In his new book, Reality+, David Chalmers leaves the well-trampled garden of human consciousness and travels in a new direction, taking readers on a techno philosophy adventure tour of computer-simulated worlds and virtual reality. He has penned a philosophical page-turner that cascades from Aristotle to Zhuangzi, from Plato’s Cave to Robert Nozick’s Experience Machine, while wrestling with the big questions of knowledge, reality and mind. Discussions of epistemology and metaphysics are as likely to reference the Netflix drama Black Mirror, as the ideas of Daniel Dennett. The Matrix receives more attention than the works of Kant. Sci-fi classics like Snow Crash and Speak Player One stand shoulder to shoulder with Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy and Putnam’s History, Truth and Reason. Scores of humorous philosophical illustrations drawn by Tim Peacock help to push the argument forward. Chalmers is arguing that we should take seriously the likelihood that we are simulated beings living in a simulated universe. Our creator could be a teenage hacker one universe up from ours, although it seems more likely that some form of AI-generated our simulated universe. The fact that we are conscious beings does not negate the idea that we are sims, since consciousness is substrate independent, emerging from the organisation of a complex system, whether biologically- or silicon-based. Chalmers reveals himself to be a virtual realist, arguing that the ‘entities in virtual reality are real’ (p.105) – they are digital objects, made of information or bits. He concludes that we should not be afraid of migrating into a virtual world, as we can live genuine, fulfilling lives there. In October 2021 I met with him for a virtual (of course!) talk.
この記事は Philosophy Now の February/March 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、8,500 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Philosophy Now の February/March 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、8,500 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
"Stand Out Of My Light"
Sophie Dibben watches Alexander the Great meet Diogenes the Cynic.
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
Hilarius Bogbinder looks at a man who wanted to make Peace from Warre.
The Philosophy of Work
Alessandro Colarossi has insights for the bored and understimulated.
Towards Love
George Mason on love as shared identity.
Hume's Problem of Induction
Patrick Brissey exposes a major unprovable assumption at the core of science.
A Philosophical History of Transhumanism
John Kennedy Philip goes deep into the search for (post-) human heights.
How to Have a Good Life
Meena Danishmal asks if Seneca's account of the good life is really practical.
Horseplay in Hibernia
Seán Moran explores equine escapades in Eire and elsewhere.
Philosophy & Hurling: Thinking & Playing
Stiofán Ó Murchadha knowing how we know.
Philip Pettit & The Birth of Ethics
Peter Stone thinks about a thought experiment about how ethics evolved.