From: David Musick (David_Musick@msn.com)
Date: Sat Aug 31 1996 - 12:31:37 MDT
When we're uploaded, we'll be able to experience incredibly detailed worlds,
even entire lifetimes. We could even make the part of ourselves experiencing
the lifetimes forget that they are really an upload, so that the life
experience seems more real, so that we could fully immerse ourselves in the
life experience.
Considering this, I can't help wondering if this has already happened. Am I
an upload, living in a virtual world? I can't think of any way to prove that
I'm NOT living in a virtual world. Although, there may be ways to prove that
one IS living in a virtual world, although I don't have any strong evidence
for the theory that I AM living in a virtual world.
Now, I can see a lot of people on this list recoiling from the idea that we
are already living in a virtual world because this would open up the
possiblilty that a lot of the Mystical, New-Age, Religious "bullshit" is
correct. If we are living in a virtual world, then "miracles" would be very
possible, like special effects in a movie. It would also open up the
possibility that we DO have some kind of "spirit" or "soul", in relation to
the lifetime we are experiencing (that is, that we have the major part of
ourselves living somewhere else besides this lifetime).
However, I don't think that it is valid to reject the idea that we are already
living in a virtual world, simply because it opens up the possibilities that
the "irrationalists" are right about certain aspects of reality. Maybe there
is some truth to what they are saying. But, then again, maybe not, but I'm
not finding it easy to dismiss the idea that I *MAY* already be living in a
virtual world. How could I tell the difference?
- David Musick
"Anarchy is simply when every country has a population of one."
- David Musick
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