REALITY OF LIVING VIRTUAL

The reality we take for granted is coming under increasing technological and theoretical threat. Human beings have long been fascinated by the idea that the world as it appears to us is not the ultimate reality. In recent years, however, such metaphysical speculations have taken on a more materially conceivable form. Computer-based virtual reality (VR) makes the idea that we could be living in a simulation more than just an abstract possibility; some very smart people even think that this is not only possible, but likely. Very likely.

Virtual reality technology is making great advances, but it has also helped popularise a theory long debated by philosophers and now gaining supporters in Silicon Valley – that the outside world is itself a simulation. A top technology company making virtual reality products is already planning for a time when actual life and virtual reality are indistinguishable. So what is the reality?

Michael Björn, Head of Research at Ericsson ConsumerLab and someone who has a PhD in data modeling from the University of Tsukuba in Japan, mentions some humans have already started living in virtual reality. The idea is that computer simulations such as games will soon be impossible to distinguish from reality – and if that is the case, maybe this happened before now and we are already living in a simulation. As part of his reserach among various VR users in the USA, England, Japan, and South Korea, it is clear that escaping from reality is indeed one of the reasons why people are interested in VR, amongst many other reasons.

The idea that we are living in some sort of artificial world has long fascinated human beings. This fascination is reflected in the numerous science fiction works on this topic, and in the popularity of movies like the Matrix trilogy and The Truman Show. With the advent of more and more powerful computers, some are beginning to wonder if this possibility is more likely than we have suspected. A philosopher at Oxford University named Nick Bostrom presents an argument that suggests there is a good chance that our world is a computer simulation run by someone in a “posthuman” civilization. Very likely. Who knows?

According to Elon Musk, the space travel and electric car entrepreneur, the chances we are not uploads in a virtual world are billions to one against. It’s easy to laugh this off. If life is a massive multiplayer online game, how come it’s the only one that never freezes?

Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom wrote a paper provocatively titled Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?. The paper argued that one of three propositions is true:

a)The human race is likely to become extinct before reaching a “post-human” stage

b) Any post-human civilisation is unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of its evolutionary history (or variations thereof).

c) We are almost certainly living in a computer simulation. Elon Musk himself provides a neat example of the strange power of the theory to change everything and nothing. He is worried about the unintended potential bad consequences of artificial intelligence (AI), such as machines making us their slaves. Even more mind-spinning is that if Musk is right then we are actually about to see AI being produced within AI. There could be no end to these worlds within worlds.