[kennyc]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

.....This paper argues that at least one of the following propositions is true: (1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a "posthuman" stage; (2) any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof); (3) we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation.
..........— Nick Bostrom (born Niklas Boström) (1973 - ), Swedish philosopher, Professor of Applied Ethics at Oxford University, Director of the Oxford Future of Humanity Institute. From "Are You Living In A Computer Simulation?", published in Philosophical Quarterly (2003), Vol. 53, No. 211, pp. 243-255. The entire paper can be found in PDF format at http://www.simulation-argument.com. Nick Bostrom's homepage is http://www.nickbostrom.com/.

.....All things considered, Bostrom says, the probability that you're living in a simulation is "close to unity". "I think the argument is watertight," he says.
..........— New Scientist, 27 July 2002, "Life's a sim and then you're deleted", located at http://www.newscientist.com/article/...e-deleted.html.

What? and he believes this? This is verging on the philosophy/religion threads. So if we are a simulation, what of those running the simulation?