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As a physicist, sometimes I sit in my bathtub and fantasize about the possibility that the entire observable universe is a big simulation run by aliens. But I
by jessriedel 11y ago
As a physicist, sometimes I sit in my bathtub and fantasize about the possibility that the entire observable universe is a big simulation run by aliens. But I don't publish it in the Washington Post.
The social sciences do not have a good track record when it comes to their unhinged theorizing.
- qntty 11y agoI don't think that this article says anything that could really be called unhinged for a popular exposition of psychology. Plus, some fields of social science would do better if they existed merely as a way of giving people more accurate fantasies of how the world works. Better than existing as think tanks for political causes.
- jacinda 11y agoYou may not, but other people do. --- Bostrom goes so far as to say that unless we rule out the possibility that a machine could create a simulation of a human existence, we should assume that it is overwhelmingly likely that we are living in such a simulation. “I’m not sure that I’m not already in a machine,” he said calmly. http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2015/12/27/aianxiety/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2015/12/27/aianxie... ---
- stordoff 11y ago> unless we rule out the possibility that a machine could create a simulation of a human existence Even if we rule that out, doesn't the possibility that we are in a simulation still exist? Maybe the creators of the simulation exist in an n-dimensional space, and the reality we experience is a gross simplification of that. TBH, I find the idea comforting in a weird sort of way, as it gives a structure to everything (e.g. Of course quantum states only collapse when observed - why bother simulating something no one is looking at?).