Our universe is probably a computer simulation created by a paperclip maximizer to map the spectrum of rival resource‑grabbers it may encounter while expanding through the cosmos.

Explains why we are in the run-up to the singularity. If we are really near in time to the singularity, and the singularity will be the most important event in existence, it’s strange that we are so near it. But under this post’s thesis, it’s reasonable that most conscious beings would live close to their simulation’s singularity.

Explains why this post’s authors and (probably) you, the reader, have an unusually strong interest in the singularity. If the singularity really is so important it’s weird that you just happen to have the personality traits that would cause you to be interested in a community that has long been obsessed with the singularity and ASI. But if our thesis is correct a high percentage of conscious observers in the world could currently be interested in ASI.

Explains the Fermi paradox. We’re worth simulating only if we’re unconstrained by aliens

Explains the peculiar stupidity driving us to race toward a paperclip maximizer. Saner species aren’t simulated as frequently. The set of ASIs aligned with the biological life that created them is much smaller than the set of unaligned ASIs.

Accounts for the uncertainty over what kind of ASI we’ll create: the wider the range of possibilities, the more simulation variants get run.