Paul Nedelisky at Hedgehog Review:
Back a few years ago, when I was teaching a large survey course on moral reasoning, I happened to mention the simulation hypothesis. Immediately, to my surprise, my otherwise sleepy students clocked back in. A dozen hands went up. After hearing from a number of them—and from the widespread head-nodding—it became clear that the simulation hypothesis was for them a serious contender as a theory of reality.
For those unfamiliar with this idea, the simulation hypothesis is the claim that our experience of the world is in fact experience of a virtual, simulated reality. Imagine all of us strapped into immersive virtual-reality headsets, add that we have been strapped in for our whole lives and that until recently we all had no idea—blithely assuming our experiences were of this actual physical world and not simulated. It’s essentially the premise of The Matrix movies. But up until this moment in class, I took it for granted that everyone (outside a few perversely enterprising philosophers and Elon Musk) found the simulation hypothesis to be an amusing but implausible “what if” scenario.
more here.
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