Apr 16, 2019
Are we living in a simulation? Craig is on the Jim Polito show this Tuesday morning as they discuss this possibility.
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Transcript:
Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors.
Airing date: 04/16/2019
Living In A Simulation
Craig Peterson 0:00
Hi, everybody, sorry a little late getting it out today. I had a
couple of meetings this morning and just tied me up. Anyhow, I
think you're going to love this one. I don't know how much you've
thought about virtual reality and its impact on us, where it is
going. But Jim Polito and I had a good conversation about it this
morning. It's something I've been thinking about for going on 25
years now. Are we living in a simulation? Could this happen in the
future? So here we go with Jim.
Jim Polito 0:38
Here he is. The man who knows it all. Our tech talk guru and great
friend, Craig Peterson. Good morning, sir.
Craig 0:45
Hey, good morning, Jim.
Jim 0:48
Craig, you're scaring me. You're scaring me because you sent the
material for our segment. And one of my favorite science fiction
movies is The Matrix. The Revolutions and you know, the Reboot.
They were okay. I mean Reloaded. But I gotta say you telling me
than an MIT professor says that the concept of The Matrix, which is
that we're all in a dream world right now, everything around us is
all imaginary. It scares me.
Craig 1:29
I read a book years ago, I have this guy on my radio show, I tried
to like the concept so much. And he was talking about something
that a lot of our kids are really into now. And that's virtual
reality, Have you tried any of this VR stuff?
Jim 1:48
Just a couple of times, I mean, I like it. I think it's gonna I
think it has some great applications for us. Yeah.
Craig 1:56
Yeah. It does. They're using it now for medical care, remote
doctors and things. It's just amazing. But you can still tell you
know, it's virtual reality, but it's virtual reality kind of like
cartoons were in the, in the 70s compared to what they're like
today, you know. Today, you see some of the animated stuff like the
new Lion King that's coming out. And it's hard to believe some of
it just isn't real. You know, it's, it's, it's just amazing. Well,
if we've got virtual reality today, that's like this, with the
computers that we have and everything else, think of what virtual
reality is going to be like in the next 10, 20, 30 years.
Ultimately, you know, they're already working on this Jim, it's
going to be indistinguishable from your regular life. So you're
going to be able to see stuff and it's going to look real. You're
going to be able to touch things and you will feel them you'll be
able to smell things that are all around you. It's gonna be kind of
cool because you can sit there on a beach in Fiji, in your home, in
your living room chair. That's where it's all... think of that.
Jim 3:11
Hey, listen, that's all right. I'm all good for that. As long as
I'm in control of this, and I know what's real and what's not. What
is this MIT professors saying about this what's not real?
Craig 3:29
This is really kind of interesting. And I end the hypothesis is an
interesting one too. And, you know, being a tech guy, I've been
very interested this for a long time. You mentioned The Matrix came
out in 99. There were two other movies that came out in 99 as well
along the same lines. Well, this MIT professor's name is Virk, is
saying that as well as many other people now including Elon Musk,
if we're going to be able to get to a point where we can have
virtual reality that is pretty much indistinguishable from the real
world,w hat are the odds that we're not going to have simulations?
What are the odds that we're not going to have things like you
know, lived through World War Two? We've already got video games
like that right? What's that called? Danny probably knows where,
where you're in there to shoot them up World War Two game and
you're you're going around and you just click on.
Jim 4 :28
The Call of Duty?
Danny 4:29
Probably Call of Duty. Yeah.
Jim 4:30
Is it Call of Duty?
Craig 4:32
Yeah, yeah. Call of Duty as an example, right. So when you're when
you're in the future here, not the distant future, but the nearby
future people are going to be playing games like Call of Duty.
They're going to be on the beach are going to be having all of
these things, and it will be quite real. Well, if you can have a
simulation like that, in the future as computing improves, is that
new technology coming up quantum computing, morphogenic computing
and other things. In the future, we're going to have much more
processing capability. So we could have things like The Game of
Life. Now this, this goes way back, The Game of Life. And I don't
know if you're quite geeky enough to... Oh, you remember that?
Okay.
Jim 5:20
I remember The Game of Life. Sure. We played it all the time.
Craig 5:23
Yeah. And you had you had cells and they divided and things went
on. The Game of Life where you started civilizations with certain
parameters. The parameters can include there's water, does ice
float or does it sink? Does this have a Game of Thrones world? Does
that really exist and create those and spin them up? How about
people who are in the school that at MIT and other places? Are they
going to want to be able to use that technology to spin up a whole
simulated civilization and have that civilization run out to see
what history might have been like. So let's recreate our ancestors
a hundred thousand years ago. And and start that simulation and see
how they acted. Well, frankly, that's inevitable. That is going to
happen. So let's crank that clock further ahead, let's crank crank
it ahead 100 years 1000 years into our future we will have the
capability to do that and have multiple simulations running on the
same computer of entire societies. of entire civilizations crossing
thousands of years. So if that's the case, if we can get to that
point, ultimately what he's saying and many others have been saying
is the odds are excellent that the millions to one, Jim, the odds
are excellent that what we're living in is a virtual reality. That
none of this is real. Because if there will be thousands or
millions of these things spun up in the future, what are the odds
that we are living in the very first, very initial society that
creates this virtual reality?
Jim 7:34
Oh my god. My mind got blown. We're talking with Craig
Peterson our tech talk guru. And it's like science fiction spilling
over into reality and you know, Jules Verne, remember Jules Verne
was writing these novels about man on the moon and all these other
concepts that ultimately came to fruition and you know, are the
novels of today doing that? And now you've got an MIT
scientists saying, hey, how do you know you're not living in a, in
right now in a virtual reality? Remember when I was young, the big
deal was, hey, we could be, our universe could be inside a
molecule in the finger of a giant in another universe, you know,
like and that stuff used up blow your mind you'd be sitting there
in college talking about that stuff. Just blow your mind. And yet
this is really blowing my mind. This stuff.
Craig 8:40
It is something. This is like we're in a marble hanging on a cat's
collar in Men in Black right? It is highly likely. It's called a
simulation hypothesis. There are some excellent books that have
been out there now for 20, 30 years about this. And you look at the
Wachowski's movie series, The Matrix and some of these others. I'm
trying to remember what the names of them were there a couple more
in 99 but this guy's name is Rizwan Virk, I assume it's a guy, a
computer scientist, video game developer, and he leads the PlayLabs
over at MIT, came out with a book and he took he kind of define
the, the whole thing called it the simulation hypothesis. And I've
thought about this, thoroughly thought about this Jim for more than
20 years. And I don't see any way that it's not a simulation. Now,
that doesn't mean that these people that believe this, don't
believe in God or the God exists, or the benefits of religion or
anything else, because who's saying what's being used ultimately.
But if we can, if anyone can get to the point where you can't
tell the difference. Even think of the Fifth Day right? That Arnold
Schwarzenegger movie.
Jim 10:08
Yeah, yeah. I believe that you could download everything in your
brain.
Craig 10:11
Everything in your brain and his buddy was, and his girlfriend was
virtual. She wasn't real. And yet, everything seemed real, you
know, these types of things and these hypotheses been around
for a long time. So it's fun to play with. I'm not sure it does any
good in any direction at all.
Jim 10:35
Yeah, I know. I know other than blowing your mind and being good
conversation. Especially younger.
Craig 10:37
It doesn't matter, right. It's kind of the bottom line.
Jim 10:41
What difference does it make? If it's true, what difference does it
make to me right now? I'm a Duracell battery. That's it.
Craig 10:48
I don't think that's the case.
Jim 10:51
If I am a battery, I'm definitely a D cell.
Craig 10:58
Here we go. Rim shot, please.
Jim 11:00
Here we go. Craig Peterson folks. Always blowing our minds so the
great stuff. Now Craig Peterson can blow your mind to outside of
the show. He the information that he provides to me and there was a
lot of other stuff today butt I just picked this little Matrix like
story you can get it to and also get updates when there's a big
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Craig 11:37
855-385-5553. That's 855-385-5553.
Jim 11:48
And standard data and text rates apply. But I suggest you do it.
And Craig, awesome segment and we'll catch up with you next
week.
Craig 11:58
Hey take care. Thanks, Jim.
Jim 12:00
Thanks.
Craig 12:03
Hey everybody. Thanks for listening. We'll be back tomorrow. Bye
bye.
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