Supposing we live in a simulation, what are the implications for us humans? The foregoing remarks notwithstanding, the implications are not all that radical. Our best guide to how our posthuman creators have chosen to set up our world is th…Supposing we live in a simulation, what are the implications for us humans? The foregoing remarks notwithstanding, the implications are not all that radical. Our best guide to how our posthuman creators have chosen to set up our world is th…
John Leslie
philosopher · 4 mentions across 2 readings
In this course
John Leslie appears in these readings as a philosopher of cosmology and existential futures concerned with simulation theory and the constraints on human destiny imposed by cosmic evolution. His work enables the course's engagement with how posthuman or superintelligent systems might structure reality itself, and with the theological and philosophical implications of recognizing ourselves as potentially simulated or determined by vast computational processes. Though the excerpts are fragmentary, Leslie's framing—that our best empirical guide to a simulated world is standard physics, and that cosmic evolution offers limited scenarios for human futures—positions him as a bridge between hard science and speculative metaphysics central to understanding AI not just as tool but as potential world-creator.
Mentioned in 2 readings
In the realm of the natural world, in the broadest sense we have only a limited number of destinies whether we like it or not. Cosmic evolution provides at least three vastly different scenarios of what the long-term human future may be. Th…44. See, for example, Michael Ashkenazi, “Not the Sons of Adam: Religious Response to ETI,” Space Policy 8 (1992): 341–350. In interviews with 21 religious authorities from a variety of religions, the author found that none believed extrate…
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