The first is that consciousness can be simulated in a computer, with logic gates standing in for the brain's synapses and neurotransmitters. The argument is based on two premises, both of which can be disputed but neither of which are unreasonable. But recently, a number of philosophers, futurists, science-fiction writers, and technologists-people who share a near-religious faith in technological progress-have come to believe that the simulation argument is not just plausible, but inescapable. Many people have imagined this scenario over the years, of course, usually while high. (One such mapping effort, the BRAIN Initiative, has been funded by the Obama Administration.) The argument ends by proposing that we are, in fact, digital beings living in a vast computer simulation created by our far-future descendants. (Raffi Khatchadourian profiled Bostrom for this magazine last year.) The simulation argument begins by noticing several present-day trends in technology, such as the development of virtual reality and the mapping of the human brain. Musk, it seems, has been persuaded by what philosophers call the “ simulation argument,” an idea given its definitive form in a 2003 paper by the Oxford philosopher and futurologist Nick Bostrom. The likelihood that we are living in “base reality,” he concluded, was just “one in billions.” Citing the speed with which video games are improving, he suggested that the development of simulations “indistinguishable from reality” was inevitable. “I’ve had so many simulation discussions it’s crazy,” Musk said. What, a man in the audience asked, did Musk make of the idea that we are living not in the real world, but in an elaborate computer simulation? Musk exhibited a surprising familiarity with this concept.
Last week, Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and other cutting-edge companies, took a surprising question at the Code Conference, a technology event in California.
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