This one is pretty far out, but try as I might, I can’t make it not make sense.
Think of the relationship between the Non Player Character of a computer game (which is run by Artificial Intelligence ie the behaviour of that NPC within the game, the choices it makes, the decision it takes are defined by the AI which controls it) that operates within a computer game (which is a software) that runs on a computer (hardware) but does not run the computer (it’s not the game that runs the computer, it’s the operating system that runs the hardware).
Now, replace AI by “your consciousness”, “the game” by “reality as interpreted by your brain”, “hardware” by “physiological body” (human body) and “operating system” by your brain.
“Your consciousness” is operating and evolving within a virtual world (the game’s world) called “reality” (which is, as you perceive it, is only an interpretation you make of things since all of it (without exception) is dependent on senses, from what you see, what you hear, what you feel, all of them and is itself an “as close as you can get” interpretation of “absolute reality” but is in fact “virtual” since it’s all based on your perception and senses). All of this thanks to your body’s physiological functions (the hardware) that is managed by the brain (the Operating System).
Now, without the parenthesis, to simplify :
You are operating within reality thanks to the result of your body’s functions which are managed by your brain.
You are conscious and aware and self aware and intelligent, yet you do not control half of what the brain controls when the brain is managing everything in your body including the sub conscious, what you remember and so on.
Hypothesis : your brain is also aware and intelligent and self conscious and autonomous (ie if you were to lose consciousness, it could still operate).
It’s as if Windows on your computer were intelligent and conscious, yet let you run the “virtual world” in which you operate. (I used a game as an example because that allows the AI to move and evolve, but obviously, if your computer could move and do all the things we could do, then I would have replaced the Ai in the game by an AI running the interactions between the computer and its environment.)
With the only difference being that (as assumed by everyone including myself) this “virtual world” is a very very close and realistic depiction of reality.
Question : is that hypothesis possible?
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yes it may be
until it is “proven” wrong, I can’t see why we should not take that possibility into account.
The world as we see it is virtual in the first place.
Where “virtual” does not mean “artificial” :
Virtual reality: an artificial environment, or the technology creating or accessing same, which is experienced through sensory stimuli provided by a computer and in which a user partially determines outcomes.
another core meaning has been elicited by (Denis Berthier, “Meditations on the real and the virtual” — in French), based on uses in science (virtual image), technology (virtual world), and etymology (derivation from virtue — Latin virtus[4]). At the same ontological level as “the possible (ie. ideally-possible abstractions, representations, or imagined “fictions,” the actually-real “material,” or the actually-possible “probable”, the “virtual” is “ideal-real”. It is defined as that which is not real, but displays the full qualities of the real — in a plainly actual (i.e., not potential) — way. The prototypical case is a reflection in a mirror: it is already there, whether or not one can see it; it is not waiting for any kind of actualization. This definition allows one to understand that real effects may be issued from a virtual object, so that our perception of it and our whole relation to it, are fully real, even if it is not. This explains how virtual reality is able to be used to cure phobias. Brian Massumi shows the political implications of this.
source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuality_(philosophy)
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which if true, means that most people are addicted to a virtual world which they believe is real.
In the same way as this :
Nous avons vu dans ce mémoire que le problème de violence engendrée par
l’utilisation de jeux vidéo n’était pas le point le plus important. En effet, la dépendance est un
problème bien plus répandue qui peut avoir des conséquences désastreuses sur la vie
personnelle et sociale du joueur. Le risque de dépendance est connu, mais il existe
aujourd’hui très peu d’études médicales qui pourrait nous aider à savoir si des périodes de jeu
prolongées pouvaient avoir des effets physiologiques sur le cerveau en particulier. Même si en
jouant, on ne consomme pas de toxiques, il est tout à fait possible que les jeux aient un effet
toxique sur le cerveau, peut-être par la sur-stimulation de certains neurones, ou l’excès de
concentration pour de longues périodes. Il serait intéressant d’élargir le sujet, non seulement
dans le domaine psychologique et social, mais médical. L’utilisation de jeux vidéo prolongée
pourrait-elle avoir des conséquences physiques sur le cerveau et le système nerveux ?
Dans un article du Figaro daté du Jeudi 16 Novembre 2006, « Le Ministre de la Santé,
Xavier Bertrand, a annoncé que l’Etat allait consacrer 385 millions d’euros sur cinq ans
à la mise en place d’un plan de lutte contre toutes les formes d’addictions […] tous les
services d’urgences des hôpitaux devront être dotés d’une consultation d’addictologie,
qui ne sera pas seulement réservée à la toxicomanie. Ce plan addiction répond à une
demande de Jacques Chirac, qui a répété en Conseil des ministres l’importance de lutter
contre « cette maladie, qui doit être traitée comme telle. » »
source : me : here : http://inzababa.com/blog/i-think/memoire-de-recherche-les-jeux-videos/
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