Thursday August 16, 2007
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Thursday August 16, 2007 | What's Old is New: We Are The Sims | Computers |
Everyone is talking about the Oxford philosopher who thinks there is a good chance we are living in a computer simulation. I find this type of talk boring because it's an old idea that has been discussed to death. Yet, people still insist on talking/writing/blogging about it like it's a new idea. The idea of universes within universes has been around for a while. The topic usually first comes up when a teenager takes his first hit off a bong. Dude, we could be living in some other dude's fingernail!
So, I went looking for the oldest reference to this idea. Here is the opening stanza from William Blake's Auguries of Innocence.
To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
I'm not sure when he wrote that poem, but Blake died in 1827, so before then. Can anyone find an older reference?
Tags: matrix sims simulation virtual william-blake
August 16, 2007 09:22 AM PDT Permalink | Comments [4] |
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Kevin Chu, Some Rights Reserved.
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