The posthuman future has never been easier to imagine—especially for those, like Musk, who work at the forefront of technology. Yet the idea that we are living in a kind of time loop adds a wrinkle to this dream. Maybe we’ll never reach the posthuman stage; at some point, technological development will cease. Perhaps our posthuman descendants simply won’t want to make simulations . Or perhaps our species will go extinct before we learn how to simulate ourselves.
There’s also something melancholy about the idea of simulated life: the thrill of achievement is compromised by the possibility that everything has already happened to our descendants. This sense of belatedness is the theme of “The Talos Principle,” a somber and captivating video game by the Croatian studio Croteam.
Hanson doesn't think that ems must necessarily live unhappy lives. On the contrary, they may thrive, fall in love, and find fulfillment in their competitive, flexible, high-speed world. Non-simulated people, meanwhile, may retire on the proceeds from their investments in the accelerated and increasingly autonomous em economy—a pleasant vantage point from which to observe the twilight of non-emulated civilization.
And that number is 0
Bishop Berkeley
Every era has ridiculous but fashionable ideas that some will glom onto.
What are the odds this is clickbait?
Oh stop