The most basic answer is that we classify some experiences as illusions only by contrasting them with other, more permanent and repeatable, experiences that we classify as real. Therefore, it is meaningless to ask whether all experiences are illusions.
For the question to be meaningful and to have any practical significance, there would have to be some way for us to differentiate between the virtual reality that we are in and the reality beyond it. Andrea (scroll down) tells me that there is one piece of evidence. At the sub-sub-atomic level, scientists detect a "fuzziness" which, it is thought, would be more characteristic of a virtual reality than of a reality.
The statistical argument is that an indefinite number of virtual realities could be generated from a single physical reality. Therefore, we are more likely to be living in one of the former than in the latter.
This is Philip K.Dick's preoccupation. I prefer the broader range of Poul Anderson's works.
4 comments:
I understand that some physicists are running tests to determine whether this is a simulation... but the tests would only work if it's a simulation run on hardware with certain limits. I don't think the hypothesis is really falsifiable, since a perfect illusion is, by definition, perfect. Therefore the question isn't really meaningful.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
If a perfect illusion is, by definition, perfect, is it in any meaningful way distinct from what is physically real? Or is such a question merely a sophistry?
Sean
The question isn't meaningful inside the illusion; but of course the makers could alter it. From the p.o.v. of Poul's characters in Genesis, the illusion of the simulations is perfect... but they know it's an illusion, having come from outside it.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
I agree your response makes sense. Despite the "emulations" being "real" to the characters inside them, Christian and Laurinda knew they were illusions.
I remember the difficulties I had with the characters in Gaia's "emulations" somehow, in a sense, being "real." To me it looked like self induced schizophrenia, knowingly created multiple personalities on the AI's part.
And, of course, the issue of whether or not true AIs are even possible is another issue!
Sean
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