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1 day agoMan Behind Simulation Hypothesis Warns That Extinction of Humanity Is a Risk We Have to Take
Advanced AI could end human life, but superintelligence benefits may justify taking the risk.
How do you know anything is real? Some things you can see directly, like your fingers. Other things, like your chin, you need a mirror or a camera to see. Other things can't be seen, but you believe in them because a parent or a teacher told you, or you read it in a book. As a physicist, I use sensitive scientific instruments and complicated math to try to figure out what's real and what's not.
In the most talked-about film from the final year of the 20th century, " The Matrix," a computer hacker named Neo finds that the world he lives and works in isn't real. It's a virtual reality, created by artificial intelligence. At the time, the idea seemed like science fiction. In the years since, however, that concept has become an increasingly credible theory: " the simulation hypothesis."