David J. Chalmers, Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy

Excerpt

Perhaps Chalmers’ Reality+ should come with a health warning. Were its central contentions understood, and taken as likely true by enough people, it could lead to a general panic. Such a warning would of course be unprecedented in the history of philosophy. Over the centuries, philosophers have claimed all sorts of things that, if both widely understood and accepted as true, would have been upsetting to a general populace. But, perhaps fortunately, philosophical books are neither widely understood nor bestsellers. Part of what might make Chalmers’ book dangerous is not only the likely social effects of its central contentions, but the fact that these contentions are explained clearly, indeed sometimes over-explained. …