This is the David Chalmers who defined the 'hard problem' of consciousness so we should take him (at least a little ) seriously. His new book Reality+ is reviewed here - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/ ... simulation....Chalmers argues that we could already be inhabitants of a virtual reality: “We can never prove we’re not in a computer simulation because any evidence of ordinary reality could be simulated.”
This is known as the simulation hypothesis, the scenario that is explored in the recently released Matrix Resurrections. Chalmers points out that humans have already invented games that simulate real life, such as The Sims. These will become more sophisticated over time, with versions of them running on millions of devices. Furthermore, out there in the rest of the universe, “if any aliens have human-level intelligence, they should eventually develop computers and program them. If these alien civilisations survive long enough, they’ll likely create simulated universes.” Statistically speaking, that means simulated beings probably already vastly outnumber “real” ones. In other words, it’s more likely we’re living in a simulation than in the original version of our world. ...
Ultimately, Reality+ is about extending our sense of the real. Chalmers’s central idea, that “there is more to reality than we thought”, is seductive, and I was surprised to find his arguments delightfully – or perhaps worryingly – convincing.
He has taken a subject most people would dismiss as pure science fiction and produced a brilliant and very readable philosophical investigation.
Kim