[lit-ideas] [correction] Fwd: small addendum to Matrix as philosophy
- From: Paul Stone <pas@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2004 14:41:35 -0500
whoops, left out the back half.
>Scientists see us in a virtual reality
>By Christophe Schmidt in London
>24nov04
>
>IS it all just a dream? Speculation that reality is nothing but an
>illusion, or simulation, or controlled environment, has been with us for
>thousands of years, most recently doled out as pop culture brain candy
>with the likes of the US film The Matrix.
>
>But now two respected British scientists, physicist Martin Rees and
>mathematician John Barrow, are questioning whether all matter and mind we
>know is not the creation of some mega-supercomputer somewhere.
>
>"A few decades ago, computers were only able to simulate very simple
>patterns. They can now create virtual worlds with a lot of detail," Rees
>told AFP.
>
>"In the future, we could imagine computers able to simulate worlds perhaps
>even as complicated as the one we think we're living in."
>
>Martin, an astronomer at Cambridge University, dares a thought that could
>have been deemed far-fetched among serious scientists only a while back:
>"The question is : Could we be in such a simulation?"
In this case, the universe would not be all-encompassing but only part of
an ensemble Rees and Barrow call the "multiverse".
Barrow, who also teaches as Cambridge, described in an academic article
that it was long known that a civilization slightly more advanced than our
own could simulate "universes in which self-conscious entities can emerge
and communicate with one another".
In a much more computer-savvy society with vastly more advanced technology,
"instead of merely simulating their weather or the formation of galaxies,
like we do, they would be able to go further and watch the appearance of
stars and planetary systems," he said.
"Then, having coupled the rules of biochemistry into their astronomical
simulations, they would be able to watch the evolution of life and
consciousness."
With the same ease that we humans watch the "life cycle of fruit flies",
Barrow said, the machine masters of the universe could "watch the
civilizations grow and communicate with each other, argue about whether
there existed a Great Programmer in the Sky who could intervene at will in
defiance of the laws of Nature they habitually observed".
However, the theory of the Cambridge pair of scientists has not met
widespread approval among peers.
Seth Lloyd, professor of quantum mechanical engineering at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), pointed out such a simulation
would require an "unimaginably large" computer.
Lloyd, in comments published last week in The Sunday Times, gave a jab to
the duo, comparing them to a science fiction book with a cult following -
Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which stars a
supercomputer named Deep Thought.
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