This article makes me very sad. I have enough existential angst without now wondering whether my life is really being run by a 20-something guy who doesn't leave his house very much. And all those hours I spent discussing whether free will, agency and even Paradise Lost were just wasted. I think in order to maintain my sanity I'm just going to have to be in denial here and refuse to believe that I am either part of someone's computer simulation or worse, someone's avatar! (But if I am, couldn't I be a little taller and maybe have red hair, like a nice strawberry blonde?)
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1. Posted by J.W. Verret on August 14, 2007 @ 8:37 | Permalink
1) It can't be true, because why would someone re-create beets or Godfather III?
2) But if it is, can my avatar be Richard Posner?
2. Posted by Paul on August 14, 2007 @ 9:24 | Permalink
If my great-great-great-great grandson is doing this to me, I'm going to smack him silly when I get to heaven. Unless he sends me down, the ingrate.
3. Posted by Bruce Boyden on August 14, 2007 @ 21:58 | Permalink
Fortunately, it doesn't matter, *as long as* nobody spoils the illusion.
4. Posted by Jenn on August 15, 2007 @ 6:17 | Permalink
Take a physics course - you will learn all these fabulous things that we think are real are simply illusions, i.e. colors, etc.
5. Posted by Jake on August 15, 2007 @ 21:49 | Permalink
Here's the quote from Bostrom in the NYTimes:
“My gut feeling, and it’s nothing more than that,” he says, “is that there’s a 20 percent chance we’re living in a computer simulation.”
Now there's some compelling empirical data for you.
My own gut feeling is that there is a 20 percent chance the NYTimes prints this sort of pap because it figures some folks bright enough to know better might read it for entertainment value, and anyone else who might read it is just gravy for the circulation statistics.
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