Simulation Argument
In his recent Commencement address at MIT, hometown hero Matt Damon told graduating students that the simulation argument was one of the ideas grabbing his attention. Rather than looking at the hypothesis that we are living in a computer simulation as a way to abdicate ourselves of responsibility, Damon argues that the argument gives us reason to go out explore and change the world.
Recently Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk broke down Nick Bostrom's idea that there is only a “one in billions chance” that our existence is not part of a simulation run by some super-intelligent artificial intelligence. The idea has captured the imagination of actor Matt Damon.
"If there are multiple simulations, how come we have to be in the one where Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee for president? Can we like transfer to a different one?"
The popular argument for the simulation argument came from University of Oxford philosopher Bostrum in 2003, when he suggested that members of an advanced civilization with enormous computing power might decide to run simulations of their ancestors. They would probably have the ability to run many, many such simulations, to the point where the vast majority of minds would actually be artificial ones within such simulations, rather than the original ancestral minds. So simple statistics suggest it is much more likely that we are among the simulated minds.Related articles
“The basic idea, as I understand it, is we could be living in a massive simulation run by a far smarter civilization — like a giant computer game, and we don’t even know it,” The Martian star said during his commencement speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “If there are multiple simulations, how come we have to be in the one where Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee for president? Can we like transfer to a different one?”Mentioning a recent comment on the simulation argument Damon quotes physicist Max Tegmark who said in a debate about the simulation argument, “My advice is to go out and do really interesting things,” Tegmark said, “so the simulators don’t shut you down.”
Damon also encouraged the graduating seniors to take their pick from “the world’s worst buffet” of problems in the world that they could help solve.
Humorously, he concluded the speech: "What do you want to be a part of? What’s the problem you’ll try to solve? Whatever your answer, it’s not going to be easy. Sometimes your work will hit a dead-end. Sometimes your work will be measured in half-steps."
"And sometimes your work will make you wear a white sequined military uniform and make love to Michael Douglas."
0 comments:
Post a Comment