Here's the question Elon Musk talked about so much that he now refuses to discuss it in hot tubs
The popular hypothesis is that we human beings are unwittingly just the characters in someone else's computer simulation.
"I've had so many simulation discussions it's crazy," Musk said on stage at Vox Media's Code Conference Wednesday night. "In fact, it got to the point where basically every conversation was the AI slash simulation conversation and my brother and I finally agreed that we'd ban any such conversations if we're ever in a hot tub. Because that really kills the magic."
Although he concedes that "it's not the sexiest conversation," he presented and defended his answer. He believes that there's only a one-in-billions chance that we're in "base reality" instead of a simulation. And if we are actually experiencing reality, that should make us nervous about the future of human kind.
Here's his reasoning in full:
He also explained why we should probably be pretty nervous about the future if we're not in a simulation:
Watch the whole interview here (and tune in at 1 hour 15 minutes in to hear his thoughts on simulations):