Our Lives, Controlled From Some Guy’s Couch

This article, in the NY Times of 14th August, postulates a fascinating theory regarding the nature of the universe ...."There's a 20% chance" says Nick Bostrom, philosopher and the director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford, "that we might be living in someone else's computer simulation. "

What, he says, if some futuristic computer geeks, using advanced computing power, were running ancestor simulations to explore their evolutionary history, or were maybe even just having fun, the way today's kids play The Sims, Warcraft etc? It could mean that nothing we see, hear, feel, taste, touch, or experience is real. Its all virtual. WE are all virtual. Which would go a long way to supporting the idea of multiple or parallel universes

He explores the concept in some depth, wondering whether in fact those futuristic computer geeks might not be computer simulations themselves, with layer upon layer of simulations until you get all the way back to the Prime Designer....

But here's the most interesting aspect. He says: "It’s unsettling to think of the world being run by a futuristic computer geek, although we might at last dispose of that of classic theological question: How could God allow so much evil in the world? For the same reason there are plagues and earthquakes and battles in games like World of Warcraft. Peace is boring, Dude."

Read the whole article HERE.