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Thought Experiment

thecolonel
over 8 years

What will virtual reality be in 1,000 or 10,000 years? Will it create worlds and lifetimes like the ones that exist here? Will they be distinguishable from reality?

Arcbell
over 8 years

thecolonel says

I'd be able to accept that my environment isn't real but if my interactions and relationships are with chatbots I think I would have good reason to be concerned


Why would there be chatbots in a simulation? That's absurd.
deletedover 8 years
Shut up Edark, we both know there's synthetic fluid flowing in your plastic veins
Edark
over 8 years

thecolonel says

Follow up question: why haven't we made contact with intelligent alien life?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNhhvQGsMEc
deletedover 8 years
we're the only two real humans, thecolonel
thecolonel
over 8 years
It would be easier to deal with if I couldn't tell it exists
thecolonel
over 8 years
I'd be able to accept that my environment isn't real but if my interactions and relationships are with chatbots I think I would have good reason to be concerned
fair
over 8 years
Also I don't know how it matters the distinction between simulation and reality seems rather irrelevant it changes nothing for any of us
fair
over 8 years
Luminous beings are we... not this crude matter
Arcbell
over 8 years
The line between abstraction and the concrete blurs then vanishes in analysis' endgame.
Arcbell
over 8 years
Information is the same thing as matter, in a sense.
thecolonel
over 8 years
How many realistic simulations of life will be running in 10,000 years? What are the odds that this is the one run that's real?
thecolonel
over 8 years
If the world is a computer generation I might be open to the idea that some of you are real. There would still have to be ones which aren't. They would probably outnumber actual people.
deletedover 8 years

thecolonel says

Follow up question: why haven't we made contact with intelligent alien life?


I always thought of it more as them not contacting us because we aren't intelligent enough yet
thecolonel
over 8 years
Alternatively, we all die and everything matters.
Satan
over 8 years
who cares because we all die and nothing will matter
thecolonel
over 8 years
Follow up question: why haven't we made contact with intelligent alien life?
deletedover 8 years
What if this is actually an indistinguishable reality different from the one that is actually true?

What if we're forever stuck in a paradoxical loop, not knowing what the true way of life is?