The Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom argues that at least one of the 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… The appeal of the hypothesis, and its shocking third option, is partly that it’s a challenge to the basic foundations of our perceptions… There have, naturally, been several critiques of Bostrom’s hypothesis, some on complex logical grounds, and some arguing that creating convincing ancestor simulations will remain impossible. But the hypothesis has attracted the interest and attention of many futurologists and Silicon Valley types. The New Yorker reported last year that two unnamed tech billionaires have gone so far as to employ scientists to work out how to break us out of the simulation.
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Keanu Reeves: Matrix by The Wachowski Brothers, 1999
theguardian.com, Andrew Anthony, 10.04.2017
Nick Bostrom, Philosophical Quarterly (2003) Vol. 53, pp. 243‐255
newyorker.com, Tad Friend, 10.10.2016