But would even knowing about the existence of simulations also be something that would theoretically be planted by the creators? If I'm trying to simulate and not get caught, I wouldn't want to even give the civilization the notion of simulations being possible.

I like that question.

Maybe it's like, the laws and variables that would have to be in place to make us never think about it would interfere too much with the simulation and whatever the point of it is? Seems like we'd need to have different reasoning capacity, or on a case by case basis they make sure we never stumble into anything that got us thinking about that.

Which maybe would be a lot of "effort" in terms of like, now they're colliding with other variables. So maybe it's hard for even the godly simulators to perfectly stop us from that.

Even buying the theory, we still basically live the experience of it being real. Like if you hear a scary knock on your door, you still react as a human.

So my feeling is what's important is that we can't prove or know any smoking gun sort of thing, or know what's behind the curtain or anything, but suspecting it or knowing that it's possible isn't a critical fail.

That said, it would make sense to provide slight clues if you're creating a simulation to test what it would take for the civilization to realize that they're simulated.

Hmm, ya. Or even if they don't actively give us clues, they learn to juggle whatever clues we get. Maybe that's the game. Simulators want it to last, human players are trying to figure it out.

Was surprised to see Elon on Rogan. Will probably start listening when I fall asleep.