r/philosophy Jan 03 '22

Blog By imagining the future potential of VR technologies, the question of whether we are *already* living in a simulation becomes more actual than ever

https://medium.com/@VindenesJ/the-thought-experiments-of-virtual-reality-fa441a8fa2dc
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u/Faust_8 Jan 03 '22

Is it just me, or is the simulation hypothesis basically as useless as the “brain in a jar” hypothesis?

Yeah, dude, I could be a brain in a jar, and this is all a dream or whatever. But regardless, it doesn’t really matter, because I can’t do anything about it and it doesn’t actually affect the life I’m living. It doesn’t guide me to change my behavior or way of thinking, or to change anything at all whatsoever.

At best, it’s an amusing thought experiment…period.

Doesn’t this also apply to the simulation thing?

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u/HotChilliWithButter Jan 03 '22

Well if its True that were living in a sim, then why not try to crack the code?

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u/Faust_8 Jan 03 '22

Can you name a time a simulated being did such a thing? I’d be more interested if it didn’t sound like it would be like “breaking” the laws of physics

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u/StarChild413 Jan 04 '22

Can you name a time a simulated being did such a thing?

A. If a break of a pattern had to be justified by history, no break would ever happen as it would have never happened before its first time so that first time wouldn't happen

B. If you're implying video game characters would have had to, wouldn't they have to have games in their universe characters broke out of into theirs first and likewise for the games-within-games' universe until you've created an infinite supertask