Nick Bostrom

Nick Bostrom ( born March 10, 1973 as Niklas Boström ) is a Swedish philosopher at Oxford University.

In addition to his academic work he expresses himself in English-speaking regularly in the media on topics such as ethics, politics, future research and transhumanism.

In 1998, Bostrom with David Pearce, the World Transhumanist Association. In 2004 he founded with James Hughes, the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. He currently holds two organizations held the Board. He became director of the newly created Oxford Future of Humanity Institute, 2005. His Ph.D Bostrom made ​​at the London School of Economics in 2000.

Philosophical works

Anthropic Principle

He is known among other things for his work on the anthropic principle, which he calls a problem because of the various definitions observer selection ( observer - selection problem). At most one can detect an intersection with the selective perception, which also causes problems of knowledge. To think correctly, or to argue, must be aware of the effects of the property to be an observer for a time, be aware of the observation. To this end, he created the self sampling assumptions (self - selection hypothesis ):

• Self Sampling Assumption ( SSA): One should conclude, as if one were a random selection from the set of all observers in its reference class.
• Strong Self Sampling Assumption ( SSSA ): One should conclude, as if the current observation time would be a random selection from the set of all observers moments in its reference class.

One example is driving in congested traffic on a two lane road. It very often seems as if the other lane move faster than their own track. To explain this situation, you could look at, for example, as an observer from the reference class " driver in the same direction ." It can be assumed that on slower tracks are more drivers than on the other tracks, So much of the observers from the reference class is on a slow track. For a randomly selected observers from the reference class, and therefore after the SSA for themselves ( the observer ), so it is likely to actually be on the slow track and watch it that way.

Since the exact determination of the reference class, ie the class of all entities from which an observer can reasonably chosen to be random, but in many cases is uncertain, Bostrom holds especially those evidence with the aid of anthropic principles for credible, the results independently as possible are the choice of the reference class.

This self- selection hypotheses Bostrom extended to a model of anthropic bias ( anthropic bias) and anthropischem Close ( anthropic reasoning ) under the uncertainty of the obscurity of one's own place in the universe - or who "we are " in general. This could also be a way to overcome various existing by cognitive bias limits which are inherent in the people who care to make observations and to express models of our universe by mathematics.

Simulation hypothesis

In a frequently -received in the popular science model of thought to Bostrom busy with the hypothesis that a more advanced civilization would be able and willing to simulate the reality of the entire universe, including in a computer and this may have already been done. Our universe is a simulated reality; all living beings thus part of this simulation. This claim was as the God hypothesis, neither provable nor refutable.

Bostrom formulated three options

Exists a sufficiently large number of civilizations, then had so Bostrom, under the premise that the assumptions 1 and 2 are false, be assumed that a high probability that our universe is actually a simulation. Herein lies the fine-tuning of the constants of nature, seems to make life possible at all. This is, without postulate a Creator God, but in a multiverse possible. The number of civilizations capable of such deeds would be almost infinite.

The following formula will give the three assumptions mathematical expression:

Referring now than the number of advanced civilizations that are interested in reality simulations, or at least as the number of those who possess the necessary technology and resources, and as the average number of simulations, which are operated by their ancestors, one obtains:

It follows:

Since a tremendous value assumes at least one of the three approaches will assume a true value:

Works

• Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy, ISBN 0-415-93858-9