I find that kids are already a lot more open to these ideas than old people like me. I think actually with respect to virtual worlds, this may have been happening for a while. So maybe we're already on a cusp. And as for in 100 years time, they're going to say, well, come on, this was totally obvious all along.
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.