Timeline for How would society react if they found indisputable proof that the universe is a virtual reality?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
13 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 22, 2015 at 1:47 | comment | added | plagueheart | I like this better now. :) I do imagine there would be some people who'd suicide over the news, I just don't think it would be a huge number of people comparatively, and they'd mostly be emotionally unstable to begin with. You're right that anyone who thought about this kind of stuff, though, might become really emotionally uncertain for a while after hearing the news and working through it. | |
| Feb 22, 2015 at 0:51 | comment | added | Deleteman | I edited my answer to add the "at first" part ,because I think it's relevant to my way of thinking. | |
| Feb 22, 2015 at 0:51 | history | edited | Deleteman | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 191 characters in body
|
| Feb 22, 2015 at 0:48 | comment | added | Deleteman | True, your question makes a lot of sense, and I think for us to better answer the question, the OP would have to give us some sort of definition or guideline explaining what is to be considered as real. For our world, I still believe it's a matter of perspective, if you work hard towards having a good life and providing your family with what you need and suddenly you realize you're not real, at first it might cause some panic, after everyone gets to think it over, it might turn out to be a good thing (or at least not such a bad thing), but at first I still think it would cause some damage | |
| Feb 22, 2015 at 0:44 | comment | added | plagueheart | @Deleteman But what's "real"? There's a lot of philosophical discussion out there already to the effect that the world doesn't exist objectively due to being filtered through our senses. Very few people are actually pushed into suicide by being exposed to that; I don't know that they would be by being told they're a simulation, especially if none of their internal experience of the world changed at all. Since internal experience is the only way we know the world, it's the only way most people are persuaded to change. | |
| Feb 22, 2015 at 0:42 | comment | added | Deleteman | And to be honest, unless some kind of psychologist chips in here, we're all making our best guesses :) | |
| Feb 22, 2015 at 0:41 | comment | added | Deleteman | Hey, I'm with you @JeroenMostert, I'm a programmer as well, give me some code I can hack on to change reality and I'm as happy as I can be... but not everyone's a programmer, my train of thought was just that if today life itself is so hard that some ppl do commit suicide, what would happen if those who are barely hanging in there find out they aren't real? That's all. | |
| Feb 21, 2015 at 23:25 | comment | added | plagueheart | @JeroenMostert 8D Excellent. | |
| Feb 21, 2015 at 23:24 | comment | added | Jeroen Mostert | @plagueheart: if there's a light cycle and one of those glowing discs in it for me? Absolutely. | |
| Feb 21, 2015 at 23:19 | comment | added | plagueheart | @Jeroen Mostert Then the question becomes, do you fight for the Users? | |
| Feb 21, 2015 at 23:15 | comment | added | Jeroen Mostert | Why would "massive suicide" be "certain"? What do you base this on? People are faced with the meaninglessness and absurdity of existence every day, but that drives only a small fraction to suicide. Being told you're "not real" isn't very convincing if you feel real. Maybe I'm biased as a programmer, but suicide would be the last thing I'd consider upon hearing that I'm a program. Rather, I'd be overjoyed that apparently programs can achieve sentience and I'm the living proof. :-) | |
| Feb 21, 2015 at 22:30 | history | edited | Deleteman | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 1 character in body
|
| Feb 21, 2015 at 21:55 | history | answered | Deleteman | CC BY-SA 3.0 |