Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson likes to merge science and pop culture as the host of “Startalk,” his own show on National Geographic Channel. As a guest on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday, Tyson floated his own take on a mind-blowing sci-pop reference — that we all could be living in the Matrix.
It’s a theory supported by Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom, who has written about how artificial intelligence might wipe out humanity. Elon Musk is a big believer and Bill Gates highly recommends Bostrom’s book.
“If you have tremendous computing power, you could simulate every possible thing that could occur,” Tyson said. “Including the neurosynaptic firings in the characters that you create. So in that sense, what’s to stop you from thinking that the characters that you created are themselves real.”
It all seems to easily rise to the level of what we could consider way over the head of Keanu “Neo” Reeves, star of the 1999 sci-fi hit which saw his character take on the machines which had created a world to subdue the human population.
“Now, if you’ve created this world and the world has built into it a kind of pseudo free will, maybe those characters will say, ‘I want to create a simulation,’ so then they create simulations within the simulation,” Tyson continued on CNBC. “Step back and ask, ‘How many total simulations are there? How many total worlds are there out there?’ There’s only one real world and everything else is a simulation. Which are you more likely to be in?”
Remember when Morpheus would explain stuff in “The Matrix” …
… and all you really wanted was more fight scenes with Trinity? Yeah.
