Matrix to metaverse: Can we live a meaningful life in virtual reality? – with David J Chalmers

20 Comments

1. as long as simulations are part of a reality, they're nothing unreal.

2. "It's simulations all the way down"
   Down to where? Where is the origin of the root simulation? This is the simulations version of the Kalam cosmological argument.

3. No one has problems with VR. Everyone (I hope) has problems with a VR where a certain Mr. MarkZ is God, Judge, Jury, Executioner, and Gestapo.

4. One thing is for sure. It does involve an evil demon.

5. this is the first step to connect the people to the matrix the future does'nt seem so bright after all

6. Life has no meaning anyway, virtual or otherwise. Meaning is just an illusion.

7. Can we live a meaningful life in virtual reality? A better question is why would we want to?

8. Read the room. The overwhelming majority of people alive on this planet today are so busy trying to survive that they cannot live a meaningful life, IN ACTUAL REALITY.

   All of this talk is pointless rhetoric.

9. no

10. The body would die off slowly. Life would have less meaning than in the real world.

11. Yes, like that movie with Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington where a virtual criminal comes into the real world

12. technophilosophy / psychohistory
    …we are getting closer guys…

13. Hi David, a fan in Chicago. VR meeting your criteria for "real" opens itself to manipulation (your scary Zuckerberg cave) for social population control. By converging VR simulation and the physical world, we open ourselves to being Matrixed by whatever powers that be, a dystopian vision.

    Imo, we must distinguish between virtual and real in order to retain our social and political freedom.

14. I like you but your conclusions don't answer any genuine questions
    Where is the simulation – it's the same question as the location of where is reality
    It being a simulation can only exist if a location of the simulation propagator exists thus what is the start point of the simulator?
    Reality is fractal
    Information is fractal
    Reality is Information
    You can't have a dream that you're not the intentional lead character in and btw that replicates this place exactly where you are the lead character too – both unlocateable both energetically constructed
    Your body is the event horizon of you – located at the boundary of two fractal informational locations (that's why we experience both as the lead character in reality or dream)
    Don't Die.
    H.A.N.D.
    Have A Nice Day

15. As someone with extensive experience living in virtual worlds including Second Life, VRCHAT, and others, and as someone who has created virtual worlds for others to explore, I generally agree with your analysis. However it is important to realize that in virtual reality there is a gradient of "realness" not present in the physical. Is virtual reality genuine reality, yes, but it's (at least for now) a lesser reality than physical reality.

    For example, in VR you experience the world in only two, maybe three senses. I say maybe 3 because your kinesthetic sense may be stimulated by your own mind by virtual interactions, in the sensation called Phantom Sense, something only some people can experience, some more vividly than others. In this way it's very similar to the phenomenon of living with synesthesia or aphantasia.

    Experiences and objects in VR are at least as real as cities, nations, or nouns, but it is still left to the mind to generate its own meaning from a given virtual stimulus. It's entirely possible to engage in activities that are meaningful in and of themselves, and are also impossible to experience in physical reality, but the experience you have in VR is either constructed outright or actively facilitated by the creator of the virtual environment you are in. The only real serendipity in VR is via social interactions, your other discoveries and experiences were meticulously and consciously created for you to discover and experience.

    All in all, virtual reality is both ontologically and epistemologically real and genuine, but in practice it is more like the shadow of reality than reality itself and will remain such at least until we have direct brain-machine interfaces.

16. "I think therefore I am…. I think???

17. This is the dumbest talk of all time. Simulated worlds may work for the average unenlightened person. But Zen Masters and even serious meditators live in the real world that is not thought constructed.

18. As long as the life part is guaranteed, the meaningful part should not be a problem.

19. No. We can't.

20. No

Comments are closed.