从世界3到虚拟世界的涌现

From Popper's World 3 to Emergence of Virtual World

借助于计算机和网络技术,人类已经开始创建一个崭新的世界——虚拟世界。如何确定这个世界的本体论地位以及它与物理世界的关系已成为当代哲学的前沿问题之一。本文从认定虚拟世界是对波普尔意义上的世界3的超越着手,提出了一种新的实在论——计算实在论。我们主张,实在的本质是计算,而虚拟实在和物理实在则是计算本质的两种实现方式,因此虚拟世界与物理世界在本体论上具有计算对等性。基于这样的考虑,我们进一步论证了虚拟世界的自主性和复杂性,并从它的可理解性反过来为物理世界的可知性作出了新辩护。

Based on technology of computer and network, mankind has begun to create a virtual world. The ontologi-cal situation of this world is a big issue in present-day philosophy. In this paper, we argue that the virtual world transcends the Popper's world 3, and propose a computational realism. We maintain that essence of reality is computation. From the computational point of view, there is some equivalence between virtual reality and physical reality ontologi'cally and epistemologically. In addition, the autonomy of virtual world and the knowability of physical world are argued through a comparative examination of the nature of two worlds.