Article Analysis

In the article "Whoa, Dude, Are We Inside a Computer Right Now?", written by Ben Makuch and published on September 11, 2012 on the website Vice, Makuch tries to answer the question whether we could be living in a computer simulation or not. For his arguments, he mainly uses ethos and logos. Especially in the first part, where he introduces Rich Terrile, he informs the reader about Terrile's achievements. Makuch states that Terrile is a "well regarded scientist, the director of the Center for Evolutionary Computation and Automated Design at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory". Furthermore, he ends his second paragraph by saying "so we‘re going to go ahead and take him seriously". In the second part of the text logos becomes more important. Terrile gives examples supporting the computer simulation theory. For instance, he argues that "the universe is pixelated" which means everything can not be broken down further than into a fundamental unit. He also mentions that by the rate our technology improves very soon, in 30 years, we will have computers strong enough to simulate our world. These logical arguments as well as the Ethos used in the beginning of the text make it highly credible and convincing.