Our Lives, Controlled From Some Guy’s Couch (They'll-Believe-Anything Alert)

New York Times ^ | 8/14/2007 | John Tierney

[mojito]

Until I talked to Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at Oxford University, it never occurred to me that our universe might be somebody else’s hobby. I hadn’t imagined that the omniscient, omnipotent creator of the heavens and earth could be an advanced version of a guy who spends his weekends building model railroads or overseeing video-game worlds like the Sims.

But now it seems quite possible. In fact, if you accept a pretty reasonable assumption of Dr. Bostrom’s, it is almost a mathematical certainty that we are living in someone else’s computer simulation.

This simulation would be similar to the one in “The Matrix,” in which most humans don’t realize that their lives and their world are just illusions created in their brains while their bodies are suspended in vats of liquid. But in Dr. Bostrom’s notion of reality, you wouldn’t even have a body made of flesh. Your brain would exist only as a network of computer circuits.

You couldn’t, as in “The Matrix,” unplug your brain and escape from your vat to see the physical world. You couldn’t see through the illusion except by using the sort of logic employed by Dr. Bostrom, the director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford.

[mojito]

I guess this is what the sophisticated liberal believes these days.

(Sorry, but I think the NYT link requires a registration).

[Last Dakotan]

Amazing what people will think up to avoid confessing a belief in God.

[Logophile]

But now it seems quite possible. In fact, if you accept a pretty reasonable assumption of Dr. Bostrom’s, it is almost a mathematical certainty that we are living in someone else’s computer simulation.

As one of my professors used to say, "Assume makes an ass of u and me."

[mountn man]

Oh its not really God. Its just a higher power.

[GulfBreeze]

drivel...

[expatguy]

You know when you hear thunder, it's actually that guy rearranging his furniture.

An American Expat in Southeast Asia

[<1/1,000,000th%]

The author didn’t see “Men in Black”?

Or read any of a couple dozen science fiction stories?

[Dr.Deth]

the omniscient, omnipotent creator of the heavens and earth could be an advanced version of a guy who spends his weekends building model railroads or overseeing video-game worlds like the Sims.

You mean, God?

[reagan_fanatic]

it is almost a mathematical certainty that we are living in someone else’s computer simulation.



"STOP DOING DRUGS!"

[struwwelpeter]

Glad to see that liberal university profs are finally achieving the level of sophistication that was before only attained by 1930s pulp SciFi.

[samson1097]

“Of course, it’s tough to guess what the designer would be like. He or she might have a body made of flesh or plastic, but the designer might also be a virtual being living inside the computer of a still more advanced form of intelligence. There could be layer upon layer of simulations until you finally reached the architect of the first simulation — the Prime Designer, let’s call him or her (or it).”

Prime Designer = Good and a reasonable idea.
God = Archaic, ridiculous idea worthy of scorn.

[atomic_dog]

lmost a mathematical certainty that we are living in someone else’s computer simulation.

Hey dude! I saw that movie too. Gretchen Mol was hot.

/S

[Starter]

So, someone finally got around to playing The Sims, huh?

[Greg F]

Wow! I hadn’t thought of this. Almost a mathmatical certainty according to the professor that we are in a computer simulation? This is certainly NOT the case. His calculations are off. I have calculated a 62% probability that the creator is a massive jellyfish . . .

[Minnesoootan]

I hate it when that sick basstird hits the diarrhea button.....

[small voice in the wilderness]

How else would the New York TImes explain their last gasping breath?? “It’s not our fault we’re in the crapper and no one is buying our tripe/ we’re in a matrix, and someone else is controlling the outcome. Yeah, that’s the ticket.”

[Old Professer]

Every kid who ever had an ant farm has entertained such feelings, however fleeting but it no more removes the need for a beginning than any alternative notion and provides no better solution to the dilemma of dissatisfaction than any other.

We are all legacies of a hard-wired sense of vulnerability instilled at birth along with a strong desire to please that which threatens us; those who set about to conquer are really operating out of the basest fear.

[Greg F]

those who set about to conquer are really operating out of the basest fear.
____________________________________________________

I conquer for the women.

[Shelayne]

But now it seems quite possible. In fact, if you accept a pretty reasonable assumption of Dr. Bostrom’s, it is almost a mathematical certainty that we are living in someone else’s computer simulation.

Duuuude, don't bogart that joint.

[pabianice]