Are we living in a simulation?

Here are some links to very interesting articles somewhat along the lines of my last post about Second Life.

New York Times article about the probability that life is a simulation run by post-humans

Philosophical argument behind the article as proposed by Nick Bostrom at Oxford University

Second Life a new country?

After the power pack for my mac melted and forced the journey I found myself on a slow train into London with a copy of the independent. The article that caught my eye (the crossword was too hard again) was about our fine government’s attempts to tax incomes made in Second Life. Now, I have tried this weird online world and found it well and truly too freaky (for some reason the flying mixed with the changing radio station was too much), but apparently its a big deal with $1.5 million in transactions going on each day! Transactions are made in Linden Dollars (the in game currency) but can be changed into real money, and it is at this point of conversion that the the government wants their cut. Kind of like making your cash in a tax free paradise and then getting stung when you declare your income at home. Does this amount to a ‘proper’ nation-state trying to deal with a virtual world like another state?  What do you do with an online community such as Second Life, with its own economy, currency and culture but no territorial affiliation?

If only you could do everything is Second Life (like for instance, eat) then the man wouldn’t be able to get at your hard earned Linden dollars. Full body immersion suits that provide all the sensations of the world, plus all the nutrients your ever increasingly redundant body needs would about do it. It would also be the matrix, which would be fine if it was like the first film. The other two just sucked (although I found if you turn the sound off they are bearable).