To the Editor:
Re “Are We Living in a Computer Simulation?,” by Preston Greene (Sunday Review, Aug. 11):
Let me get this straight. I’m neither real nor alive and neither are you. Nor is anyone we know. Nor is our planet or for that matter our entire universe. We’re all merely computer simulations created by an advanced civilization in some sort of weird experiment that they’re conducting for reasons best known to themselves.
But woe to us if we ever manage to prove it. The computer simulation experiment would then become pointless to the advanced civilization and it would decide to end it. And — poof! — there would go you, me, everyone we know, our planet and for that matter our entire universe.
As if I didn’t have enough to worry about already.
Nancy Stark
New York
To the Editor:
I was at first horrified to read that we may be living out our lives in a computer simulation similar to The Sims, where my daughter spent countless hours encouraging the butler to burn down the house just to watch mayhem and chaos unfold. Since that’s a somewhat accurate description of our current world, I began to wonder if this simulation we’re all in had another purpose.
What if, instead of the conclusion reached in the article — that humanity would be terminated upon learning of the simulation — we are all instead rewarded for achieving this higher level of sentience with the next level of being? Like leveling-up in Dungeons & Dragons, we could gain infinitely greater capabilities, insights and rewards; we would no longer be stuck in this recursive cycle of mayhem and chaos.
Isn’t this glorious reward worth the risk of Game Over? After all, what are games for? Let’s move ahead with the experiments to prove once and for all that we’re living in “The Matrix.”
Malcolm Appelbaum
Westport, Conn.
To the Editor:
Preston Greene is concerned that the computer simulation that we call life may be terminated if my colleagues here at the University of Washington conduct their proposed experiment. If we are living in a simulation, however, then I think that it must be the homework assignment of a lazy alien freshman computer science student.
How else to explain obvious coding errors like Donald Trump becoming president, the separation of migrant families, global warming and the Kardashians? We can only hope that the student’s teacher gets around to grading the kid’s program soon and mercifully terminates the simulation.
Eliot Brenowitz
Seattle
The writer is a professor of psychology at the University of Washington.
Source: Read Full Article
Home » Analysis & Comment » Opinion | Are We Real, or Just a Computer Simulation?
Opinion | Are We Real, or Just a Computer Simulation?
To the Editor:
Re “Are We Living in a Computer Simulation?,” by Preston Greene (Sunday Review, Aug. 11):
Let me get this straight. I’m neither real nor alive and neither are you. Nor is anyone we know. Nor is our planet or for that matter our entire universe. We’re all merely computer simulations created by an advanced civilization in some sort of weird experiment that they’re conducting for reasons best known to themselves.
But woe to us if we ever manage to prove it. The computer simulation experiment would then become pointless to the advanced civilization and it would decide to end it. And — poof! — there would go you, me, everyone we know, our planet and for that matter our entire universe.
As if I didn’t have enough to worry about already.
Nancy Stark
New York
To the Editor:
I was at first horrified to read that we may be living out our lives in a computer simulation similar to The Sims, where my daughter spent countless hours encouraging the butler to burn down the house just to watch mayhem and chaos unfold. Since that’s a somewhat accurate description of our current world, I began to wonder if this simulation we’re all in had another purpose.
What if, instead of the conclusion reached in the article — that humanity would be terminated upon learning of the simulation — we are all instead rewarded for achieving this higher level of sentience with the next level of being? Like leveling-up in Dungeons & Dragons, we could gain infinitely greater capabilities, insights and rewards; we would no longer be stuck in this recursive cycle of mayhem and chaos.
Isn’t this glorious reward worth the risk of Game Over? After all, what are games for? Let’s move ahead with the experiments to prove once and for all that we’re living in “The Matrix.”
Malcolm Appelbaum
Westport, Conn.
To the Editor:
Preston Greene is concerned that the computer simulation that we call life may be terminated if my colleagues here at the University of Washington conduct their proposed experiment. If we are living in a simulation, however, then I think that it must be the homework assignment of a lazy alien freshman computer science student.
How else to explain obvious coding errors like Donald Trump becoming president, the separation of migrant families, global warming and the Kardashians? We can only hope that the student’s teacher gets around to grading the kid’s program soon and mercifully terminates the simulation.
Eliot Brenowitz
Seattle
The writer is a professor of psychology at the University of Washington.
Source: Read Full Article