The simulated minds they create may do likewise, and so there could be simulations inside of simulations. These beings then being no less able or imaginative than us would progress to a point of technological advancement at which they could create and run their own simulations.
These beings could be indistinguishable from us in terms of the depth of their minds, the only difference being that their life springs from circuit boards and artificial design rather than the real world which has given life to us. These simulated universes would also contain beings that were genuinely conscious as a result of the advanced ability of the simulation, and so would be able to think and would be self-aware in the same way that we can and do. It argues that human technology is advancing at such a rate that in the future we will have the ability to simulate entire universes filled with details as rich and beautifully complex as our own. The idea that we may be living in a matrix-like universe is called the simulation theory, and was first proposed by Nick Bostrom.
Not ruling it out, but if we were living in software, it is the most reliable software ever because there never seem to be any disruptive updates. I took the red pill and nothing materially changed other than a rash that I had had for a week or so cleared up. Isn’t this just the kind of article our biomechanical overlords would simulate in order to keep us compliant in our pods? kingsize There are billions of possibilities here, but one thing's for sure - you can see why Musk banned this topic of conversation in his hot tubs.How do we know we’re not living in a simulation like the Matrix? Jack Freedom, Bristol "Either we're going to create simulations that are indistinguishable from reality, or civilization will cease to exist."ĭoes it mean that the man famously worried about the dangers of artificial intelligence is artificial intelligence himself? Or are we avatars being guided by creatures in another reality? Perhaps those figures are themselves being controlled by a third existence? Maybe it's simulations all the way up, and we're just the game inside the game, like the versions of Minecraft built inside Minecraft?
"If a civilization stops advancing then that may be due to some calamitous event that erases civilization," Musk said, presenting two options. "Even if that rate of advancement drops by a thousand from what it is now, let's just imagine it's 10,000 years in the future, which is nothing on the evolutionary scale." Given that we're on that trajectory and that these games are increasingly playable on any device, Musk said, the odds that we are living our lives in base reality - that is, "real" reality - is one in billions.īut that's not necessarily a bad thing. "If you assume any rate of improvement at all then games will become indistinguishable from reality," Musk said. In 40 years, Musk explained, we've gone from Pong to massively multiplayer online games with millions of simultaneous players, games with photorealistic graphics, and stand now on the cusp of a new wave of virtual and augmented reality experiences. His argument - one presumably honed in the soothing waters of many a jaccuzi - goes that the incredibly fast advancement of video game technology indicates we'll be capable of creating a fully lifelike simulation of existence in a short span of time. "We've banned this conversation from hot tubs" "It got to the point where every conversation was the AI / simulation conversation, and my brother and I agreed that we would ban such conversations if we were ever in a hot tub." "You've thought about this?" Topolsky asked. "I've had so many simulation discussions it's crazy," Musk explained. The Verge co-founder Josh Topolsky got half-way through asking Musk if he thought our existence was simulated before the Tesla CEO jumped in to finish his question for him.
"There's a billion to one chance we're living in base reality," Elon Musk said tonight on stage at Recode's Code Conference, meaning that one of the most influential and powerful figures in tech thinks that it's overwhelmingly likely we're just characters living inside a simulation.