Exactly my point, de4th. I, for one, believe that the brains-in-a-vat, if they continue to be unaware of their true existence, will still be able to have a "genuine" experience of life, complete with all of our pains, troubles, emotions, sex, memes, Toribash, and whatnot. They are just basically playing the Sims: Reality Edition, and what's good for them is that they don't think they're playing a game; they ARE the characters of the game, but they also don't know that. Movie analogy would be "The Truman Show" (look it up on Wikipedia if you're unfamiliar with it).
The subtext becomes way more interesting when we assume that one of those brains-in-a-vat, whether by accident or after having an epiphany, finds out/realizes that the "reality" it is perceiving is nothing more than a simulation, and that it [the brain] is not a complete human person with limbs, genitals, and, most importantly, consciousness, but merely a brain supersuspended in brain-preserving fluid. How does this hypothetical situation-within-a-hypothetical situation alter/change the recently-enlightened brain's view towards its existence and, more importantly, its "life"?
Note: MY ENTIRE LIFE IS A LIE! ... or is it?
Last edited by Trick; May 14, 2013 at 03:05 PM.