Journal article
Simulation expectation
- Abstract:
- I present a new argument that we are much more likely to be living in a computer simulation than in the ground-level of reality. (Similar arguments can be marshalled for the view that we are more likely to be Boltzmann brains than ordinary people, but I focus on the case of simulations.) I explain how this argument overcomes some objections to Bostrom’s classic argument for the same conclusion. I also consider to what extent the argument depends upon an internalist conception of evidence, and I refute the common line of thought that finding many simulations being run—or running them ourselves—must increase the odds that we are in a simulation.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Files:
-
-
(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 840.6KB, Terms of use)
-
- Publisher copy:
- 10.1007/s10670-024-00901-9
Authors
- Publisher:
- Springer
- Journal:
- Erkenntnis More from this journal
- Publication date:
- 2024-12-09
- Acceptance date:
- 2024-11-03
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
1572-8420
- ISSN:
-
0165-0106
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
-
2055450
- Local pid:
-
pubs:2055450
- Deposit date:
-
2024-11-08
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Thomas, T.
- Copyright date:
- 2024
- Rights statement:
- © The Author(s) 2024. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record