Reality+ is a delightful philosophical primer for anyone who has ever asked whether the scenario depicted in the movie The Matrix might be truer than we think. David Chalmers is one of the best academic philosophers in the world, and this book shows why to readers who might have been put off by the density of his previous books. His first book, The Conscious Mind (1996), was brilliant, but it was long and full of the careful parsings of finely sliced philosophical "isms" that give philosophers a bad name. His other extended work, Constructing the World (2012), was frankly heavy going. By contrast, Reality+ is relatively light reading, honest and conversational in tone, and as refreshing as a philosophy primer can be. I would warmly recommend it to anyone new to philosophy who wants to ponder the relevance of the discipline for the digital media that dominate consumer culture and leave the old world of books and formal lectures looking old and dull. They will find it sheds new light on our big questions about technology. Chalmers sees his book as a contribution to technophilosophy, which asks philosophical questions about technology and then uses technology to help answer them. His main claim is that virtual reality is genuine reality. Virtual worlds need not be not illusions or fictions, and you can live a good life in a virtual world. Indeed, the world we live in today could be a virtual world. These are big claims, but he makes a good case for them. No book is perfect, and Reality+ is no exception. Its tone is perfectly pitched for readers who are more at home in online gaming than in the classics of world philosophy. Its references and allusions are perfectly chosen and explained for readers from the wide range of backgrounds you might expect on a leading American campus. But the burden of remaining politically correct or "woke" can weigh heavy on the reader as well as the writer. Altogether, correctness aside, and speaking for the general reader rather than as an academic philosopher, I'd say Reality+ is Chalmers' best book.
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I study virtual reality at a high academic level, so naturally the release of this book was highly anticipated. I found it very readable, it's laid out well and with great illustrations too. I would definitely recommend this book to someone who is interested in the subject area at a basic level, as it covers a wide ground without going into too much finicky details. That being said, it is still complex enough to be enjoyed by those with knowledge in the area too.
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This book says that if we live in a virtual reality, a simulation, the objects we touch etc are real for they are digital objects. In fact there should be more mention of how every thing is really nearly all empty space rather than a thing so if we are not in a simulation we are almost in one. The Bible definitely sees all things as very concrete. You even have the story of God separating light from darkness and doing all those other things in Genesis. He goes as far as to put a vault in to make sure the water on earth separates from that in the sky. To stress how different humanity was from animal and fish, he even orders that man must rule what is on the earth and in the sea and in the sky. Chalmers points to Popper who said that a hypothesis is not scientific unless the evidence could show that it is false. Anything that is untestable then is not science. Against Popper it is pointed out there are scientific theories that have weight but cannot be falsified. “Whether testable or not, the simulation hypothesis is a perfectly meaningful hypothesis about our world.” There is a difference between something being untestable for it is not around any more and in something that is and could perform in tests such as God. Interestingly, a simulation hypothesis does not tell us much. Perhaps an unimaginably powerful angel controls all and he thinks he is God and simulates a universe and doesn’t know he is simulating it. And within that there could be aliens unimaginably bigger and more powerful than us and with computers we cannot even visualise that are able to do simulations too. There could be countless simulations within simulations. We could be simulations several times over. I would point out that our idea of scale is wrong. We can't imagine any living being greater than a dinosaur. There could be life out there that is so different and maybe even a galaxy size. If there are different universes, we can't assume that they are not too different from ours. Just because ours is such a scale does not mean others have to be. Even if reality is reality, our religious notions and experiences could be down to a simulation. I'm saying there could be part reality and part simulation happening. I would point out that religion typically has some person being chosen to receive revelation from God to pass it on to others. What if he told Moses or Jesus or Muhammad that it was all a simulation? Or settled for saying, "It might be and it might not be." That would make it 50/50. We can't prove that he didn't tell them that for even the Bible does not claim to record all God revealed. We have zero right to assume that God will not say it is a simulation tomorrow and say that he had reasons for not saying it sooner or that it was not relevant enough. The point is that God belief does nothing to dodge the suspicion of a simulation. It in fact is only a split-hair away from supporting it. The book says we cannot know that we are not in a simulation. Surely a God could find a way if he is almighty to help us know better if we are not in a simulation? Why not? He has done nothing to at least make it very implausible. It is contended that the universe is fine-tuned for producing life. A simulated fine-tuning would be more reasonable than an actual one. Who knows? Helpfully the book points out that “Ockham’s Razor says: Do not multiply entities without necessity! This says that, other things being equal, we should favour the most parsimonious theory – the theory that postulates the fewest things. You should accept a complex theory only when there’s no similar one consistent with the data.” He points out that the multiverse theory tries to explain how the universe is fine-tuned for life. He warns that a new problem arises, the fine-tuning of the multiverse. But if we are in a simulation, fine-tuning might not be real. It is a fact that nearly all our information comes from memory. You only remember the last time you remembered an event. Memories add in things that never happened. They delete things that did. They downplay things that were certain. So we already have a simulation in that sense. He gives an example of the extended mind hypothesis, “If someone steals my smartphone, we typically think of this as theft. But if the extended-mind hypothesis is right, it’s more akin to assault. If the phone is part of me, then interfering with the phone is interfering with my person. This trend is likely to increase as our reliance on augmented technology grows.” We know how people get cross and vicious when they are corrected on some misdemeanour. Their mistakes or "sins" are like the smartphone. The extended mind hypotheses does apply to our deeds - you are an agent and you act. And if it shouldn’t the fact remains that we are hard-wired to force the connection. If your phone or whatever is not you, fine. What matters is that you treat it as part of you and your identity. Many people would rather be punched in the eye than have their phone stolen. The extended mind kind of behaviour applies when people start to see their sense that there is a higher power, their idols and temples as somehow being extensions of themselves, giving them presence here and there. Religion may be motivated by a wish to feel bigger and stronger by creating these remote arms and legs and brains. By commanding you to observe sabbaths and feasts and to pray often it is trying to turn itself into an extension of who you are. As you are so close to your spouse and children you end up trying to get yourself to rub off on you so that you become somehow part of them, their arm. That explains why there is so much rage in a parent if a child or spouse falls away from the religion internalised by the parent. The consequences of the extended mind behaviours can be dire. It happens to the most secular of us. If we can do that with our physical brain, imagine what happens if we think our mind is some kind of soul that transcends or is bigger than us! It is going to increase the problems. Extended soul theory is a topic for the thinker. We find that Reality puts some amazing ideas out there and overthrows many - especially religious - certainties. A bit more teasing out of concepts though might be recommended.
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THis is a particularly insightful book. It provides a conceptual framework for digitalisation which has taken over our lives so quickly that our concepts' toolbox has not followed. Loved it !
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Good read
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Book came damaged (see picture) but this says nothing of Chalmers' work. I haven't read all the book yet, but what I've read so far is great. Chalmers is adept at making hard-to-grasp ideas nicely palatable, even for the layman. There are also wonderful illustrations and pop-culture references throughout. I never thought a serious philosophy book would talk about Descartes and Fortnite within a page, but here we are. Tl;Dr, buy the book if you are even slightly interested but go elsewhere.
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I have followed Chalmers for a while now and this bit of his work is an incredible thing to read/listen to. It leans more into the philosophical aspects of virtual worlds, rather than the technical details. But it is written with great knowledge and is a really important work in my view. I enjoyed the audiobook and found the writing style to be great.
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I am fascinated and delighted reading this.
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Excelente libro y muy interesante
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Enfim a coisa ficou séria. Muito séria. David Chalmers é um gênio e escreve de forma fluida para uma leitura rápida.
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A bit repetitive and not "practical" enough. I was expecting more concrete stuff about how virtual reality and metaverse will change our society
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Very informative!
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