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On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 23:58:00 +0100, "Luigi Caselli"
<luigicaselli@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>"RichD" <r_delaney2001@xxxxxxxxx> ha scritto nel messaggio
>news:af35a9c1-7707-4cda-8517-cc8dea55d294@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>
>> It sounds much like a theory propagated by a philosopher
>> (can't recall his name, I think he's at NYU), who claims
>> that in the future, computers will be infinitely powerful.
>> They can simulate anything, including the entire earth,
>> life... and you.
>>
>> So there will be a vast number of simulations of earth
>> history occurring, and the overwhelming probability is
>> that we are one of them, rather than the Real Deal.
>> i.e. "The Marix", in intellectual garb.
>>
>> The funny thing is, we can't disprove it...
>
>The philosopher is Nick Bostrom from Oxford University.
>
>You can see http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/science/14tier.html
>
>It's unsettling to think of the world being run by a futuristic computer
>geek, although we might at last dispose of that of classic theological
>question: How could God allow so much evil in the world? For the same reason
>there are plagues and earthquakes and battles in games like World of
>Warcraft. Peace is boring, Dude.
>
>Dr. Bostrom doesn't pretend to know which of these hypotheses is more
>likely, but he thinks none of them can be ruled out. "My gut feeling, and it
>'s nothing more than that," he says, "is that there's a 20 percent chance we
>'re living in a computer simulation."
>
>80 percent of living in a "real" world is scaring, isn't it?
20%? How precise. Unless there's an implication or a testable
prediction, it's a vacuous hypothesis.
--
John
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