DO WE LIVE IN A SIMULATION MOVIE
Intelligent machines keep humankind alive inside a simulated world in the movie The Matrix. Interestingly, the idea has almost become a popular meme on sites such as Reddit, where users share unexplained events that have happened to them and that they interpret as glitches in the Matrix: a second life lived in a dream, or a box that changes its contents the second time it is opened moments later. Glitches in The Matrixīut how are we able to know the truth? In The Matrix there were glitches such as déjà vu that offered glimpses of the true nature of the simulation.
The Swedish philosopher collects the progress of the discussion on a website that develops the so-called “simulation argument.” Some critics allege that it will never be possible to make such perfect simulations, with characters that do not know what they are, or that it is obvious to us that we are human, or that the possible future simulations have not yet been created and therefore we are real, or that if the simulations were able to create simulations of themselves they would eventually cause the computers of the posthumans to crash. Assuming that human beings endure and assuming our natural technological evolution, the conclusion is that most probably we, and our entire world, are as real as any of today’s videogames.īostrom’s proposal elicited responses of all kinds, from those who dismiss it for being unscientific or a purely mental game without much interest, to those who have supported and extended it with new works. But this would only be possible in one of two cases: either humanity is annihilated before reaching the posthuman state, or for some reason our descendants decide not to simulate their ancestors. Unless, Bostrom continues, such simulations do not come into being. Therefore, given that the probability of any of us being a simulated character is much greater than that of being a real ancestor, it can be concluded that we almost certainly live in a simulation. Posthumans will have such easy access to these simulations that they will be able to build as many as they wish, far exceeding the number of actual ancestors. Under the title “ Are you living in a computer simulation? ” Bostrom stated in the Philosophical Quarterly journal that at least one of the following propositions is true: either humans will extinguish themselves before they reach a “posthuman” stage, or the posthuman civilization will not be interested in constructing simulations of their ancestors, or we live in a computer simulation.īostrom argues that the evolution of humanity will lead to a posthuman state in which our descendants will have immense technological power, enough to create complex simulations of their ancestors in which everything seems real, even the consciousness of the characters. In its modern form, the simulation hypothesis is usually attributed to the Swedish philosopher at Oxford University (UK) Nick Bostrom, author of a 2003 work that has generated endless debate. Already in the 4 th century BC the Chinese skeptical thinker Zhuang Zhou dreamed that he was a butterfly, and when he woke up he could not help wondering: “I did not know whether it had formerly been Zhou dreaming that he was a butterfly, or it was now a butterfly dreaming that it was Zhou.” But for centuries, the question of whether reality is really as we experience it has captivated philosophers. One of the most popular examples is the film saga of the Wachowski brothers- The Matrix-in which intelligent machines keep humans immersed in a simulation of reality. The idea has often been dealt with by science fiction. Some experts believe we could be a simulation similar to the video game The Sims.
But prestigious philosophers, reputed physicists and millionaire technologists are considering the possibility that we and our world might not be real, but only part of a kind of video game, an enormously sophisticated simulation: the Second Life or The Sims of the future. It could well be called the mother of all conspiracy theories, the most audacious of all pseudo-scientific ideas, or the most useless of all Byzantine discussions.
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