
Billionaires convinced we live in the Matrix, funding scientists to break us out - alxmdev
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/computer-simulation-world-matrix-scientists-elon-musk-artificial-intelligence-ai-a7347526.html
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planteen
_Mr Musk spoke earlier this year about the fact that he believes that the
chance that we are not living in a computer simulation is "one in billions".
He said that he had come to that conclusion after a chat in a hot tub, where
it was pointed out that computing technology has advanced so quickly that at
some point in the future it will become indistinguishable from real life –
and, if it does, there’s no reason to think that it hasn’t done already and
that that’s what we are currently living through._

The hubris of making such statement after a hot tub chat when no evidence
exists is insane. In 1880, everyone with interest in Arctic exploration "knew"
that the north pole was an open sea and would be balmy. I wonder what things
we "know" today will be laughed at by our great grandchildren?

~~~
jwhite
Generally agree, but I think that by 1880 the British had finally come to
their senses and given up on Arctic exploration. Franklin's expedition [0] was
1845 - 1848 or so, and the subsequent extensive searches for him into the
1850s provided a lot more knowledge of the geography, but they seem to have
also made everyone finally confront the futility of the task. The British
Admiralty didn't fund another expedition until 1875-1876 when the Nares
expedition to reach the North Pole failed [1], and the general conclusion was
that there was no Open Polar Sea. They gave up on Arctic exploration after
that.

So maybe shift 1880 back to 1840.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin%27s_lost_expedition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin%27s_lost_expedition)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Arctic_Expedition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Arctic_Expedition)

EDIT: formatting

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planteen
The Jeannete expedition of 1878 was the last expecting an open polar sea, at
least according to Hampton Sides's book In the Kingdom of Ice. The
expedition's captain met with world-renowned cartographer and open polar sea
advocate August Petermann before leaving. While they were en route, it was
discovered that the Kuroshio current was nowhere near as strong as
anticipated.

~~~
jwhite
Thanks for the reference, I'll have to find a copy.

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FullMtlAlcoholc
He's not the only one. As I was driving home, alone, a few days ago, I heard
my brother's voice say will you pick up some In N Out on the way home. Not one
minute later, he calls me and asks for a double double meal. It most
definitely was not deja vu, it was a bug in the simulation's audio streaming
socket, a veritable glitch in the matrix!

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antiquark
Yeah but why would Musk want to discover that he isn't really a billionaire,
but in fact an unconscious hairless dude living in a pod of goo and wired into
a giant computer?

Anyways he better be careful or he'll be flushed into the vast waste pit for
knowing too much.

Hey, maybe Musk think he's "The One!"

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lilcarlyung
Maybe us living things are nodes in an artificial neural network? We as a
network are reaching self-awareness. Holy shit.

~~~
glandium
All that to compute the question which answer is 42.

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supercoder
We almost certainly do, and I'm happy someone is finally solving this issue

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infradig
If there is something that is known to be true, but can't be computed,
wouldn't that invalidate the simulation hypothesis?

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steego
When will you NPCs wake up and realize all this is not for you?

Back to work!

