The simulation hypothesis, social knowledge, and a meaningful life

In Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy, David Chalmers takes up several questions concerning the simulation hypothesis and virtual reality more generally. He argues, among other things, that: if we are living in a full-scale simulation, we would still enjoy broad swathes of knowledge about non-psychological entities, and our lives might still be deeply meaningful. I explore more generally the value of non-social knowledge versus social knowledge for a meaningful life, where non-social knowledge is empirical knowledge that is not dependent on other minds and social knowledge is empirical knowledge that is dependent on other minds. I argue that in general, the value of social knowledge for a meaningful life dramatically swamps the value of non-social knowledge for a meaningful life. This is the social swamping view.