Cosmic revelation, or simulation

[n_hologram]

I think it was Heidegger who argued that the belief in the shadows-as-reality contains no less credibility or validity than the actual mechanisms creating the shadows, because both reveal some fundamental truth about how human beings construct reality.

Perhaps, we are all mere figments of Garry's dream.

[GarryRicketson]

Or am I the figment of somebody else's dream or nightmare ?

No, I don't really think for example, everyone or everything is a figment of my dreams, like wise, I am , because I am self aware, regardless of what others
might be dreaming.
I sort of think this where the line gets crossed, sanity /to insane , when one no longer can see the distinct differences between the "virtual world" they may have fabricated in their dreams, or mind, and the real world that keeps on going around them, regardless of what their fantasies and dreams are.
A shadow, is not aware of itself. (as far as I know)

[ticojohn]

Note that the article refers to empty space

Yes, that's the point of the theory — what you think of as "empty space" is actually filled with a seething mass of virtual particle-antiparticle

HOAS, I think your interpretation of what you read is somewhat misconstrued. For a better understanding, assuming you are not a theoretical physicist, take a look at this article, Or not. LOL!
https://profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-posts/particle-physics-basics/virtual-particles-what-are-they/
And if you read the article be sure to read the questions and answers at the end. Pretty illuminating, I think.

[stevepusser]

The Matrix movies at least had their characters with minds based in a real world brain, instead of being complete simulations. What if the simulated people that Neo blithely shot in the Matrix were actually self-concious? What if the Zion real world dystopia was actually yet another simulation?

These topics have been explored already in science fiction...if you want some real mind benders, read Greg Egan's Permutation City.

[ticojohn]

These topics have been explored already in science fiction...if you want some real mind benders, read Greg Egan's Permutation City.

And if you want a really cool read try Ready Player One. A future where almost everyone is totally immersed in a fantasy virtual reality. Fun read.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Greg Egan's Permutation City.

Great book!

His latest novel is set in a universe that has two dimensions of space and two dimensions of time

[n_hologram]

What if the simulated people that Neo blithely shot in the Matrix were actually self-concious?

I think in the first movie it mentions that they were definitely people, not programs, but because the Agent programs could SSH into normal people whenever it deemed necessary, they all became a liability for the goal of liberating the greater majority of people. Unless you meant the Agents as a program, and not their hosts; in which case, perhaps one might log the output of top as the "killall -9 top" command is run.

Code: Select all

ERROR: It hurts, steve....so...dark

That said, I wonder what pain is felt or maintained by something that is virtually immortal.

There's also a pretty rich tradition of epistemology prevalent in mythological thought. The universe, according to Hindu beliefs, for instance, is nothing more than the dream of the creator deity Vishnu ("Life is but a dream"), in addition to the quasi-schizophrenic idea of Maya (the veil of illusion; all reality is illusion, etc.). Joseph Campbell's books (ie, Hero With a Thousand Faces) touch on some obscure dimensions of all that, and connects it to similar systems of mythological thought.

Unrelated: I dreamed last night that one of my colleagues (not in the computer science/engineering/software fields) recompiled the linux kernel with all the grsec features with no negative repercussions against any programs or GUI features. I think I need to spend a few days camping...

[edbarx]

The problem with investigating how consciousness comes about in a human brain, is the fact that it is a private experience. For this reason the scientific method fails as there is no way to get data without observation. What is known from studying of biological brains is that they are extremely complicated with complex patterns of connections many of which forming intricate feedback loops. Unlike a computer, where a logic circuit, let us say a binary adder must not affect an inverter, in a biological brain, everything seems to be interconnected.

I remember about ten years ago I was interested, and still am, in how consciousness is generated. I searched online for scientific articles making a conscious effort to avoid opinions. After a lot of reading, I came to the conclusion that the best hypothesis to date that attempts to explain consciousness, is Dr Tononi's 'Integrated Information Theory'. The latter is still in its infancy as it cannot explain how the various aspects of consciousness are generated.

In my opinion, please be informed I am no neuroscientist, consciousness is generated at synapses with quantum states at many synapses at different cells, affecting each other as in some form of quantum entaglement that has yet to be understood. This distributed quantum 'dance' is maintained for a period of time by neuronal synchrony. It is known, consciousness only occurs if a large set of neurons oscillate together.

[n_hologram]

On the topic of dreams, I dreamt last night that I wrote a really sophisticated bash script to solve this user's problem: viewtopic.php?f=30&t=136543

I'm disappointed to report that, now that I'm awake, it is not there.
Perchance to dream...