From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Tue Jun 18 2002 - 18:19:07 MDT
Mike wrote
> Each instance of simulation, on a silicon or biological computer, is a
> universe. To deny this is to deny that our own universe is a simulation.
I'm not sure what you mean by "each instance" of simulation.
Do you mean "each instant"? If so, then that's wrong because
IMO a simulation requires information flow---cause and effect
---between each state of the simulation and the succeeding
state.
What is usually meant is an emulation. (I know that some other
threads have been talking about this.) But if we wanted to get
really precise about language, I would suggest that a painting
of the Earth is a simulation of it, because it matches the
appearance of the Earth. In other words, a portrayal of the
Earth can count as a simulation.
A puppet is a portrayal of a character. The puppet only appears
to have experiences and emotions. They're only simulated.
But by common convention here, I think, we'll mean emulation when
we say simulation. So what is an emulation? In another thread
they said (with more accuracy) than I'm going to do here, that
it is necessary for the emulation to re-create every property
of whatever it is that's being emulated.
Well, maybe that was good enough for their discussion. But taking
uploading as an example, I'd say that emulating a human being in
software---running software of course---requires only that all the
properties of the person's consciousness need be emulated. Probably
no one has a problem with that.
Therefore I *could* be an emulation of Lee Corbin, and our world
*could* be an emulation of 21st century Earth, but a program stored
away on tape which cannot be running cannot be a simulation of
anything.
Lee
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:14:54 MST