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Category: alien life

How likely is it that we live in a simulation? Are virtual worlds real?

In this first episode of the 2nd Series we delve into the fascinating topic of virtual reality simulations and the extraordinary possibility that our universe is itself a simulation. For thousands of years some mystical traditions have maintained that the physical world and our separated ‘selves’ are an illusion, and now, only with the development of our own computer simulations and virtual worlds have scientists and philosophers begun to assess the statistical probabilities that our shared reality could in fact be some kind of representation rather than a physical place.
As we become more open to these possibilities, other difficult questions start to come into focus. How can we create a common language to talk about matter and energy, that bridges the simulated and simulating worlds. Who could have created such a simulation? Could it be an artificial intelligence rather than a biological or conscious being? Do we have ethical obligations to the virtual beings we interact with in our virtual worlds and to what extent are those beings and worlds ‘real’? The list is long and mind bending.

Fortunately, to untangle our thoughts on this, we have one of the best known philosophers of all things mind bending in the world, Dr. David Chalmers; who has just released a book ‘Reality+: virtual worlds and the problems of philosophy’ about this very topic. Dr. Chalmers is an Australian philosopher and cognitive scientist specialising in the areas of philosophy of mind and philosophy of language. He is a Professor of Philosophy and Neuroscience at New York University, as well as co-director of NYU’s Center for Mind, Brain and Consciousness. He’s the founder of the ‘Towards a Science of Consciousness Conference’ at which he coined the term in 1994 The Hard Problem of Consciousness, kicking off a renaissance in consciousness studies, which has been increasing in popularity and research output ever since.

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What we discuss in this episode:
00:00 Short Intro.
06:00 Synesthesia.
08:27 The science of knowing the nature of reality.
11:02 The Simulation Hypothesis explained.
15:25 The statistical probability evaluation.
18:00 Knowing for sure is beyond the reaches of science.
19:00 You’d only have to render the part you’re interacting with.
20:00 Clues from physics.
22:00 John Wheeler — ‘It from bit’
23:32 Eugene Wigner: measurement as a conscious observation.
27:00 Information theory as a useful but risky hold-all language tool.
34:30 Virtual realities are real and virtual interactions are meaningful.
37:00 Ethical approaches to Non-player Characters (NPC’s) and their rights.
38:45 Will advanced AI be conscious?
42:45 Is god a hacker in the universe up? Simulation Theology.
44:30 Simulation theory meets the argument for the existence of God from design.
51:00 The Hard problem of consciousness applies to AI too.
55:00 Testing AI’s consciousness with the Turing test.
59:30 Ethical value applied to immoral actions in virtual worlds.

References:

Continue reading “THE SIMULATION HYPOTHESIS & VIRTUAL WORLDS — David Chalmers PHD #16” | >

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Is the universe actually thinking—literally, not just as a metaphor? We dive into the latest theories from physicists, exploring ideas like the universe as a vast neural network, capable of processing and even learning information, much like our own brains do.

Tune in as we explore the boundaries between science, consciousness, and the universe itself.

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What do you think of when it comes to extra terrestrial life? Most popular sci-fi books and TV shows suggest humanoid beings could live on other planets. But when astronomers are searching for extra-terrestrial life, it is usually in the form of emissions from bacteria or other tiny organisms.

A new research paper in the Astrophysical Journal suggests that Cambridge scientists have managed to find this type of emission with a certainty of 99.7% from a planet called K2-18b, 124 light years away. They used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to analyze the chemical composition of the planet’s atmosphere and say they found promising evidence K2-18b could host life.

It’s an exciting breakthrough, but it doesn’t confirm alien life.

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Tissue from other organs, such as rat hearts and livers, has also been successfully cryopreserved and revived before. Whether this could eventually translate to putting an entire organ—or even an entire organism—in a state of suspended animation requires future research. Some animals produce their own cryoprotectants as they transition to a state of torpor to avoid harsh winters. This is something else scientists could learn from in the pursuit of artificial suspended animation. Alien and Foundation are onto something. Putting humans into a state of suspended animation during spaceflight would drastically reduce the risk of tissue damage caused by microgravity and extreme radiation. No one is trekking to Mars—at least not yet—so we still have time. But even just the thought is no less tantalizing.

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The first metal 3D-printed part ever manufactured in orbit has returned to Earth.

Produced using ESA’s Metal 3D Printer aboard the International Space Station.

The International Space Station (ISS) is a habitable artificial satellite that orbits Earth, serving as a space environment research laboratory where scientific research is conducted across multiple fields, including astrobiology, astronomy, and meteorology. Launched in 1998, the ISS is a joint project involving space agencies from the United States, Russia, Japan, Europe, and Canada. It functions both as a testament to international cooperation in space exploration and as a platform for extensive scientific experiments conducted in the unique conditions of space.

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Scientists are left baffled after NASA’s Perseverance rover discovered a bizarre rock on Mars.

The captured images show hundreds of millimetre-sized marbles packed together in an alien-like mass.

Unlike anything ever seen before, the marbles strikingly stand out in the rusty red dust that covers the Martian surface.

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Are we alone in the universe? The answer to one of humanity’s biggest questions is complicated by a basic reality: If there is life on other worlds, it may not look familiar. A sample of rocks from Mars or another planet almost certainly won’t have recognizable fossils or another similarly obvious sign of living organisms, said Mikhail Tikhonov, an assistant professor of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis who studies microbial communities.

But just because we might not recognize signs of life on a distant moon or planet doesn’t mean it’s actually lifeless. “There could be life forms out there that defy our imagination,” Tikhonov said.

Searching for life that we don’t understand may seem like an impossible mission. In a paper published in Nature Communications, Tikhonov and co-author Akshit Goyal of the International Centre for Theoretical Science in Bengaluru, India, propose a new idea. Instead of looking for particular molecules or compounds associated with life as we know it, scientists can look for telltale patterns of energy.

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