WEBVTT

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The one and only
original reality.

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Adam's newest
conspiracy is all of us

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are trapped in a
computer simulation.

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Think about it, he says,
future civilizations

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will possess incomprehensible
computing capacity, he says.

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They'll have unlocked
consciousness, he says.

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Artificial
superintelligence, he says.

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Mathematics of
the mind, he says.

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They'll, like, run infinite
simulations of humanity,

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so they might
understand humanity.

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And those simulations will
be able to think and feel,

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he says, countless
simulations, a lot of them.

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Then he Googles "Living
in a computer simulation."

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to show me the evidence
for this theory.

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And if there are, he says,
infinite sentient simulations

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of us, odds are, he says, we
are one of those simulations,

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and not the one and
only original reality.

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There are times when I'm
standing in the garden, when I'm

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eating a grapefruit, or
driving with the windows

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down, when my heartbeat and my
problems in the air I breathe

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feel wonderful or frightening.

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But always, I feel
like it matters.

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And that's where
you're wrong, he says.

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None of that matters.

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None of that is even real.

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Anyone who disagrees is just
living with their eyes closed.

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Have I too been living
with my eyes closed?

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Have I fooled myself with the
belief in love and suffering,

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and the howling noise
emerging from the wind

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tunnel in my chest?

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Have I willingly
purchased a subscription

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to a collective
delusion for the naive?

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No, I have not.

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So I respectfully disagree.

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And he says, fine, but
respectfully, you're

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full of shit.

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And because I am an adult,
able to engage rationally

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with dissenting views, I
say, no, you're full of shit.

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And he says, no,
you're full of shit.

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And I say, no,
you're full of shit.

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And he says, no,
you're full of shit.

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And I say, no,
you're full of shit.

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And he says, no,
you're full of shit.

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And I say, no,
you're full of shit.

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Until I am abruptly feeling
cold and remembering

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that spinning
beachball of death that

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appears on my MacBook,
when an app freezes,

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or the system fails.

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A digital wheel, where
things keep repeating the way

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he and I are repeating
and repeating.

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And I feel stuck.

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Some perpetual loop,
where nothing I say or do

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can move anything forward.

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And I think I'm
arguing about reality.

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But maybe I am really only
sleeping in the circuitry,

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dreaming I'm alive, while
elsewhere in a room I can't see,

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a room in the
future, someone else

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is watching this as
if it never happened.

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Taking notes, calling
a colleague over,

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tapping the screen, saying,
hey, take a look at this.

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[LAUGHS]

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[APPLAUSE]

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