Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy

Book came damaged (see picture) but this says nothing of Chalmers' work. I haven't read all the book yet, but what I've read so far is great. Chalmers is adept at making hard-to-grasp ideas nicely palatable, even for the layman. There are also wonderful illustrations and pop-culture references throughout. I never thought a serious philosophy book would talk about Descartes and Fortnite within a page, but here we are. Tl;Dr, buy the book if you are even slightly interested but go elsewhere.

David Chalmers has managed to create an immensely interesting, deeply thought provoking piece of work that can be read and enjoyed by all (regardless of educational background). Even after you've finished reading, it will continue to provide endless hours of thought-based, mind-bending entertainment. Enjoy!

Part confession of atheist video game lover and part exploration of simulation theory, this book covers a lot of ground in depth without sacrificing any attention to detail.

Are you familiar with books like "The Science of Star Trek," "The Philosophy of Tolkien," and "The Science of Dune"? All of those are real books. They're generally lowbrow or middlebrow attempts to capitalize on a pop culture property, and they're usually pretty superficial. This book, "Reality+," should have been one of those. They should have called it "The Philosophy of the Matrix." Like many other books of this sort, it's a superficial and lowbrow piece of work. To begin with, the author assumes that you know nothing -- and I mean NOTHING -- of philosophy. I'm not exaggerating. He condescends to explain everything to you as though you were a mere toddler -- including hackneyed and much-repeated thought experiments like Plato's Cave and Zhuangzi's dream of the butterfly. This almost insultingly condescending approach is inexcusable; it's a terrible waste of the reader's time and patience. Another problem is that the author repeatedly references modern pop culture properties, to illustrate his points, or perhaps to borrow points from those other works. This really comes across as lame and childish, as are the really infantile illustrations the book contains. They all add to the impression that the author thinks you're a simpleton. An even more glaring problem is the book's lack of insight and original concepts. It reads, at times, like an oral history or a legal ruling! Here's a representative chapter, somewhat simplified: "[Greek Philosopher] said [A]. [Medieval Monk] said [B]. [Early Modern Philosopher] then said [C]. [Early Modern Philosopher 2] also said [C]. [Modern Philosopher] disagrees, said [D]. [Science Fiction Author] posited [E]. I think that the right answer to this particular philosophical problem is [C], and here's a very short paragraph to explain why. Also, in the TV show Black Mirror... And in The Matrix...." I get that Chalmers isn't exactly blazing his own trail here, that he's (a) writing about the oldest problems of metaphysics and (b) piggybacking onto a discussion that has been very active over these past 40 years, but still. It would be nice to see some insight, some rigor, some depth and complexity. We get, instead, thin gruel; easily 80% of the book is a recitation of precedent. This might actually a decent book if you're home-schooling a 10 year old and want to give your kid an introduction to very basic philosophical concepts. (And you can watch The Matrix with them afterwards, hah.) This book's peculiar brand of hand-holding, cartoons, and pop-culture references might make sense in that context. But in every other context, it's laughably bad. I refuse to believe that it was written for an adult audience.

An insightful read on the physical and virtual worlds we are apart of.