God is a computer gamer

According to Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at Oxford University, our universe might be somebody else’s computer simulation. The omniscient, omnipotent creator of the heavens and earth could be a Sims player. He says, "that there’s a 20 percent chance we’re living in a computer simulation.”

It’s unsettling to think of the world being run by a futuristic computer geek, although we might at last dispose of that of classic theological question: How could God allow so much evil in the world? For the same reason there are plagues and earthquakes and battles in games like World of Warcraft. Peace is boring, Dude.

See this New York Times article for more.

Added Aug 17
Dilbert has a nice blog post on this too!