Journal article
Are you living in a computer simulation?
- Abstract:
- This paper argues that at least one of the following propositions is true: (1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a "posthuman" stage; (2) any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof); (3) we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation. It follows that the belief that there is a significant chance that we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor-simulations is false, unless we are currently living in a simulation. A number of other consequences of this result are also discussed.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Files:
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(Author's original, bin, 94.0KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1111/1467-9213.00309
Authors
- Publisher:
- Blackwell Publishing
- Journal:
- Philosophical Quarterly More from this journal
- Volume:
- 53
- Issue:
- 211
- Pages:
- 243-255
- Publication date:
- 2003-04-01
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1467-9213
- ISSN:
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0031-8094
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Subjects:
- UUID:
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uuid:44c386c4-5d9e-4ecf-a47c-9631a2a59747
- Local pid:
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ora:1666
- Deposit date:
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2008-03-14
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Bostrom, N
- Copyright date:
- 2003
- Notes:
-
The definitive version of this article is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com’.
Citation: Bostrom, N. (2003). 'Are you living in a computer simulation?, Philosophical Quarterly, 53 (211), 243-255.
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