Reality+ review – are we living in a simulation?

Reality+: Virtual Worlds and The Problem of Philosophy by David Chalmers (Allen Lane), £25.

Imagine the year is 2092. You wake up in the morning, shower and eat breakfast as normal before sitting at your desk and putting a headset on. Then, in the blink of an eye, you complete your commute and find yourself sitting at your office desk instead. You chat to your colleagues, share your screen in meetings and go about your day, only pausing to take off your headset to eat or use the bathroom. This is the future of virtual work.

Living in virtual reality (VR) once seemed the stuff of science fiction but is quickly becoming a fast-approaching reality. Just a few weeks ago, the chief executive officer and chief brand officer of the gym-wear company Gymshark sat down for a meeting in the metaverse. The logical next step from Zoom, the two men appeared as avatars and were able to sit opposite one another as if in a meeting room, share their screens and look at the Gymshark website, all within the simulation. 

Whilst virtual realities will be particularly useful within remote working, innovative solutions to virtual socialising have been in development for years now too. Online friendships no longer have to mean anonymous chat room conversations; interactive multimedia platforms like Metaverse or Second Life (an online role-playing game that mimics real life) can be used to catch up over a virtual coffee or glass of wine and maintain some level of face to face interaction, within the simulation.

Now imagine the world a few centuries later. It is quite possible we might have developed the technology to mean we don’t require a headset to enter a simulation. If we can work out a way to digitalise our brains and upload our memories, thoughts and cognitive abilities to the cloud, could we transcend our human bodies for a boundless virtual existence?

This is the premise of philosopher David J. Chalmer’s new book Reality+, a comprehensive investigation into the philosophical questions that arise in the discussion of virtual worlds and how our lives might change as we adopt of a more virtual exist. But, more controversially, Reality+ also asks, how do we know we aren’t living in a simulation right now? 

Drawing on an eclectic mix of pop-culture references (The Matrix, Rick and Morty, Black Mirror) and works of well and lesser-known philosophers throughout history (Zhuangzi, Descartes, Plato, to name but a few), the book takes the reader on a mind-boggling journey into “virtual worlds and the problem of philosophy”, guided by the thesis that “virtual reality is genuine reality.”

Approaching the subject in an accessible yet academic manner, Chalmers, a professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Center for Mind, Brain and Consciousness at the New York University, applies different philosophical questions to arguments about genuine and virtual reality, concluding that living in a simulation is most definitely our future and quite potentially our present. Virtual reality, he says, is not escapism or an illusion but reality; a digital reality, but a reality no less. Chalmers argues that if we find proof that we are living in a simulation, it would not make our lives any less meaningful or real – therefore proving that life within a virtual world can be genuine and have as much value as life in a physical world.

Science Fiction has often suggested that humankind’s saviour from our man-made destruction on earth will come in the form of a new habitable planet or world discovered through space exploration. But in Chalmers mind, it is more likely that we will access these new worlds through a computer, rather than a spaceship.

Whilst the author recognises that some of the prejudices and current sources of oppression and inequality will try to make their way over into the virtual worlds, he is excited at the potential for life in virtual worlds. “Post-scarcity” virtual worlds may offer an opportunity for political upheaval and restructuring of society; “Important material goods in virtual worlds are instantly reduplicable and available to all,” he writes. “Space is not a premium in VR. Everyone can have a personal idyllic virtual island if they chose to.” 

The big issue, however, will continue to be regulating “Big Tech”. Mark Zuckerberg has already renamed Facebook “Meta” to reflect the company’s fresh aim to focus on building the metaverse, but before long Google and Apple will likely have virtual worlds too. An independent regulatory body will surely be needed to ensure people inside the metaverse are not at the mercy of Big Tech’s will. 

With humorous chapter titles such as “Is God a hacker in the next universe up”, illustrations and pop culture references littered throughout, Chalmers does his best to make a hefty topic enjoyable and succeeds for most of the book. Those interested in the practicalities, rather than philosophies, of virtual worlds might find the book too cerebral, but you’d struggle to find one with more mind-boggling dinner party conversation starters.

Some books make you smile, others make you cry; David Chalmers’ Reality+ will make your head hurt, take you to the brink of existential crisis and leave you questioning everything you know.