Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/03/01/the-oscars-was-more-proof-that.html
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If we were living in a simulation then wouldn’t the Matrix sequels have been better?
Or were they awful by design so we subroutines would be so turned off by the idea that we’d put it out of our heads for good?
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The whole point of using machines for this sort of thing is because they don’t make mistakes.
What is scarier than the idea that there is God, or a secret cabal, or a computer pulling all the strings and controlling everything - is that there is nothing. We are just bumbling along the best we can.
Also, origin of my “done by machines cuz they don’t make mistakes” reference:
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So, this is what it’s like when the NPC’s discover someone’s installed a mod?
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I want to believe, but am afraid that this encapsulates the truth. We’re incapable of “keeping the ship afloat” it seems, and though tempting as it is to ascribe this to the supernatural/conspiratorial, I’m afraid we just need to own our shit.
And man does it stink.
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I’m amused by all the simulation-heads claiming we must be in a simulation. If someone goes from 5% to 70% confidence that he’s living in a sim, of what use is that confidence? It doesn’t provide a blueprint for better living; you still need to eat, sleep, reconcile your relationships, remedy pain that you feel, and enjoy the good things you have.
To me, the sim-heads are just another variant of the god-heads, except without the twist that the gods will be angry if you don’t mewl and crawl your way through life singing their praises. I suppose that’s progress.
In the rich/celebrity crowds, it seems the sim-head movement is attracting the same bored+unstable folks that previously flitted around the scientology lamp. Again, compared to scientology, I’d consider the sim-heads a step forward; the sim stuff is a whole lot less falsifiable than the scientology stuff, so at least there’s less of a glaring ignorance of reality in the sim stuff.
But I still have no admiration for people who pick one of billions of utterly unfalsifiable theories and claim it’s “the one”. The invisible pink unicorn who lives on the dark side of the moon (and teleports to Alpha Centauri whenever a space probe flies by) was there first, and we don’t need more.
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the glitched image
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Well of course we’re living in a simulation, it’s how we manage to live together. When you bake a “cake,” it only fits that category and appears to be a cake because there already IS that category. (Gawd, I never thought I’d end up channeling popo!) The common mistake is to assume a man or two behind the curtain, pulling all the levers or pushing all the buttons. And so, it seems to me that the more interesting question than whether we live in a simulation is, why do so many cling to the fantasy of one or two (or some tiny cabal of) master controllers?
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It is true that there has been a glitch in true history. The second coming happened, but it was covered up, and so the end is unfolding without Christ having risen up.
This should be interesting.
I think this is a fantasy that is pointless at best. I get that it’s fun and that guys like Elon Musk get their rocks off spitballing this stuff but it smacks too much of religious fantasy to me. Basically:
“The real world is beyond this one and that what happens here isn’t as important as what happens here and if something bad happens it’s because of God or the machine made a mistake and there’s nothing to be done and we might as well give up because we aren’t in control anyway.”
Drives me crazy.
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No need to be so dramatic. It’s merely that the era of American cultural hegemony is coming to an end. Bigger and much more persistent empires have crumbled under their own decadence throughout history.
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If I knew life was a simulation I could at least relax.
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I’m not so sure that’s true.
Doesn’t that mean we may as well behave as if we are living in a simulation?
Don’t like your world? Then hack it.
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You said it best, Dude.
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Surely it means that were living in the wrong multiverse. Not the one where Hitler won the war or another where Trump never made it to President.
I didn’t believe in the multiverse until Trump won , now I pray it does.
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the ship stays afloat quite nicely without us, and we are neither captain, crew, nor paying customers on this ship.
It’s not our job to fix it, we are not smart enough to understand it, but all we have to do is put down the monkey wrenches and stop breaking things, as breaking things is all we actually DO.
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Yeah, I’d go crazy if I though every religious person was like that. Fortunately I know that most of them are not at all like -that-.
Not everyone is a rabid fundamentalist, and you do yourself no favors by assuming so. Hope some day you dare to expose yourself to what a variety of people of faith are like, and put away the caricature you rely on to represent them all.
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[quote=“Thrull1, post:10, topic:96123”]it smacks too much of religious fantasy to me[/quote]There surely has to be a record of similar speculation in, say, the later days of Rome. (And that sounds like a good way for a Humanities department somewhere to make a name for itself.)
My friend’s theory that the Chicago Cubs made some sort of awful bargain with an extraplanar entity in order to finally win the World Series makes about as much sense. I mean, you don’t just go breaking a curse without dealing with some Bad Stuff, and a curse that was 70 years old had to have accumulated some significant Bad Stuff.
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This is what appeals to me about Indian spirituality, Hindu are onto something resonant. (and also Neil Gaiman).
God Contains Multitudes!
(listen to this liberal, defending God, speaking of channeling someone else!)
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