Simulation Argument
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The Simulation Argument is a thesis set out in a 2003 paper [1] by Nick Bostrom, a Transhumanist philospher, in which he argues that the scenario depicted in the film The Matrix is correct, and that the world that we see around us is merely a computer simulation.
This paper begins by arguing for the logic disjunction between the following three propositions propositions:
- The human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a “posthuman” stage;
- Any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof);
- We are almost certainly living in a computer simulation.
The paper then goes on to argue that as there is a significant chance that we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor-simulations, therefore it is almost certain that we are living in a computer simulation [2] Since 2003 there has been a lot of interest in the idea, especially with the online community.[3]
References
- ↑ Bostrom, N., (2003), Philosophical Quarterly , Vol. 53, No. 211, pp. 243-255. , available from: http://www.simulation-argument.com/simulation.html
- ↑ see Nick Bostrom's website at http://www.simulation-argument.com/
- ↑ see, for example the debates and material at: http://www.simulism.org
