The ability to actually inhabit a range of people's full experiences could be quite interesting. I've always loved the Jean Genet quote: "I do not take lightly the idea that other people make love without me" Maybe we'd also need amazing virtual reality technology, but amazing like empathy technology. So we can take some someone else's brain or some simulation and get our own experience to transform so that it mirrors someone else's experience.
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.