Here’s a mind-bender to end the week: Are we all merely shadows on the wall of Plato’s cave? Is there really a REALITY or are we simply made by some puppetmaster to act is if…
In the Matrix, minds were real but the physical world was a computer simulation.
In the current philosophical and physicists’ speculation, none of it is what we refer to as “real.”
We are projections in a simulated reality, and if that is true, it can be discovered. And we can create our own simulations (just think of what we can already do with computer-created reality) and populate worlds we make ourselves to suit our own whims. To the Holodeck, Number One!
Even Elon Musk thinks this might be so:
“Forty 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,” said Musk. “If you assume any rate of improvement at all, then the games will become indistinguishable from reality.”
It’s a view shared by Terrile. “If one progresses at the current rate of technology a few decades into the future, very quickly we will be a society where there are artificial entities living in simulations that are much more abundant than human beings.”
If there are many more simulated minds than organic ones, then the chances of us being among the real minds starts to look more and more unlikely. As Terrile puts it: “If in the future there are more digital people living in simulated environments than there are today, then what is to say we are not part of that already?”
Think (or imagine you think) that this is a fringe area of interest? Pretend to think again.
So in the final scene, does Dorothy step behind the curtain and meet the Wizard who runs the projector?
What fun! Reminds me of late nights at University, discussing nothingness. I’ve decided to take the blue pill!