Living in a Simulation

Imaginary Worlds

Eric Molinsky

Arts, Science Fiction, Fiction, Society & Culture

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 June 2021

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Is it possible that we are living in an imaginary world? That is the premise of many science fiction stories, but some scientists have begun to wonder whether it’s not a fantasy. Perhaps what we think of as reality is a computer simulation and we’re basically just advanced versions of The Sims and don’t know it. I talk with video games entrepreneur Rizwan Virk about what advanced civilization might be lurking outside our reality, and how he draws upon real physics, The Matrix and Philip K. Dick to prove The Simulation Hypothesis in his book. And we’ll hear one of my favorite stories from the podcast Snap Judgment, where the journalist Stephanie Foo creates a version of herself in The Sims and discovers eerie parallels to her own life. “Sim Stephanie” was originally produced for Snap Judgment in 2014. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Tab for a cause is a browser extension that lets you raise money for charity while doing
0:04.9	your thing online.
0:06.6	Whenever you open a new tab, you'll see a beautiful background photo and a small ad.
0:11.6	And part of that ad money goes towards a charity of your choice.
0:15.6	It's free and incredibly easy.
0:18.1	Transform your tabs into a force for good in just 30 seconds.
0:22.4	Find up at tabforacaws.org slash imaginary worlds.
0:30.6	You're listening to imaginary worlds.
0:32.2	A show about how we create them and why we suspend our disbelief.
0:35.8	American Linsky.
0:38.2	I start out every episode by saying that.
0:40.6	But I'm always assuming that we're taking a step back from these virtual worlds and examining
0:45.2	our relationship to them.
0:47.5	But what if the real world is an imaginary world?
0:51.7	What if we're not real people, but virtual people in a computer simulation?
0:57.5	That is the premise of a gazillion science fiction stories and many episodes of Black Mirror.
1:04.3	But some scientists are beginning to wonder if it's not science fiction.
1:09.2	In 2003, the first person who made this point and get a lot of people's attention was
1:13.5	Nick Bostrom who was a philosophy professor at Oxford.
1:17.5	But scientists have chimed in like Neil deGrasse Tyson who has said that he thinks the chances
1:23.1	that we're living in a computer simulation are 50-50.
1:27.1	But this idea really went viral when Elon Musk endorsed it in 2016.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Eric Molinsky, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Eric Molinsky and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.