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Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy

by David J. Chalmers (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 418 ratings
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One of the Washington Post's Best Nonfiction Books of 2022

A leading philosopher takes a mind-bending journey through virtual worlds, illuminating the nature of reality and our place within it.

Virtual reality is genuine reality; that’s the central thesis of Reality+. In a highly original work of “technophilosophy,” David J. Chalmers gives a compelling analysis of our technological future. He argues that virtual worlds are not second-class worlds, and that we can live a meaningful life in virtual reality. We may even be in a virtual world already.

Along the way, Chalmers conducts a grand tour of big ideas in philosophy and science. He uses virtual reality technology to offer a new perspective on long-established philosophical questions. How do we know that there’s an external world? Is there a god? What is the nature of reality? What’s the relation between mind and body? How can we lead a good life? All of these questions are illuminated or transformed by Chalmers’ mind-bending analysis.

Studded with illustrations that bring philosophical issues to life, Reality+ is a major statement that will shape discussion of philosophy, science, and technology for years to come.

56 illustrations
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Previous page
  1. ISBN-10
    0393635805
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0393635805
  3. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  4. Publication date
    January 25, 2022
  5. Language
    English
  6. Dimensions
    6.3 x 1.6 x 9.4 inches
  7. Print length
    544 pages
  8. See all details
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From the Publisher

Praise for Reality+ from Sean Carroll

Can we prove there is an external world?

What is reality?

How do mind and body interact in the virtual world?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy, by the Australian philosopher David J. Chalmers, is a highly lucid and thought-provoking exploration of such matters―from René Descartes’s thought experiment about an evil demon controlling the inputs into his brain, to the modern “simulation hypothesis” that asks whether we are already living in an alien metaverse without knowing it. "
― Steven Poole, The Wall Street Journal

"[A] stunning success. [Reality+] is well written, cleverly illustrated, and packed with useful distinctions and powerful arguments. It makes excellent use of both history and contemporary culture to help the general reader understand its key concepts."
― John Schwenkler, Commonweal

". . . Reality+ is frequently weird, wild and wonderful; it captivates the common reader by refusing to condescend."
― Jess Keiser, The Washington Post

"Far and away the most credible articulation of simulation theory to date."
― Jason Kehe, Wired

"In this accessible yet thought-provoking book, readers will encounter everything from Plato's allegory of the cave and John Wheeler's it-from-bit hypothesis to how mind and body might interact in virtual worlds, whether reality is a mathematical structure, and whether we might just be Boltzmann brains floating in a dream world. Chalmers also tackles techno-centric questions like whether smartphones extend our minds, whether the Internet is making us smart or stupid, the threat of deepfakes and alternative facts, and whether there can be an objective reality in a multiverse of virtual worlds."
― Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica

"[A] brain-bending new book by the philosopher David Chalmers―Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problem of Philosophy―has turned me into a hard-core simulationist. After reading and talking to Chalmers, I've come to believe that the coming world of virtual reality might one day be regarded as every bit as real as real reality. "
― Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times

"[R]ich, scintillating . . . [Chalmers] wrestles with how age-old philosophical conundrums can be reinterpreted in the age of Reality+. "
― John Thornhill, Financial Times

"[A] sprawling, brain-tenderising beast of a book―but a hugely entertaining one at that."
― Kit Wilson, The Times

"Chalmers is a joy: an exuberant guide through challenging terrain, quick with anecdotes and arguments, wit and wild ideas. "
― Kieran Setiya, The Times Literary Supplement

"Everyone should read this important book to understand where we may be heading and how it will be rationalized. "
― Josh Glancy, The Sunday Times

"Chalmers' central idea, that "there is more to reality than we thought", is seductive, and I was surprised to find his arguments delightfully―or perhaps worryingly―convincing. He has taken a subject most people would dismiss as pure science fiction and produced a brilliant and very readable philosophical investigation."
― PD Smith, The Guardian

"Crafted with the general reader in mind, this is an object lesson in philosophical reasoning and a bold, often awe-inspiring discussion of its implications. Philosophy-minded readers weaned on The Matrix and ready for the metaverse will want to take a look."
― Publishers Weekly

"A David Chalmers book is a competition. On the one hand the writing is so clear and engaging that you want to keep turning pages; on the other, the ideas are so surprising and profound that you are continually stopping to think about them. Reality+ is a treasure trove of provocative reflections on cosmology, consciousness, artificial intelligence, ethics, and more. Reading it will change the way you think about the universe."
― Sean Carroll, author of Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime

"Fasten your seatbelt and put your helmet on, David Chalmers is going to take you on an amazing trip. Reality+ is wild, profound, and playful, placing famous arguments from the history of philosophy next to surprising observations about video games. Cleverly disguised as light reading, this book carries a large payload of new ideas about existence, knowledge, and what makes life worth living."
― Jennifer Nagel, University of Toronto

"As humanity enters a brave new world of artificial superintelligence and computer-generated virtual realities, how can we humble hunter-gatherers, descended from cavemen, begin to grasp our astonishing technological future? The answer lies in this book. We must think about the ultimate nature of reality. In Reality+ David Chalmers provides the roadmap to your future."
― Susan Schneider, NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, Exploration, and Scientific Innovation, and author of Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind

"A stunning achievement. In effortless prose David Chalmers explores new ways to think about everything from consciousness to computation, deities to democracy. Reality+ shows time and again how familiar topics take on interesting new forms when viewed through the lens of virtual reality."
― Scott Sturgeon, author of The Rational Mind

"What is real anyway? Exploring the deepest doubts about reality from Zhuangzi to Descartes, David J. Chalmers stirs our own doubts and leads us into the real worlds of future virtual reality. A gripping book."
― Susan Blackmore, author of The Meme Machine and Seeing Myself

About the Author

David Chalmers is a professor of philosophy and neural science and co-director of the Center for Mind, Brain and Consciousness at New York University. He wrote The Conscious Mind, The Character of Consciousness, and Constructing the World, and lives in New York.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company (January 25, 2022)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 544 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393635805
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393635805
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.3 x 1.6 x 9.4 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 418 ratings

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David J. Chalmers

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
418 global ratings
Tight arguments
5 Stars
Tight arguments
Dr. David Chalmers rubs in our faces an unsettling truth, namely, we cannot be certain that we’re not in a simulation. However, he does give us some comforting arguments in the case that we do discover we’re in a simulation. Such as, even as sims, we’re not immaterial which means we’re still real. Even if the world is simulated and the fundamental building block is a bit, it changes nothing about the world as we’ve experienced since bits are still real. But alas, we haven’t discovered either that we’re in a sim or its negation. For this, Chalmers arms us with some arguments for and against the proposition that we’re in a simulation. Perhaps this will help us humans escape our ignorance of the source of reality. Such ammunition would be the notion of sim-blockers which are defined in the book “as something that prevents the creation of enough human-like sims to ensure that most human-like beings will be sims.” One example of a ‘sim-blocker’ would be the idea that non-sim beings would go extinct before being able to develop the technology to run a full simulation (ergo, we are not in a sim). He makes the reality/real distinction, like at least: everything that exists, physical and virtual, world or worlds or virtual world(s). We go into types of simulations, as in local sims where your environment is only animated when you’re nearby, like in a video game. Chalmers discusses how can we ever tell if photo of a waterfall is of a real waterfall or if a video of a protest is authentic. quite reminiscent of Plato’s mimetic theory. He also investigates the nature of God in a world where we are sims with further elaboration on the definition of God. Chalmers deals with the pros and cons of the fine-tuning argument (us having perfect conditions for life). We’re given the anthropic reasoning for sim-blockers and their usefulness in the multiverse theory. Chalmers did well to include many ifs and buts and challenged his arguments thoroughly. This is what real philosophical investigation is like. My only complaint is I didn’t start to enjoy the book till about chapter five.
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Top reviews from the United States

Douglas C. Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars Accessible and interesting
Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2023
Verified Purchase
I’m an armchair philosopher. I read a fair amount and have listened to a lot of philosophy podcast episodes. So, I was really excited about this book. It has some technical arguments about whether the hypothesis that we are, in fact, living in a simulation. However, the content is written so clearly that it is accessible to educated lay audiences without working too hard. The illustrations are quirky and entertaining, while also underscoring content in the text. Very good read! And yes, we are more likely than not living in a simulation. I’m actually just a quirky chatbot.
5 people found this helpful
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Keith Adams
4.0 out of 5 stars Deeply fascinating book about whether we live in a simulation; but too many flaws and oversights.
Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2022
Verified Purchase
I made note of my objections as I was reading the book, and here they are:

In the augmentation reality chapter, he heavily centers on what the Internet can do for us, totally ignoring that the Internet is full of ignorant malevolence, and fake news. It’s like he’s an egghead only reflecting on the subject matter, avoiding what we already know about the Internet.

He states that in a post-apocalyptic world, most of us would choose to enter a virtual world where the “pods” are heavily protected. This is completely divorced from what we already know of a kind of VR - the Internet where people often behave very differently than they would in the real world. What’s to stop a VR denizen from killing people for fun?

He argues that elements from VR are real. But what about our typical appreciation of real objects, that they’re things that only exist truly in the real world? Or things that we can only believe about the confidence that objects that are represented by sources we trust, such as telescopes.

In the subsection about equality in virtual worlds, he seems to say that virtual worlds will enhance equality. Yet how does this square that in many existing virtual worlds, you have to use real-world money to pay for certain crucial capabilities. The author is blind to this.

He says he’s an atheist, which makes me question his most important tenet: that we’re likely living in a virtual reality simulation. If that was true then he’d have to acknowledge that we have a creator, who, to us, would have the attributes of a god.

His postulate is that most civilizations will reach a point where the creation of artificial universes will be routine. But what about the counterargument that most civilizations won’t last beyond global warming or nuclear devastation? Again, sticking his head in the sand.
10 people found this helpful
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Enrique Sepúlveda
5.0 out of 5 stars Un excelente libro sobre el cuestionamiento filosófico de la realidad
Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2024
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Ideal para fanáticos de matrix, ready player one, piso 13 e incluso bladerunner. El autor pone sobre el tapete el cuestionamiento de realidad, de realidades virtuales, y de las temáticas de fondo sobre este tema.

Muy interesante. El audiolibro es fácil de escuchar y seguir.
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David J. Brown
5.0 out of 5 stars A Thought-Provoking, Mind-Expanding Adventure!
Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2022
Verified Purchase
Brilliantly conceived and elegantly executed, David Chalmer’s Reality + is a thought-provoking, mind-expanding adventure. Exploring many profound questions about the nature of reality, in the context of virtual reality innovations, and illustrating his provocative ideas with many intriguing cultural references and clever illustrations, Chalmers’ bold philosophical reflections and imaginative thought experiments will leave you wondering what is really real, what is simulation, and what’s the difference.
25 people found this helpful
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Antonio Buscemi
3.0 out of 5 stars Not super dense, good for beginners
Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2023
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I was expecting the book to be a little more technical, but it's meant as an introductory text for people just entering into philosophy (like high school or early college, see "the philosopher's handbook", Wisecracking, etc.). As someone who's read the Three Critiques and a couple other books on Philosophy of Mind (plus I've been studying it for a few years by this point) this book was absolutely useless to me, as I've already thought about all of these questions previously.
It is pretty though, so I'll give it a 3.5
One person found this helpful
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Gary
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly Written...something for everyone!
Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2022
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David Chalmers has managed to create an immensely interesting, deeply thought provoking piece of work that can be read and enjoyed by all (regardless of educational background). Even after you've finished reading, it will continue to provide endless hours of thought-based, mind-bending entertainment. Enjoy!
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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LuSi
5.0 out of 5 stars Nice gift
Reviewed in Canada on December 12, 2022
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The book will be a gift so I am happy with how it looks and I think it will please the receiver.
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Arthur Carneiro Ferreira
5.0 out of 5 stars Simulação é o futuro, o presente e o passado do universo.
Reviewed in Brazil on July 19, 2022
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Enfim a coisa ficou séria. Muito séria. David Chalmers é um gênio e escreve de forma fluida para uma leitura rápida.
4 people found this helpful
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Jones Masnavi
5.0 out of 5 stars Reality +
Reviewed in Sweden on August 7, 2023
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Very informative!
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cjuncosa
5.0 out of 5 stars Apasionantes especulaciones filosoficas
Reviewed in Spain on July 23, 2023
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Para empezar, te tiene que gustar la filosofía. El libro se centra en lo mundos virtuales, las simulaciones y la realidad aumentada, pero lo mejor de todo es que con ello hace un amplio repaso de los temas fundamentales de la filosofía. Además, con un modo de filosofar riguroso y fácil de seguir, a mí me resulta estimulante la afición de Chalmers a la ciencia ficción, el cine y la cultura popular en general. Libro para disfrutar y reflexionar de un autor principal de la filosofía de la mente.
One person found this helpful
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@ShiningPath1
5.0 out of 5 stars Science meets Vedanta on the subject of consciousness.
Reviewed in India on November 29, 2022
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A must-read for those interested in Consciousness studies.
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