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Enter the Matrix

A little weekend reading to get you navel-gazing: why not read through this website which asks the question “Are you living in a computer simulation?”

This website features scholarly investigations into the idea that you might currently be literally living in a computer simulation, running on a computer built by some advanced civilization. Films like The Matrix and novels like Greg Egan’s Permutation City have explored the idea that we might be living in virtual reality. But what evidence is there for or against this hypothesis? And what are its implications?

The website features the original paper by Nick Bostrum PhD, which started quite a media storm a couple of years when it was first published. Also on site are a number of other papers arguing different points about the simulation hypothesis. Well worth a browse.

Editor
  1. entering the matrix
    Actually, I saw a talk from a philosopher from FIU who dealt with this subject (sort of), and he actually posed a more interesting question.

    Let’s say we were in the position of Cypher in the 1st Matrix movie and we were aware that we had been living in a computer simulation, and were no longer in that simulation. If we had to choose between living in an unpleasantly imperfect (or in the case of the Matrix downright dystopian) real world, or being re-inserted into a computer-perfected virtual world, would people choose to be re-inserted? Would they choose Cypher’s path of re-imposed forgetfulness and “ignorance is bliss”?

    Cypher asks to be put back into the Matrix, as long as they make him rich, powerful, and happy. This philosopher actually argued that given that choice most people would not make the same choice, and it boiled down to his essentially ethical argument that people value more than their own pleasant conscious experiences. As one example, he said nobody would make out wills if this were not true.

    Steven Mizrach
    Academic, Pop Culture Junkie, Grail Recycler

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