German-American billionaire and PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL co-founder Peter Thiel thinks there is an "interdepartmental rivalry" and depending on who you ask, we are either living in a multiverse or a simulation.
What Happened: In the World of DaaS podcast with Auren Hoffman, Thiel tried to explain the clash between computer scientists and physicists when it comes to the age-old question of the birth of the universe and life in it – is it a simulation or are we in a multiverse?
The world of science is divided when it comes to this, with some suggesting that there is a 50:50 possibility of it being a simulation or a multiverse.
However, more recently, there has been a notable shift towards the possibility of us being in a simulation.
"Within the AI context, there is the question about how this shift to the simulation theory of the universe happened," Thiel said.
He called the shift a bit strange, adding that this was a "social status game where the computer scientists were beating up on the physicists".
"Physics people like to deal with matter and energy, while computer science people like to deal with zeroes and ones and bits," he said, explaining why one side prefers the multiverse theory and the other prefers the simulation theory.
The Multiverse Theory: Put simply, the multiverse theory that physicists prefer says that our universe is not unique and that there are likely an infinite number of universes – this is something that Marvel's science fiction shows like Loki, or the iconic Star Wars and Star Trek franchises have depicted.
The Simulation Theory: On the other hand, the simulation theory says that we are all living in an advanced, hyper-realistic computer simulation that is overseen by a higher being.
If a simulation goes wrong, the said higher being simply resets it and starts a new one, just like when we use a flight simulator.
Why It Matters: The advent of AI and our progress towards achieving AGI – artificial general intelligence – has some tech titans like Tesla Inc. TSLA co-founder Elon Musk and Microsoft Corp. MSFT Bill Gates spooked – these two tech titans have voiced their concerns and called for pausing or slowing AI development.
While Thiel does not say either way or the other about whether AI is friendly or adversarial, he has doubts.
"There is a question: when you build AI or AGI super intelligence, will it be safe, how can you trust it, will it be friendly to humans?" he said.
He goes on to add that if AGI is a Machiavellian or Darwinian operator, it might not always be aligned with the vision of human beings.
Whether AI or AGI is going to be friendly to us human beings or not has fascinated people for a long time now, even prompting the creation of the Arnold Schwarzenegger-starrer The Terminator franchise.
This difficulty in understanding whether AI or AGI is friendly to us or not has prompted people to support the simulation theory, since it suggests that this question has already been solved. Whether they are correct or not, only time will tell.
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