Physicist: Why the Alien Simulation Hypothesis Is Bunk – Discovery Institute

Image credit: Wendelin Jacober, via Flickr (cropped).

Matrixfans, take heed: Dartmouth College physicistMarcelo Gleiserisnota fan of the idea that we are all living in a giant simulation created by intelligent aliens. He takes issue with it forethical reasonsas well as physics ones: It is little more than a fancy excuse for escapist fantasizing.

Well, some prominent people in our world are escapists! That would include science broadcasterNeil deGrasse Tyson,driverless car entrepreneurElon Musk,and former Astronomer RoyalMartin Rees.

Gleiser, author ofThe Island of Knowledge(2014), traces the idea that our universe is a computer simulation by advanced aliens to an influential 2003paperby Oxford philosopherNick Bostrom,director of theFuture of Humanity Instituteand author ofSuperintelligence:Paths, Strategies, Dangers(2014).

Heres the papershypothesis:

This paper argues thatat least oneof 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. It follows that the belief that there is a significant chance that we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor simulations is false, unless we are currently living in a simulation. A number of other consequences of this result are also discussed.

There are some glitcheswith Bostroms whole approach,Gleiser notes:

One such glitch is that there is no reason to stop the simulation at one super-advanced posthuman (or alien) species. It could very well be that our simulators are being simulated by even more advanced simulators, and those by even more advanced ones, ad infinitum. Who is the First Simulator?

Assuming that the regression does not continue endlessly, only the First Simulator is real. But then, why do any simulators even bother?

For Bostroms argument to work, a key assumption is that advanced intelligences will have an interest in simulating their ancestors in this case, us. Why would they, exactly? Would they expect to gain some new information about their reality by looking at their evolutionary past? It seems to me that being so advanced, they would have collected enough knowledge about their past to leave them with little interest in this kind of simulation. Looking forward will interest them much more. They may have virtual reality museums, where they could go and experience the lives and tribulations of their ancestors. But a full-fledged, resource-consuming simulation of an entire Universe? This sounds like a colossal waste of time and energy.

Of course, really advanced simulators may have a nearly infinite number of demo universes to play with

At root, though, Gleiser just doesnt think that the notion (sometimes called theplanetarium hypothesis) that we are an advance aliens simulation is good for us.

Read the rest at Mind Matters News, published by Discovery Institutes Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence.

See the article here:

Physicist: Why the Alien Simulation Hypothesis Is Bunk - Discovery Institute