Philosophy unit 3 discussion responses
1. If I was the science experiment being conducted by an advanced civilization and everything I know and love now is generated by computers and just a simulation, there is no way to have true knowledge of anything. With this scenario, I would be living my life as normal, not knowing what my actual reality is or that there is any difference in how I live my everyday life. I would have no idea I was in a simulation yet Im in one, therefore I would have no knowledge or intelligence about my reality and everything I knew would be a lie. I would, in this case, be the victim of a grand delusion by a computer. There is nothing I can know for sure except what I know now which would be my friends and family and my life now, for example. However, it would all be fake.
2. I think even if the brain controls us, our heart will always be beating for the ones we love, and there things that are so special about our heart that we feel it does wonders to us no matter what the situation is. Even though our brains are brainwashed technically, the heart will have a way out, and when it does, things will get better with time, and there will be craving for what is ours. Hence we will never forget where we started from and what matters to us in life. My whole life, not knowing what it was like before would all be a lie. There is no way of telling who my friends or family were, but my heart will still beat for those I used to love even without me knowing.
3. If I were to be put into a matrix-like situation, I think that the vast majority of people would never realize. Being in a simulation, everything is made so that you believe everything that you see. For example, in the Matrix movies, only a select few people believed that there was more to life, and that they were in a simulation. It was not the majority that knew what was happening. This would definitely be the same case if that were the situation right now in our perception of reality. I guess it is hard to tell what is real and what is not. Afterall, you are put in a scenario where they do not want you to know the truth. I guess my answer to the question of whether I would ever have the knowledge to know the truth would be no. How would one know what is right and wrong? We could be in a simulation right now, an experiment done by some higher level beings. The thought of Adam and Eve could have been this whole beginning of an experiment, to see the adaptations and growth of a species(humans). The kicker of this is that no one can really say one thing is right, or one thing is wrong. All scientific or religious findings could just be fed to us in order to keep the belief that we are in a “reality” to be true.
4. “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.”-Aristotle
Considering that I am a science experiment , I wouldn’t know that i am being controlled by a computer. It would be my normal everyday life. Much like Socrates and his mission, to “wake” the people of Athens,yet his answer would always be “i know nothing”. I know for sure that I too would have a mission, the mission I am programed for never knowing my why
5. I think that even if all of my mental contents were simulated by a computer,I could still have knowledge.If this were to happen, we would not have knowledge that we learned for ourself,but we will have some sort of knowledge that would be given to us.However, saying that I would be a “victim”is not necessarily the way I would think about it if thishappened.Since all of my mental contents were wiped I would not know a different lifestyle than the one created for me. Therefore, I would not feel like a victim of grand delusion. In reality, I would be, but I would not know it. One thing that I know for sure is that even if I do not have any real knowledge, since my life would be a simulation created by a computer, I would still be living a life. Whether controlled by a computer or not, there would be things I would feel, sense, or try to understand because although I would not be myself, I would still be a version of me with a heart.
