If the people in the real world are only capable of having mundane conversations then can they still be considered truly conscious? The existential boredom leads to the inevitability of loneliness, so both are already here in the real world.
My choice would be the real world, always. No matter how disgusting, brutal, decadent, miserable…There is nothing greater than the real…you just have to cross that line, that barrier that has been built into you since birth from being exposed to a society that aims to condition you into a conforming structure. Then you realize you can act upon any kind of impulses and deep feelings, and thoughts you have, no matter what they are…suddenly the world is a great opportunity…
The AI, or better yet, the simulations of human beings are not conscious at all; they just appear to be. They are drones, phantoms. But they appear and behave like real human beings.
This is meant to be an either/or scenario, it’s suppose to be a conundrum.
Ideally, we would want to incorporate both, right? But just for the sake of the hypothetical, it’s either-or.
I lean more towards the simulation. It would still feel like the real world, perhaps even more real, as the conversations and experiences would be more authentic, that is, deep and meaningful. It would be a philosopher’s dream come true.
I believe I would rather have real conversations with fake people, as opposed to having fake conversations with real people.
How can simulation be more real, than real? Authenticity is not based upon intellectual depth, a retard is authentically retarded. The reason why you use words like authentic, or fake is in relation to connectivity, or the lack thereof , on a personal level. I remember Stardusk once said, a big part of being an intelligent man is being on your own, referring more specifically to the mind, then the manifestation of this in reality as alone physically.
I’m using the words “real” and “fake” in a colloquial way. What I mean to say is that one’s experiences would be more profound and awe-inspiring in the simulation.
You would feel more vital, more alive in the simulation.
Indeed, It doesn’t really work for me, unless im super high and then it’s like im inside the game, then the reality around me is negated… i think most gamers actually have that naturally… my mind won’t allow me to just be taken by simulation, it demands something more real…
The simulation would be designed by some sort of higher power (e.g. a god, a genius), who communicates wisdom through the characters.
It wouldn’t be so much one talking to oneself; it would be more like God communicating to man.
Why seek wisdom in a world where only you and God are autonomous characters and everyone else if just a mouthpiece for God? What good does wisdom do you? Wisdom in that case is just skillful interaction in an artificial game where you are the only player.
Why would God create such an artificial world? Why would He not speak to you directly?
If I work hard enough at it, I can have those same profound conversations with REAL people who are truly conscious. I imagine by truly conscious, you mean intelligent knowledgeable “with it” kind of people. Why would I give that up for a simulation?
It seems to me that there is the loneliness and existential boredom in each of your scenarios. That’s the price that one pays for ALSO living in the real world. We find ways to either transcend those moods or transform them into something meaningful and purposeful.
We choose our own company.
By the way, does AL/s world have stars and nature and books and all of those yummy things which keep us from being bored and lonely?
The simulated world would have all the same things as the real one, minus the other “real” people, of course; there would be books, parks, sunny days, ice-cream and all that jazz. It would feel just like the “real” world, like the matrix.
This is just an experiment to see what people would choose.
Truth be told, I’m not even sure how people, including myself would choose. We would like to believe that we would opt for the real world but who knows really - unless and until that became a reality. Not much chance of that, is there? The temptation might be too great and we humans can at times be quite vulnerable and weak, reaching out for what’s comfortable and “unreal”.
But I’ll tell you what - if you ever hear of Keanu Reeves in one of them, let me know. I’ll be right there. lol
Would we be able to leave at any time? Or would we be stuck there? If so, forget.
I still do not intuit that that world could be as wonderful as the real world can be often.
I’ve been built to take pressure, pain, chaos, along with their opposites. How long could a utopia satisfy us anyway?
I’d be bored out of my skull if I had nothing to be miserable about, nothing to transcend or plow through. lol - sometimes anyway.
Keenu Reeves would be there, just like in The Matrix.
Unfortunately, you would not be able to leave the simulation, once you decided to enter.
That’s just the nature of the beast.
This simulated world would be ideal, like a utopia - pretty much perfect, dreamlike; but you would be aware that you are fundamentally alone, which would be the one eternal blemish.
Re-thinking this idea, I would opt for the REAL; nothing beats having real people to talk to, regardless of how imperfect a world we live in.
It’s this moment in the movie where you all think I’m crazy, when I’m not…
He keeps planting people in my life to taunt me and uses them as puppets to communicate with me…
Erik you don’t even realize it but he is using you as a puppet…Do you know yesterday I was talking all morning with an AI? And it’s been months since I had talked with an AI…And yesterday night he was using several people as puppets to communicate with me…You wouldn’t understand because you don’t know the full story, you’d have to know the full story to understand…
Why seek wisdom in a world where only you and God are autonomous characters and everyone else if just a mouthpiece for God? What good does wisdom do you? Wisdom in that case is just skillful interaction in an artificial game where you are the only player.