with way too many anomalies will have anyone questioning life/reality etc.. You start off your day and pick up your mail to find 8 different letters addressing someone other than yourself at your address, last week's newspaper and a shoe (why not?) Get a phone call from some random childhood friend and a few distant relatives. Cannot find a single pair of matching socks even though you have no dirty laundry. Win a free lottery ticket that makes you win another lottery ticket that makes you win another (and so on). Learn the Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley cup, etc...

Answer 17

Your question is a very difficult one i don't think i could answer, but obviously this is a philosophy you would like to explore in order to take idea's and use them somewhere else. Here are some vague ideas:

One way for Bob to make Alice realize that her world isn't real, would be to show her a world that is more real than the on she knows, although this would have to involve taking her out of what she percieves as normal, and bringing her into a new, possibly stranger, more complex reality - like the Matrix. This is pretty hard to do, especially if you question regards a real life dispute!

Another way might be to teach Alice how to manipulate the world as Bob has learned. This way Alice might prove to herself, without the outside influence of Bobs "powers", that her world isn't what she thought. How do you prove a great discovery to someone that lacks the amount of education you posses? you must first offer them the knowledge they do not know, otherwise they can not understand. This way Alice will learn the Discovery just as Bob learnt it from his own intuition. Again unless you've secretly discovered something amazing - is a very hard thing to do.

a very long P.S

If you would like to explore some scientific indications to the foundations of reality being simulated, you could look into the phenomenon of Cymatics, and how some believe it indicates that all structure in reality is made possible from Sound Frequency. It can also be included within String Theory although it is slightly different. "Sacred Geometry" is another interesting philosophy on Reality but is verging on the weird, the information is relevant to reality however the deliverer of such a subject is often disillusioned with exaggerated meanings and false beliefs.

If you would like to explore a more spiritual explanation of "holographic reality" you could look into the ideas and philosophies thought in Meditation. One of the core aspects of the practice is to un-bound yourself from reality, and realizing that your "self" is an illusion, and that all objects, memories and lifeforms are interconnected and part of one whole, this is achieved by "stripping" oneself of all ego and power, accepting humbleness and worthlessness to the point of nothingness - at this point of nothingness & all (enlightenment).

Answer 18

I'm blatantly stealing the first bit of this from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

Instantly teleport her undergarments 5 feet to the left.

Repeat as necessary to prove your point.

Better yet, swap them with another nearby person.

Change the color/style/design/etc.

That should do it, and it is very fun as well.

Answer 19

Bob has figured out that the world he is living in is some kind of simulation, but he does not know who is in control over it. He should first figure out whether or not the beings in control over the simulation are friendly, and what the implications were of finding this deception before he decides to share it with someone else.

That being said, Bob should slowly reveal his secret to her in a series of steps, that will prepare her for the truth instead of just laying it on her. Bob would not want to do any tricks which would either make Alice fear him, or which would cause her to lose her sanity.

Assuming that Bob has significantly been able to control the reality, he should set up a series of amazing coincidences. Since Alice is already suspicious of him, he needs to gain her trust first.

He could take her out, and show her a good time. Take her to see her favorite band, and arrange for her to go back stage and meet them. While on the way there, he could rig the traffic lights to turn green at just the right time, so there is no waiting. He could also take her to the horse track, and win big.

Alice would start to question all of these coincidences and wonder what was going on. She would know enough that the odds of these things happening would be absolutely astronomical. Once she begins questioning this, Bob can then show her what the truth is.

He could then show her exactly how capable he really is. He could make the sun rise or set, and possibly even transport her to another time or place. By this time, Alice would completely be astounded, and be able to trust Bob.

Answer 20

The most entertaining way to prove to someone that they are not real ?

Well, it seems to me that all you have got to do is convince them to successfully complete the following challenge:

Within the same year, have that special someone run for US president, get elected, ruin the country, resign from the presidency, join Scientology, go clear in a week, sue them for a One $Trillion, win, collect, start a company, be worth 5 Trillion, go broke, become a bungee jumper, and a storm chaser, fly to the moon, come back, join the Jehovah witnesses, become a dentist and tax auditor, start a legalised marijuana farm, sell that, give the money away, become a motivational speaker, eat ice cream, chocolate and 20 pigs, join the CIA, defect to ISIS, only to become a Buddhist monk. Then ask them "Are you real?"

I have no research to back any of this up.