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Almost every viewer of the film “The Matrix” at least for a couple seconds allowed the unpleasant possibility that he can actually live in the Matrix. Here is the famous Swedish transhumanist philosopher Nick Vostrom of Yale University argues for the following statement: if suggest that one day humanity will evolve into super-civilization, then the current state, with a large share probability is the result of modeling the evolution process our overflows. The Matrix introduces us to a strange and horrifying script. Humanity lies in a coma state in some cocoons, and every detail of reality detected and controlled by computers hostile to it. For for most viewers this scenario is interesting as a scientific fiction, incredibly far from everything that exists today or, most likely, will appear in the future. However after careful pondering such a scenario ceases to seem unthinkable. is he very likely. In one of his articles, Ray Kurzweil discusses observed trend in computing power with ever increasing speed. According to Kurzweil forecasts, almost unlimited amount of computing power will be available over the next fifty years. let’s suppose Kurzweil is right and sooner or later humanity will create almost unlimited computing power. For purposes this discussion is not important when it happens. For these developments it can take a hundred, a thousand or a million years. As noted in the article Kurzweil, unlimited computing capabilities expand the abilities of mankind to an incredible degree. This civilization will become “posthuman” and will be capable of extraordinary technological achievements. Posthuman civilization may take various forms. It can be very similar to our modern civilization or radically different from it. Of course, it is almost impossible to predict how it will develop. similar civilization. But one thing we know for sure: posthuman civilization will have access to almost endless computing power. Posthuman civilization may be able to transform planets and other astronomical objects in heavy duty computers. Difficult at the moment certainty to determine the “ceiling” of those computing power, which may be available to post-human civilizations. 1. This article presents evidence by simulation, according to which at least one of the following statements true: it is very likely that as a biological species humanity will begin to disappear from the face of the earth without reaching the “posthuman” stage. 2. It is very unlikely that any posthuman civilization will launch a large number of simulations (models) imitating its evolutionary history (or, therefore, variants of this story). 3. We almost certainly live in a computer simulations. Let’s look at these three statements in turn. The first statement is explicitly stated: if we destroy ourselves yourself as a result of a nuclear war, biological disaster, or nanotechnological disaster, then the rest of the paragraphs of this evidence is not relevant. However, let’s assume that this statement is false, and therefore we will be able to avoid self-destruction and enter the post-human era. Essence human civilization in the posthuman era impossible to imagine in its entirety. Similarly, you can’t imagine a variety of ways to use practically unlimited computing power. But let’s look at one of them – the creation of complex simulations of human civilization. Imagine future historians modeling various scenarios historical development. These will not be today’s simplified models. Given the tremendous computing power that will be to have these historians at their disposal may be very detailed simulations in which each building will be distinguishable every geographical detail, every personality. And each of these individuals will be endowed with the same level of computing power, complexity and intelligence as a living person. Like Agent Smith, they will be based on software, but will possess the mental characteristics of a person. Of course they can never to realize that they are a program. To create an accurate model, it will be necessary to make the perception of simulated personalities are indistinguishable from the perceptions of people living in the real world. Like the inhabitants of the Matrix, these people will exist in artificial world, considering it real. Unlike the scenario with The matrix of these people will be entirely computer programs. However, will these artificial personalities be real “people”? Will they be reasonable regardless of their level computing power? Will they be endowed with consciousness? Reality is something that no one really knows. However consciousness philosophers usually make assumptions about it “independence from the substrate.” Essentially this means; what consciousness can depend on many things – on knowledge, intelligence (computing power), mental organization, individual details of the logical structure, etc. – but one of the conditions that for consciousness are not required, is biological tissue. Embodiment of consciousness in carbon-based biological neural networks – this is not a necessary property of it. In principle the same effect can be obtained from those based on silicon processors embedded in the computer. Many people familiar with modern computer technology, the idea of software, endowed with consciousness seems incredible. However it is intuitive distrust is a product of relatively miserable opportunities today’s computers. Thanks to ongoing improving the computers and software themselves computers will become increasingly intelligent and conscious. In fact, given the tendency of a person animate everything that even remotely resembles a person, people can begin to empower computers long before it will become a reality. Arguments for “substrate independence” set out in the relevant philosophical literature and I will not try to reproduce them in this article. However, I will point out that this assumption is reasonable. A brain cell is a physical object, possessing certain characteristics. If we come to the full understanding these characteristics and learn to reproduce them electronically, then, without a doubt, our electronic brain the cell will be able to perform the same functions as the cell of organic origin. And if this can be done with one brain cell, then why not repeat the same operation with the whole brain? A if so, why not the resulting system consciousness, like a living brain? These assumptions are very curious. With sufficient computing power, humans can create models of historical figures who will have full consciousness and who will consider themselves biological people, living in an earlier time. This conclusion leads us to Approval number two. The first statement assumes that we will live long enough to create a posthuman civilization. This posthuman civilization will get the opportunity Develop simulations of reality similar to the Matrix. In the second the statement reflects the possibility that the people will not decide develop these models. We can imagine that in post-human era interest in developing historical simulations will disappear. This means significant changes in people’s motivation. posthuman era, for in our time, of course, there a lot of people who would like to launch models of previous eras, if they could afford to do it. However, probably many of our human desires seem foolish to any posthuman. Maybe simulations of the past will be of little scientific value to posthuman civilization (which is not so incredible given its disparate intellectual superiority), and maybe, humans will be consider entertainment a very inefficient way of getting pleasure, which can be obtained much easier – with direct stimulation of the centers of pleasure of the brain. This conclusion suggests that post-human societies will be very differ from human: they will be relatively absent wealthy and independent entities with full ownership human desires and free act under their influence. At in another scenario, it is possible that some post-mortem may appear desire to run simulations of the past, however posthuman laws will prevent them from doing this. Which will lead to the adoption of such laws? It can be assumed that increasingly advanced civilizations follow the path that leads them to recognize the ethical ban on the launch of models that mimic the historical past, due to suffering, which will fall to the lot of heroes of a similar model. However with our today’s point of view is not obvious that the creation of human race is an immoral act. On the contrary, we tend to take the existence of our race is a process of tremendous ethical value. Moreover, the mere existence of ethical views on the immorality of running past simulations is not enough. To him should add the presence of such a social structure in civilizational scale, which allows effective prohibit activities deemed immoral. So, since there is the possibility that the second statement true, in this case, the motivation of the post-humans will either be striking differ from the motivations of the people, or the people will have to impose total ban on simulating the past and effectively controlling the effect of this prohibition. Moreover, this conclusion should be fair for almost all posthuman civilizations in The universe. Therefore, we need to consider the following probability: it is possible that civilizations of the human level there is a chance to become posthuman; further: at least in some posthuman civilizations there are separate personalities who run simulations of the past. This brings us to to our third statement: we almost certainly live in computer simulation. We come to this conclusion quite naturally. If post-humans run past simulations, rather In all, these simulations operate on a very large scale. Not makes it difficult to imagine millions of individuals launching thousands of simulations on hundreds of different topics, and in each such Simulations will involve billions of simulated personalities. These artificial people will have many trillions. They will all be assume that they are real and live in an earlier time. Nearly all chances come down to the fact that we live in a simulated time and that our physical bodies are a computer illusion. Is worth emphasize that proof by simulation does not the goal is to show that we live in a computer simulation. It reflects just that at least one of the three listed above statements are true. If someone does not agree with the conclusion that we are inside the simulation, then instead he will have to either agree that almost all posthuman civilizations will refuse to run simulations of the past, or with the fact that we’ll probably begin to die out before reaching the posthuman era. Our disappearance may occur as a result of stabilization. current advances in computing or become a consequence of the general collapse of civilization. Or you should recognize that technological change is likely to be gain momentum, not stabilize, in which case you could would predict that accelerating progress will be the cause of our disappearances. It can lead us to this sad end for example, molecular nanotechnology. Having reached a developed stage, it will allow the creation of self-reproducing nanobots capable of eat dust and organics, a kind of mechanical bacteria. Such nanobots, if created with bad intentions, can cause the disappearance of all life on our planet. Elsewhere i tried to list the main existential dangers, threatening humanity. If our civilization is really is a simulation, this does not imply any need limit our progress. It is possible that the simulated civilizations can become posthuman. Then they can run your own past simulations using powerful the computers that they will create in their artificial universe. Such computers will be “virtual machines,” the term familiar to modern computer technology. Virtual machines can combine in one package: you can simulate a car simulating another machine, etc., while the iteration steps can be arbitrarily much. If we truly achieve our own models of the past, this will be strong evidence against the second and third allegations, so we willy-nilly will have to conclude that we live in a simulated world. More Moreover, we will have to suspect that the people who rule model of our world, themselves are artificially created creatures, and their creators, in turn, may also be simulated. Thus, reality may turn out to be multi-level (this topic has been addressed in many science fiction works, especially in the movie “Thirteenth floor “). Even if the hierarchical structure at some stage it is necessary to close oneself – although the metaphysical status this statement is not entirely clear – it may contain a huge number of levels of reality, and over time it quantity may increase. (One of the arguments against multilevel hypothesis is that the costs of computational resources for basic models will be very large. Modeling even one post-human civilization can be prohibitively expensive event. If so, then we should expect the destruction of our model when approaching the posthuman era.) Despite the fact that all the elements of such a system can to be natural, even material, here you can spend some free parallels with religious ideas about the world. In a way, the humans who run the simulation look like gods in relation to the people inhabiting this simulation: the world around us; their level of intelligence far exceeds ours; they are “omnipotent” in the sense that they can interfere in our life the world, even in ways that violate its physical laws; in addition they are omniscient in the sense that they can observe all that we have going on. However, all demigods, except for those who is at a basic level of reality, obey orders more powerful gods living on deeper levels. Further thoughts on this subject may culminate. in naturalistic theogony that would study the structure of this hierarchy and the restrictions placed on its inhabitants, based on the possibility that some actions at their level may entail a certain reaction from the inhabitants deeper levels. For example, if no one can be sure that is at the core of the hierarchy, then anyone should consider the possibility that for any actions he may be rewarded or punished by the creators of the model. Maybe the last will be guided by some kind of moral criteria. Life after death will be a real opportunity, just like reincarnation. Due to this fundamental uncertainty, perhaps even the main civilization will have reasons to behave flawlessly with moral point of view. The fact that even this civilization will have reason to behave in accordance with moral standards, of course, will force to an even greater degree of everyone else strive to behave exactly so on and so forth. You will get a real virtuous circle. Perhaps everyone will be guided by a kind of universal a moral imperative to obey which will be in the interests of each, since this imperative appeared “out of nowhere.”
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Frame from the film “Thirteenth Floor”, where one of the creators computer model of an alien world, having left the city, discovers that he is someone else’s model
In addition to past models, you can also consider the possibility of creating more selective simulations affecting only a small group of people or an individual. In this case the rest of humanity will turn into zombie people or in shadow people – people modeled at a level sufficient to so that fully simulated people do not notice anything suspicious. It is not clear how much shadow people modeling will be cheaper than modeling full-fledged people. Far from obvious that some creature can behave indistinguishably from the present person and at the same time be deprived of conscious experience. Even if such separate models exist, one should not assume that you are in one of them until you conclude that they are much more numerous than full models. To the most conditional personalities got into the i-simulation (a model that imitates life a single mind), self-simulations would require a hundred billion times more than past simulations. Also exists the possibility that simulation creators will remove certain moments from the psychic lives of modeled creatures and supply them false memory of certain experiences that they usually experienced during seized moments. In this case, you can consider the following (far-fetched) solution to the problem of evil: on in fact, suffering in the world does not exist, but all the memories of it Is an illusion. Of course, this hypothesis can be taken seriously. only when you are not suffering.
If we assume that we live in a simulation, then what of this should for us humans? Despite the above comments, the consequences are not so radical at all. Standard empirical the exploration of the universe that we see will best tell us, how our posthuman creators will act, arranging our world. Revision of most of our beliefs will result to rather insignificant and hardly noticeable results – directly proportional to a lack of confidence in our ability to understand the logic of the posthumans. Therefore, the correctly understood truth contained in third statement, should not “drive crazy” or interfere with us continue to do their own business and plan and predict tomorrow. If we learn more about motivation people and resource limits – and that could happen as a result of our own movement towards post-human civilization – in this case, the hypothesis that we modeled will have a much richer set empirical consequences. Of course, if the sad reality is still lies in the fact that we are simulations created by some post-human civilization, we can assume that we fell a better share than the inhabitants of the Matrix. Instead of getting into paws of hostile artificial intelligence and be used in as an energy source for its existence, we were created on computer-based programs as part of research project. Or maybe some teenage girl from posthuman civilization, doing homework. Not less, we are still better than residents of the Matrix. Is not it so? Nick East
Time Universe Life in a matrix Life Illusions
