From: Blaze Spinnaker
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/opinion/sunday/is-the-universe-a-simulatio n.html?_r=0 This is a shallow rehash analysis in a way, at least for those of us who want to see further developments and insight in the Sim field, and considering the pedigree of Frenkel. He could have dug a bit deeper IMO. Forget a "Universal sim" and look at the more probable case. For instance, one twist which came up recently is the possibility that some, or many, individuals, can be living lives which are caught in their own personal neural simulation, but within the framework of a "normal" reality. This could be a natural thing - like karma, not requiring AI and so on. Or there could be minimal supervision. Think about the Bruce Willis character in the Shyamalan film "Sixth Sense". you remember. the kick in the gut when the kid sez "I see dead people" and you realize he's talking about you. Another twist in the "Sim vs Real" dichotomy is highlighted in the neglected cult TV series "Doll house" (episode 10) where Echo, the "Active" (which is a euphemism for occasional psychic-prostitute, and more), becomes the vehicle for the potential immortality of a recently deceased, very wealthy client. This happenstance is fiction for now but actually a near-term technological reality - and it brings into focus the issue of wealth and mortality-morality in a most unusual way. Can we buy immortality - even if it is a Sim? In fact, isn't the sequential Sim preferable in many ways? Heck, we get tired of one beautiful body and the next one costs only a few hundred million more, no problem. Everyone is happy. Wealth is redistributed. What's wrong with this picture?
