Simulated reality

Simulated reality describes a hypothetical environment that, although experienced as real, is actually a highly detailed simulation of reality. Unlike the currently technologically achievable concept of virtual reality, which is easily distinguished from the experience of "real" reality, a simulated reality would be impossible to tell apart from "real" reality. Hyperreality describes postmodern ideas regarding the perceptions of reality which in some ways parallel this concept.

Related Topics:
Simulation - Reality - Virtual reality - Hyperreality - Postmodern

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The modern version of this involves a thought experiment along the lines of imagining that the person experiencing the simulated reality is somehow plugged into a computer of immense power that is programmed with all the rules of the simulation, and provides them with all of their sensory input. A deeper thought experiment may even assume that the person experiencing the simulation is itself simulated within the simulation, and may have no physical existence at all outside of the simulation.

Related Topics:
Thought experiment - Computer - Sensory input

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Two philosophical questions, and one ethical question, arise immediately:

Related Topics:
Philosophical - Ethical

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• is it, even in principle, possible to tell whether we are in a simulated reality or a real one?
• is there any difference between the two? Does it matter?
• how should we behave if we knew that we were living in a simulated reality?
 
Simulated reality: Simulated people in simulated reality ►