---
title: "Posthuman civilisation · Library · Simulation Hypothesis"
url: https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/posthuman
description: "A posthuman civilisation is one whose technology is far beyond ours today."
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
credit: "Ross Allan Dahl, Simulation Hypothesis (simulation-hypothesis.com)"
---

## Simulation hypothesis

# Posthuman civilisation

Definition

A posthuman civilisation is one whose technology is far beyond ours today. In particular, it can turn astronomical amounts of matter into computing.

On this site

The machine ladder ends in a universe-scale computer. That’s what “posthuman” has to mean for the biggest scenarios.

Role in the model

The machine ladder climbs from a phone to a computer the size of the universe. Every rung past “every computer on Earth” belongs to a civilisation that doesn’t exist yet. When a scenario lands on a Jupiter brain, this term names who would own it.

Related

[Bostrom’s trilemma](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/bostrom-trilemma)[Lloyd’s bound](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/lloyd-bound)

In the trees

[Superintelligence · Technology](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/trees/technology?n=asi)[Star-scale computer · Technology](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/trees/technology?n=matrioshka)[Post-biological civilisation · Becoming synthetic](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/trees/synthetic?n=f-postbio)

## The people behind the terms

14 short pages, one per thinker, each with its matching dial. See also the [reading list](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/reading).

[Plato’s cave](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/plato)[Zhuangzi’s butterfly](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/zhuangzi)[Vasubandhu’s dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/vasubandhu)[Shankara’s māyā](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/shankara)[al-Ghazali’s doubt](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ghazali)[Ibn Arabi’s imagination](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ibn-arabi)[Calderón’s life is a dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/calderon)[Descartes’ demon](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/descartes)[Berkeley’s perceiver](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/berkeley)[Borges’ circular ruins](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/borges)[Nozick’s experience machine](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/nozick)[Putnam’s brain in a vat](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/putnam)[Bostrom’s trilemma](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/bostrom)[Chalmers: virtual worlds are real](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/chalmers)