John
Tierney, the New York Times Science writer, on Nick Bostrom.
Are you living in a computer
simulation? (The website)
Are you living in a
computer simulation? (Bostrom,
2003).
The Matrix as metaphysics. (Chalmers, n.d.)
How to live in a
simulation (Hanson, 2004)
From Wikipedia:
“He [Bostrom]
suggests that if it is possible to
simulate entire inhabited planets or even entire universes on a computer, and
that such simulated people can be fully conscious, then the sheer number
of such simulations likely to be produced by any sufficiently advanced
civilization (taken together with his Strong Self-Sampling Assumption) makes it
extremely likely that we are in fact currently living in such a simulation.” (emphasis added).
An interesting question: can simulated persons be fully
conscious?