FREE THINKING:
EXPLORE THE REALMS OF KNOWLEDGE

Films such as The Matrix ask whether the world we experience could be a computer programme. The people inside the Matrix see chairs, streets and other people. Their world feels solid, although it is generated by code. If an event inside a simulation affects a conscious person, can we dismiss it as unreal?

Philosopher David Chalmers argues that “virtual reality is genuine reality”. He says virtual objects can be real digital objects and that a meaningful life could, in principle, be lived in a virtual world. A virtual chair may not be made of wood, but it can still have a place, a purpose and an effect within that world.

This becomes more important as virtual reality, artificial intelligence and computer games grow more advanced. If a digital character ever becomes conscious, switching off its programme may no longer be a simple technical act. We would have to ask whether we were ending an experience rather than merely closing a game.
 

We do not yet know whether machines can become conscious, or whether our own world is simulated. However, virtual worlds force us to rethink a familiar assumption: reality may depend less on what something is made from and more on whether it can be experienced, can affect other things and can carry meaning.