现实是真实存在的吗？Could life really be just a simulation?

早在笛卡尔时代，甚至更早的时候，人类就在追问——什么是现实存在？ Ever since the days of Descartes, and even longer still, humankind has been asking itself—what is reality? 现代社会，随着科技不断进步，尤其是电子游戏的兴起，这个问题愈发有现实意义。 It’s a question that’s becoming ever more relevant in our increasing technologically advanced world, especially when we consider the rise of video games. 今年7月份，中国互联网巨头腾讯公司宣布，将限制部分年轻玩家登录火爆手游《王者荣耀》的时间。 Last month, Chinese internet giant Tencent announced it would begin limiting the amount of time youngsters are able to play its wildly popular mobile game King of Glory. 按此规定，12周岁及以下未成年人每天限玩1小时，12岁以上未成年人（不含18岁）每天限玩2小时，超时将被强制下线。 Users under 12 are now restricted to an hour of play each day, while those aged between 12 and 18 will be forced to log out agter two hours per day. 目前，《王者荣耀》的月均活跃用户超过1.6亿人，今年5月成为全球最吸金的手机游戏。而腾讯这次整改行动是因为中国越来越多的年轻人过度沉迷于此类手游，这引发了社会的强烈不满和批判。 Tencent made the move in response to criticism over the growing number of young Chinese seemingly hooked on the title, which ranked as the highest grossing mobile game in the world in May with more than 160 million people playing it every month. 今年4月份，有媒体报道称，广州省一名17岁少年因狂打王者荣耀40个小时而诱发脑梗。 In April, it was even reported that a 17-year-old in Guangdong province suffered a type of stroke after playing the game for 40 hours straight. 此类案例向我们展现了过度沉迷的危害性。有些情况下的“过度沉迷”不失为一件好事——当一个人全身心地投入到自己的工作和爱好中，你会发现在思维清晰，精力集中的状态下时间似乎过得飞快。但是过度沉迷也有其阴暗面。 Examples such as this show the dangers of immersion. Sometimes, it is a wonderful thing—if we’re immersed in our work or a favorite hobby then our minds are alert, our focus narrows and time itself seems to fly. But immersion also has a dark side. 虚拟现实技术（VR）能让玩家在游戏世界中更能感受到身临其境的效果，随着图像处理技术的迅猛提升，未来人们可以实现在虚拟和现实世界中“自由穿越”，体验混合现实的特效。 Virtual reality is making gaming more immersion than ever, and as graphic processing power improves exponentially, we may well soon reach a point where the artificial becomes indecipherable from the real. 英国作家罗伯·格兰特（Rob Grant）和道格·内勒（Doug Naylor）在1990年出版的畅销书《虚拟天堂》（《Better Than Life》）就是一本以虚拟现实为题材的小说——《虚拟天堂》的故事背景取自科幻片《红矮星号》（Red Dwarf），小说内容风趣又发人深思。 British writers Rob Grant and Doug Naylor tackled just this subject in their best-selling 1990 book Better Than Life—a genuinely entertaining and thought-provoking novel that based on, of all things, the science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf. 在这部小说中，主人公们“完全沉浸”在虚拟现实的游戏中——“虚拟天堂”游戏——迫使他们忘记自己的玩者身份。他们的意识已经完全沉迷于游戏中，认为游戏中才是现实世界，他们往往对自己大脑真正传递的信号视而不见。 In it, the characters play a “total immersion” virtual reality video game—the eponymous Better Than Life—that forces them to forget that they are playing. Because their conscious mind only perceives the reality of the game, all signals from their real body are ignored. 除非现实世界中有人关怀他们，否则所有玩家都会死于饥饿或缺水。如果他们头戴的虚拟现实视图器被强行摘除，玩家则会因受到的冲击过大而丧命。退出游戏的唯一方法就是认清自己身处的虚拟游戏世界，有主动离开的意愿后退出游戏。 Unless cared for in the real world, those playing this game will die of a lack of food and water. If the virtual reality headset is forcibly removed, it results in instant death from shock. The only way to exit the game is to figure out that you’re playing, develop the desire to leave and then command an exit. 一直以来，随着科技不断进步，我们越来越像是活在一个增强现实的世界中。 It has been mooted that the more advanced our technology becomes, the more likely it is that we are, all of us, living in a simulation. 然而，我们怎么去证明生活不只是一个巨型矩阵式的电脑程序，我们不是用来连接电脑的“瓶中之脑”呢？ After all, how can we be truly sure that life is not just one giant Matrix-style computer program, and that you are anything more than a brain in a jar? 或者更疯狂的试想，如果我们只不过就是一行行代码呢？如果我们身边根本就不存在客观事物呢？或许所有的体验都是既定的程序，而我们以为是真实存在的事物只不过是我们的“电子大脑”做了一个狂热的梦。 Or, to take it a step further, what if we are all nothing more than lines of code? What if nothing we thought of as physical existed, all experiences were manufactured and everything you thought was tangible was just a feverish electronic dream? 人类或许永远都无法得知真相。但是，当日常生活越来越虚拟，这个问题就有必要好好反思一下了。 We may never know. Perhaps we don’t need to. But as our everyday lives become ever more virtual, it’s certainly worth a thought.