time travel, parallel universes, and other useful illusions
“Glitches in the system,” said Dr. Curry Guinn, who chairs the Department of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina. “Deja Vu, such as in the Matrix movie when a character sees a cat crossing a doorway repeatedly, may be one glitch. Ghosts, ESP, coincidences may be others.” A strange quote for a strange …
I’ve often wondered how, if at all, computer simulations could be used for time travel. Thinking back to Bostrom’s and Tipler’s posthuman simulations of the universe, if we were ever able to simulate the world in such a way — especially something comparable to The Matrix — that would open up a number of strange …
Continue reading “Can We Time Travel Using Computer Simulations?”
Imagine if we could throw away the controllers of old and instead plug ourselves into a game console. We’d experience the sights, smells, and other sensations of a virtual world as though they were actually real. Granted, I’m not sure I’d personally want to experience half of what goes on in certain video games, but …
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave tells of a group of prisoners who have lived their entire lives in chains, facing the wall of a cave. They’ve spent every moment of their existence facing the wall, seeing nothing but reflected shadows cast from an unseen light. The prisoners, trying to understand their world, begin to name …
