Quote:
Originally Posted by WT Sharpe
Like Bishop Berkeley did with his philosophical idealism, Bostrom makes a strong case for his simulation proposition. That he may be right is not inconceivable, nor is it inconceivable on the other hand that some intellect may come along to play the role of Samuel Johnson to his Berkeley, kick the stone, and say, "I refute it thus!"
What he basically argues is that if humans don't destroy themselves first, one day we will have the computing power to run A.I. simulations. In their artificial environment the sims will be unaware that they are sims, and since as time goes on the number of sims will vastly outnumber the number of flesh and blood humans, it stands to reason that the vast majority of conscious entities will be sims; so if you a gambling on whether or not you are a sim, the smart money says odds are that you are.
The paper is not long, and he has since produced a "patch" to the original here. It makes for interesting reading, and if nothing else, is surely thought-provoking and fun to consider. He's currently working on a book on the subject. |
I went to the link and skimmed it quickly......I'm not arguing that he's wrong, it certainly could be, but I'm thinking it's kind of a fruitless concern in that nothing would change if we knew the answer of whether we are in the Matrix or not. As far as his speculation of the future computing power...no doubt and my expectation is that our machines will become our progeny as a species...