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Last night at Recode’s Code Conference, Tesla CEO Elon Musk casually explained that we are all probably elements in a computer program or large simulation and that the idea that we are living in “base reality” is a figment.
I could try and boil down his argument in sum, but it’s really just better to immerse yourself in the, uh, theorizing.
From Vox:
The strongest argument for us being in a simulation probably is the following. Forty years ago we had Pong. Like, two rectangles and a dot. That was what games were.
Now, 40 years later, we have photorealistic, 3D simulations with millions of people playing simultaneously, and it’s getting better every year. Soon we’ll have virtual reality, augmented reality.
If you assume any rate of improvement at all, then the games will become indistinguishable from reality, even if that rate of advancement drops by a thousand from what it is now. Then you just say, okay, let’s imagine it’s 10,000 years in the future, which is nothing on the evolutionary scale.”
Asked about whether he truly believes that humanity is simply a technological simulation in someone else’s reality, Musk said, “There’s a one in billions chance we’re in base reality.”
Nobody asked Musk who his weed dealer is.
