Edward Frenkel, math professor at UC Berkley, revisits
on the NYT web site (which was recently revamped to make it “sleeker and
faster”) the burning question: “Is the Universe a Simulation?” Apparently, there
is a view among mathematicians that mathematical discoveries in fact reveal
strings of the computer code underlying the “Matrix” we take for “reality.” Seriously?
This immediately reminded me of Nicholas Carr’s now classic “Is Google Making
Us Stupid?”
In that often considered alarmist piece, Carr worries
that all that searching and clicking
tweaks our brain wiring in unhealthy
ways – not just making focus, patience, and “deep reading” more difficult, but
also inducing a sort of “artificial intelligence.” The main feature of the latter
is ostensibly a degree of emotional numbing and mechanical, algorithmic
analysis – at the expense of a more intuitive and empathetic grasp of any
larger meaning or significance. As an illustration, Carr points to Kubrick’s prophetic
Space Odyssey 2001 where the
spaceship’s board computer appears more emotional and, indeed, human, than the
human space travelers seeking to disable it.
If this is, indeed, happening – to some degree – there
are a couple of potential side effects. One, the whole idea that in “reality”
we inhabit a computer simulation could seem intuitively plausible or at least
intriguing – not just to math nerds, but also to movie audiences (hence the
smashing success of The Matrix
franchise). Second, we won’t be able to sense – and tell – the difference; and
it won’t matter, other than as an intellectual puzzle.
