Could we be living in The Matrix?

Bizarre, but intriguing story in New York Times:

Until I talked to Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at Oxford University, it never occurred to me that our universe might be somebody else’s hobby. I hadn’t imagined that the omniscient, omnipotent creator of the heavens and earth could be an advanced version of a guy who spends his weekends building model railroads or overseeing video-game worlds like The Sims.

But now it seems quite possible. In fact, if you accept a pretty reasonable assumption of Dr. Bostrom’s, it is almost a mathematical certainty that we are living in someone else’s computer simulation.

This simulation would be similar to the one in “The Matrix,” in which most humans don’t realize that their lives and their world are just illusions created in their brains while their bodies are suspended in vats of liquid. But in Dr. Bostrom’s notion of reality, you wouldn’t even have a body made of flesh. Your brain would exist only as a network of computer circuits.

Read more here.

Comments

[G. Tingey]

Actually the whole planet - and come to that our universe is the property of Unseen University - if you didn't know this you should read the three books co-authored by Jack Cphen & Terry Pratchett on the subject - and the subjects of science, the changes on Earth since its formation, evolution, etc .....