Has anyone actually felt alive since 2012?

[Prometheus]

It isn't a compelling argument to me. Even if it was possible to develop a simulation that felt authentic (which wouldn't matter anyway since it would be all we knew...), it would be pointless, or at least not energy efficient.

It's a cute dystopian daydream that grows out of the ultra-rational, causal, mechanistic, atheistic, fully disenchanted cosmos of our current global zeitgeist.

And you're right, I can't disprove it. I also can't disprove the immaculate conception - but I would just as well call you an idiot if you believe that.

[Lamar Doom]

The Ed McMahon not working for Publishers Clearing House thing has me f*cked up.

[Nanners]

This. i get the logic, but dont see the motive. Why would AI want to play a simulation of us? Just seems like a looney tech fueled form of nihilism. There's no reasoning behind why it would be, what are 'they' getting out of it?

If you are looking for "motive", I think you are kind of missing the point of simulated universe theory, dont think about it like theres AI that "wants to play a simulation of humans". The theory goes as follows - Humans are capable of simulating life, and over time our simulations are becoming more and more realistic. Eventually, assuming technological advancement continues, we will someday be able to run simulations that are virtually indistinguishable from the real world. If its true that a technologically advanced life form can run a perfect simulation, they would probably be running millions/billions/trillions+ simulations, and so it follows that we are orders of magnitude more likely to simply be a simulation of life rather than the real thing. Anyway, if a life form was advanced enough to be capable of simulating this thing that we humans perceive to be reality, they would be so much more advanced than us that we would probably be little more than cave men compared to them, and attempting to understand their "motives" in this case would be just as futile as it would be for a cave man to understand the "motives" that drive modern human activity.

Modern humans run (relatively primitive) simulations of life for all kinds of reasons. Biologists, sociologists, physicists, economists... there are lots of fields that use simulations to try to better understand the world and the universe. I have a good friend who is one of the worldwide experts in AI, and at any given moment he is probably running thousands of simulations of life on his computers. The main thing my friend is trying to get out of these simulations is just a better understanding of how evolution takes place.

[Nanners]

The world changed in 2012, but it didnt "die"... what happened was our version of reality got inter-dimensionally bumped onto a different cosmic pathway in the multiverse. This happened because autistic 4chan users posted so many pepe memes that they accidentally manifested "kek", the egyptian god of chaos. Kek shifted our entire reality from the from the "Berenstein bear" universe to the "Berenstain bear" universe, which is why reality suddenly seems so crazy with trannies suddenly appearing everywhere and Trump becoming president.

But dont take my word for it, you can see the undeniable proof for yourself

[Prometheus]

It wouldn't even have to be perfectly realistic, since it's all we would know. If this is a simulation after all (I still think you're an idiot if you believe that), then for all we know it is horribly unrealistic. Maybe the real versions of pain, pleasure, etc. are much more vivid than in this "world". Without a comparison, it doesn't need to be accurate.

[Nanners]

It wouldn't even have to be perfectly realistic, since it's all we would know. If this is a simulation after all (I still think you're an idiot if you believe that), then for all we know it is horribly unrealistic. Maybe the real versions of pain, pleasure, etc. are much more vivid than in this "world". Without a comparison, it doesn't need to be accurate.

a good observation. if we are agents within a simulation, we would have no way of knowing how simplistic or "realistic" the simulation is relative to the level of complexity in the non-simulated "real" universe.

[macmac]

It wouldn't even have to be perfectly realistic, since it's all we would know. If this is a simulation after all (I still think you're an idiot if you believe that), then for all we know it is horribly unrealistic. Maybe the real versions of pain, pleasure, etc. are much more vivid than in this "world". Without a comparison, it doesn't need to be accurate.

Based on Musk

[ZeN]

The Ed McMahon not working for Publishers Clearing House thing has me f*cked up.

You'll never convince me that he didn't.