Are simulated beings conscious?
The third in a series on David Chalmers’ 2022 book Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy. The famous philosopher of consciousness attempts to defeat Descartes’ idea of global skepticism by developing the idea that it is very possible we live in a virtual world. But do his own thoughts on consciousness undermine his argument?
After finishing David Chalmers’ 2022 book Reality+, it is now clear that his purpose is not so much to convince readers that we really are living in a virtual world, but to use the idea that we may be in one to argue against the philosophical concept of global skepticism.
Global skepticism is the idea that we can’t really know anything for certain, at least not about the external world we think we live in. There are a few different forms of global skepticism including what’s called Pyrrhonian after Pyrrho of Elis. But Rene Descartes is most associated with global skepticism, famously in his “evil demon” or “evil genius” thought experiment.
Chalmers’ work explores a whole range of major topics in philosophy and even theology from the perspective of the possibility or likelihood of virtual realities or simulations. But in Chapter 24 near the end of the book he reveals that his primary interest is in addressing the topic of global skepticism: (p. 444)
“My primary aim in this…
