Are We Merely Players in a Computer Simulation?

Have you been feeling kind of weird today? Well, one reason may be that you’re glitching out. According to Nick Bostrom, philosopher at Oxford University, the chances that you’re a virtual creation living in a computer simulation are surprisingly high: 

This possibility rests on three developments: (1) the aforementioned megacomputer. (2) The survival and evolution of the human race to a “posthuman” stage. (3) A decision by these posthumans to research their own evolutionary history, or simply amuse themselves, by creating us – virtual simulacra of their ancestors, with independent consciousnesses.

Horrifying, right? 

-Richard Clark

[via, img]