#Is the world a simulation cracked#
#Is the world a simulation series#

It has also been the subject of countless science-fiction stories, including, most influentially, The Matrix film series. ItвЂ™s a hoary metaphysical debate that has concerned thinkers as diverse as Descartes, Zhuang Zhou and even, arguably, the godfather of philosophy, Plato. What if the reality IвЂ™ve returned to isnвЂ™t real but just another, more finely realised simulation? What if the thing our senses вЂ“ so easily fooled by the headset вЂ“ tell us is real life are in fact an elaborate creation, every bit as illusory as that IвЂ™d experienced on the precarious pathway built out of pixels? I experience a kind of ontological dissonance, as it takes a few minutes before the familiar returns to its reliable concrete self.ДЄnd in that discomfort, that bodily sense of uncertainty, there lies a far more profound and unsettling question. It is something of a relief, but also disorienting, to remove the headset and return to the real world. Leaving aside the moral implications of this change вЂ“ and whether it heralds greater self-absorption and social detachment вЂ“ what is notable, for me, is the aftereffect.

You are instead the star of what feels like an alternative reality. VR is different because itвЂ™s not like a film, in which you watch other people in an invented reality. There are a whole range of emotions we havenвЂ™t used because weвЂ™ve always had to do it through empathy.вЂќД®lon Musk, the man behind the electric car company Tesla, and SpaceX, has said itвЂ™s a вЂbillions to one chance that weвЂ™re not living in a simulationвЂ™. In VR you donвЂ™t need to do that set-up because itвЂ™s you. So part of the film is setting you up to like him. вЂњAnd the point I make is that in order to care about it, you have to care about him. вЂњI do talks and I have this image of Harold Lloyd whoвЂ™s about to fall off this clock,вЂќ says Ranyard. And what are stories if not representations, or simulations, of reality? Computer games are a form of story, and human beings are devoted storytellers.ДЄs Yuval Noah Harari argues in his book Sapiens, the ability to create binding fictions is what enabled us to become the most dominant species on the planet. But thereвЂ™s also something else going on here, a radical change of narrative perspective. So from one perspective itвЂ™s just another video game with added thrills. My brain sends signals to my body that create the illusion that itвЂ™s shooting around like a pinball, when in fact I am stationary. External reality has fallen away and I am in a strange and compelling world, anxious not to fall off the terrifying precipices. I feel and therefore believe that I am physically moving back and forth, as though I am on a chair on wheels. In terms of skill, it is quite simple, but the striking aspect of the game is the physical sensation of playing it.

#Is the world a simulation series#

The ball travels along a high narrow pathway in a vertiginous 3D computer simulation, and I must guide it into various targets to get to the next stages, where a series of ever more fantastic backdrops unfold. In front of me I can see a ball, which I can move by looking at a cursor. I feel instantly removed from my environment. Ranyard thinks the price will continue to fall, as will the size of the headset, until it becomes more like wearing a pair of glasses.Д«ut right now IвЂ™m wearing a large case over my eyes, and headphones. Now you can pick up a reasonable VR set for ВЈ600. Ten years ago VR was the preserve of wealthy вЂњearly adoptersвЂќ.

ThereвЂ™s a religious element to the notion of a giant simulation, a sense that there is a higher, purer reality But he believes thereвЂ™s going to be a convergence in VR and artificial intelligence (AI) soon, and his company aims to be there when that happens.

Ranyard has a PhD in artificial intelligence which he says has been вЂњuseless for 19 yearsвЂќ. The company was set up by David Ranyard, the former head of SonyвЂ™s VR division. ItвЂ™s just possible that I lost you on that last point, but stay with me, because the reality we take for granted is coming under increasing technological and theoretical threat.Д®arlier this month in an office block in Euston, I put on a virtual reality (VR) headset and began playing a prototype of a game developed by a company called Dream Reality Interactive. Have you ever suffered from an identity crisis? Yes? One in which you suspected that youвЂ™re not a real person, but instead an extremely sophisticated computer simulation of a real person produced by an immensely more developed civilisation than that which we take to be our own?

#Is the world a simulation cracked#

H ave you ever wondered if life is not exactly what itвЂ™s cracked up to be? OK, letвЂ™s take that thought a little further.