Cessation of perception = unplugging from virtual reality?

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budo
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Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2010 12:16 am

Cessation of perception = unplugging from virtual reality?

Post by budo »

Elon Musk and Joe Rogan talk about how it's highly probable we are in a simulation (there is no reality), and Musk tries to explain to Rogan that there is no "place" in VR (at 51:22 timestamp)



Imho, if the graphics are indistinguishable from reality, the only reason you know you're in VR is because you can take the headset off, but what if in the future you cannot take the headset off and you don't know even know there is a headset, so "knowing" is based on comparison (discernment).

So Musk says "It's your perception" in that interview.

Which is why cessation of perception is the end of the jhanas (sutta DN9). Perception is really the only thing you can control and modify while you're alive, you can kill your body, the other elements of the five aggregates, but if your body is a simulation then you'll just be reborn. You may lose most of your memories if you're born, but there is still one stream of consciousness through the layers of VR (or aggregates).

It's interesting to see in that podcast that a lot of what they're talking about is already covered by the Buddha, just in 2500~ year old pali terminology, compared to the modern scientific vocabulary we have today.
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