Is Virtual Worlds Real?

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When you say that virtual worlds are real and authentic, to what extent is that just a semantic argument or an expansion of the definition of what real means? I think everything that we do of the physical world, we can do in principle with a digital world. So I guess I'd want to say the two are continuous. Maybe there's one asymmetry, which is that the physical world was there first, and virtual worlds get constructed within the physical world.

Last year, Rufus sat down with philosopher David Chalmers to talk about the allure of virtual reality, whether robots will ever achieve consciousness, and the likelihood that we’re living in a simulation (David thinks it’s about 25 percent). It was a fascinating, freewheeling conversation, and we left large chunks of it on the cutting room floor. Now, though, with ChatGPT and other generative AI platforms taking the world by storm, those unaired sections, many of which were about the ethics of artificial intelligence, feel super relevant. So today, we’re sharing our complete interview with David. Buckle up. It’s a wild ride.