Are We Living In Nick Bostrom’s Speculation: различия между версиями

The idea that our world might be a computer simulation is a relatively recent one. The first ideas of full reality simulation appeared only about 20 years ago. In 1989 Jaron Lanier coined the term «virtual reality», but only since 1990s it became conceivable that a whole world could be simulated. Computer games, especially 3D ones, such as Doom, Quake and many more recent titles, showed how the world (or at least a large part of it) could be recreated on the computer monitor. Several science fiction movies made in the end of 1990s and in the beginning of the 21st century elaborated on these ideas, developing some of the philosophical consequences of simulations and, more importantly, communicating them to the wide audience for the first time.* Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes), 1997 [2] — The main character in this movie signed a contract with a cryonics company. After his death his body was frozen and his mind placed into a computer simulation. In this story, the personalities of all humans are simulated only to the extent necessary for their interactions with the main character. For example, one of the secondary characters, a psychiatrist, has two daughters, but does not know their names.  

* Dark City, 1998 [13] — This movie was also a mystery thriller, hence it showed a more mystical picture of the world and never explained the mechanism of the simulation. However, it led to the Matrix and The Thirteenth Floor films, which developed the idea of world simulation more rigorously and in more details.  

* The Matrix, 1999[[#ftn2|[2]]] [8] — In this film most of the humans are connected to the large computer simulation (the Matrix) from birth, but they do not know about it, unless someone from outside the simulation can tell them the truth. The machines that run the simulation can make arbitrary changes to the simulation in real-time. Humans from the real world can be inserted into the simulation as new people. The Matrix became the first widely known film about simulation and it introduced many people to the ideas of simulated realities for the first time.  

* The Thirteenth Floor, 1999 [13] — This movie introduced the idea of nested simulations and travel from one level to another. A simulation of the early 20th century city is developed in a computer company (in the end of 20th century). It turns out later that the real world is in fact also a simulation, run from what appears to be 21st or 22nd century. Characters can enter the simulation (or exit it) only by being inserted into the body of existing human.  

* Vanilla Sky, 2001 [15] — This is an American remake of Abre lost ojos. The story has not changed much and basic scientific and philosophical premises behind the story are also the same.  

In addition to being presented in popular culture, these ideas are being pursued by professional philosophers now. The philosophical ideas behind The Matrix are further developed in the “Philosophy of the Matrix” section of the film website [12]. But the most profound development related to these ideas was the controversial theory, known as the Simulation Argument.

The main idea of the Simulation Argument, as proposed by Nick Bostrom [1] is that “if we don’t think that we are currently living in a computer simulation, we are not entitled to believe that we will have descendants who will run lots of such simulations of their forebears.”

This idea was further developed in the works of Robin Hanson and Barry Dainton. In his paper How to Live in a Simulation [7] Hanson gives some recommendations on optimal behaviour for people who believe that they might be living in a simulation. Unfortunately, his ideas are based on the wrong premises (as will be shown in this paper) and his suggestions are far from rational and effective. For example, at one place Hanson speculates that “simulations [might] tend to be ended when enough people in them become confident enough that they live in a simulation” and therefore “you might want to prevent too many others learning that they live in a simulation” [7]. This is nothing more than a random speculation, demonstrating disregard for likelihood, internal consistency and rationality of the hypotheses. It could very well be possible that when enough people realise that they live in a simulation, they will be taken to the real world and simulation will be stopped. Later Hanson suggests that seeking people who might be visitors from the outside and making them interested in you can be beneficial. He completely ignores a just as likely possibility that our world is a GTA[[#ftn3|[3]]]-like game. Such speculations clearly have no use except to satisfy people’s curiosity and entertain them.

In Innocence Lost: Simulation Scenarios: Prospects and Consequences [2] Barry Dainton introduces several new concepts, such as different modes of virtual life. Then he makes the simulation argument in a way similar to Are You Living In a Computer Simulation?, making the same mistakes. In the end of the article he discusses several possible ethical arguments against our simulation:# The Objection from Lesser Value — simulations should not be created because life in a simulation is inherently worse than life in reality.  

The simulation argument is closely related to one of the fundamental questions of philosophy — the choice between two alternative world views, materialism and idealism. The distinctive feature of the simulation argument is that some of its aspects are materialistic and some agree with objective idealism. In particular, the idealistic concept of the first cause reflects the start of the simulation by its creators and the concepts of “ideas” or “ideal numbers” corresponds with the simulation as a computer program. The materialistic beliefs that the world is understandable and that our senses reflect the reality accurately are wrong. Simulation “is the world that has been pulled over… [man’s] eyes to blind… [him] from the truth” [8].