Would you choose to live in the Matrix?
There are a growing number of the world’s top astronomers and physicists who believe we could be living in a virtual world.
Philosopher Nick Bostrom released a paper in 2003 entitled "Are you living in a simulation?"
The paper discusses the fact that as computers get more and more powerful we could theoretically create a world so detailed and complex that it would be near impossible to tell the tell the difference between the virtual world and the real world.
If we look at the emergence of virtual reality, we can see that as this technology progresses it will become more and more immersive and believable.
Some quotes taken from this paper include:
"Because their computers would be so powerful, they could run a great many such simulations. Suppose that these simulated people are conscious (as they would be if the simulations were sufficiently fine-grained and if a certain quite widely accepted position in the philosophy of mind is correct)."
“Then it could be the case that the vast majority of minds like ours do not belong to the original race but rather to people simulated by the advanced descendants of an original race.
“It is then possible to argue that, if this were the case, we would be rational to think that we are likely among the simulated minds rather than among the original biological ones.”
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX is so convinced we are already living in The Matrix he has invested millions in order to prove it.
He says that there is only a “one in billions” chance that we’re not living in a computer simulation.
At a tech conference in California Musk said "Our lives are almost certainly being conducted within an artificial world powered by AI and highly-powered computers, like in The Matrix"
“The strongest argument for us probably being in a simulation I think is the following. 40 years ago we had Pong – two rectangles and a dot. That’s where we were.
“Now 40 years later we have photorealistic, 3D simulations with millions of people playing simultaneously and it’s getting better every year. And soon we’ll have virtual reality, we’ll have augmented reality.
“If you assume any rate of improvement at all, then the games will become indistinguishable from reality, just indistinguishable.”
Whether you agree we are already living inside a matrix like world or there is a possibility we may be. Given the option, would you choose to live in a simulated world, where you could be whoever you wanted and do whatever you wanted?
Would you choose to live in this world over the so called "real" world ?
After being in the simulation for an extended period of time would you even remember you were in a simulation ?
As Morpheus says in the Matrix:
"Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?"
Thanks for listening
Happy Steeming Steemers and Steemettes.
If you like this you may like my other recent posts:
https://steemit.com/technology/@somecoolname/would-you-upgrade-yourself
https://steemit.com/steemit/@somecoolname/do-people-even-read-the-content-of-mosts-posts
This was a fascinating read. I just looked up more information about it, and it seems to have a lot of backing from Silicon Valley. It really opened my eyes to something I had not considered seriously before. I do not think something like this is answerable at the present time, though.
Thanks for the comment. Yes it's both fascinating and crazy at the same time. The fact that such well respected and intelligent people believe this is a possibility makes you wonder about the world we live in.
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Absolutely fascinating post!
Following you...
It definitely makes your brain work over time when you think about it in depth. Thanks for the comment.
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Cannot wait to see what the future of technology brings to the table. If you don't know how virtual reality works, check this post out! Otherwise, great article!
Yes the future is looking good regarding VR . Thanks for the comment. I'll have a look at your post now.
Yes it's fascinating but that's all, it's crazy letting yourself fooled by "such well respected and intelligent people", they mostly theorize life than practice it and lost direction hehe... Matrix is more than that, it's a level of reality; all is mind and mind is all...
I always thought a theoretical physicist would be a great job to do, because you can come up with anything "I think the moon is made of cheese", then when someone comes back and says "no your wrong it's not made of cheese". You simply say, "ok no problem, It was just a theory".
You never have to be right haha
Yeah, but you are not allowed to go beyond cheesy, you become dangerous... hehe