Quote:
Originally Posted by kennyc
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?
|
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.