Difference between revisions of "Simulation argument"
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| − | The '''Simulation argument''' is an argument for the [[ | + | The '''Simulation argument''' is an argument for the [[simulation hypothesis]], the concept was popularized in 2003 by Nick Bostrom's paper "Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?" where he argues that one of following propositions is true: |
* (1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a “posthuman” stage | * (1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a “posthuman” stage | ||
Revision as of 07:39, 30 June 2012
The Simulation argument is an argument for the simulation hypothesis, the concept was popularized in 2003 by Nick Bostrom's paper "Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?" where he argues that one of following propositions is true:
- (1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a “posthuman” stage
- (2) any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof)
- (3) we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation.
It follows that the belief that there is a significant chance that we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor simulations is false, unless we are currently living in a simulation.
References
- Bostrom, Nick (2001,2003) Are You Living in a Computer Simulation Philosophical Quarterly (2003) Vol. 53, No. 211, pp. 243‐255.
- Bostrom, Nick (2011) A Patch for the Simulation Argument Analysis, Vol. 71, No. 1 (2011): 54-61
