PHL100Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Simulated Reality
Document Summary
A sceptical hypothesis is any hypothesis one cannot rule out that would make false most of one"s external world beliefs if it obtained. The matrix hypothesis is the hypothesis that one is in a matrix an artificially designed computer simulation of a world and has always been in a matrix. We"ve been assuming that the answer is yes ; chalmers thinks that"s wrong. He believes that the matrix hypothesis is a metaphysical hypothesis, a hypothesis about the underlying nature of reality. Consider the following cluster of hypotheses (i follow chalmers in my formulations of them): The creation hypothesis physical space-time and its contents were created by beings outside physical space-time. The computational hypothesis microphysical processes throughout space-time are constituted by underlying computational processes. The mind-body hypothesis our minds are (and always have been) constituted by processes outside physical space-time, and receive their perceptual inputs from and send their outputs to processes in physical space-time.
