

Is it possible to create a world like in the movie Matrix? - sepyanser

I love the the virtual reality techonology and it's about to become my job. So, I always wanted to disguss this topic and I think this is a good place to do.
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shanelja
Firstly, you would need one hell of a system set up, we aren't just talking
mainframe servers in a building, we are talking entire city blocks dedicated
to this. The challenge is computing everything, you need to be able to work
out the physics, smells, lighting, feel, taste, etc of everything the people
would be interacting with, it's not as simple as virtual reality, where you
are just wearing a headset, because in virtual reality, you know it isn't
real.

Then you would need some kind of advanced sedative, something capable of
keeping the person relaxed, calm, but also allowing their brain to function at
a primitive level, enough for them to be able to enjoy the dream, but not
enough for them to come to their senses and realise that their world isn't
real.

After that, you would need a method of feeding the people, which would most
likely involve intravenous tubes or some kind of stomach tubing system. Aside
from this you would need dedicated medical units, to monitor the people but
also to keep them healthy and save from risks such as deep vain thrombosis and
sores.

Then you would need synaptic plug in devices of some kind, to interface with
nerves in the persons body, you need to find the process by which their brain
gets input from parts of the body and receives output and put yourself in the
middle of this process, taking the output, processing it on your machine to
simulate whatever it is you require and then feeding that directly back in to
the persons body as they would normally receive the input back to their brain.

You would have to do this so efficiently that you would never fail, bare in
mind that not only are you responsible for keeping them in this static state,
you are responsible for keeping them alive, their lungs would likely be faulty
from years of being driven by the machine, so if your oxygen delivery system
has a wide spread failure you could lose your entire stock.

These are just some of the challenges you would face. In short, yes, you could
create that world and you could also populate it correctly, but it would
likely be the single most difficult technological endeavour humans have so far
faced (as a whole, instead of broken in to the individual requirements.)

~~~
traxtech
Why trying to fully replicate the real world ? If you're presented a less than
perfect virtual reality as the available reality as soon as you're born,
that'll be __your __reality.

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shanelja
I'm unsure of whether you're correct, our bodies are designed to be in this
reality and this is (presumably) what feels most natural to us. I think it
falls down to genetic memory, the idea that we inherit parts of our
subconscious self from our ancestors.

We would know the world is not real, just as you know your skin should not be
made from potato peels, it would be a natural and instinctive reaction to
instantly realise if this was to change.

Unless of course, I'm perfectly wrong, perhaps living inside of a Matrix style
computer program which dictates everything I do and me telling you this is all
some control method for the masses to stop you eventually inventing this
system.

It's lucky it's Halloween, because when you think about it conspiratorially,
it's kind of spooky.

~~~
krapp
> _Our bodies are designed to be in this reality and this is (presumably) what
> feels most natural to us._

You would have to design humans to accept that reality, perhaps. I've believed
all sorts of utterly incorrect things about myself and my reality while i've
been dreaming, and not noticed the fluid nature of that experience until i
woke up -- but that's because I had another state to wake up _to_ , and some
structure or system in my brain that differentiates between dreaming and
waking stimuli, and prioritizes the latter over the former. Genetics can be
altered, and with them, what the brain expects to be real.

~~~
shanelja
I hate to make a "me too" kind of post, but very well put, I didn't think of
it that way, you've opened my eyes to another way of seeing things.

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chris_dcosta
There is some discussion in science about us already being in such a world,
and how it could be observed.

This is a radio clip from the BBC _briefly_ outlining work that is already
being done to test the theory. It requires build simulators of the real world
and bizarrely requires a "matrix" to hang our reality on to "correct" it to be
in line with things like Einstein's relativity.

All very spooky...

[http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9763000/9763772....](http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9763000/9763772.stm)

~~~
mb_72
Ahh, the good old simulation argument: <http://www.simulation-argument.com/>
The paper (linked above) is a 'must-read', IMHO, and moderately-easily
understandable.

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wh-uws
John Carmack did a pretty fascinating segment about his work on something to
this effect with a head mounted display at QuakeCon this year

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=wt-
iVFxgFWk#t=3935s)

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joaonunesk
Aren't we living in a virtual world? You should define virtual and real.
Perhaps, the answer is in front of you!

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constantin
Yes.

