From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Thu Jun 20 2002 - 00:07:30 MDT
Mike writes
> An instance is each time a simulation is run. I run Tomb Raider tonight,
> you run it tomorrow. Two different, nearly identical universes.
We probably know what you mean (and agree), but the Empress Theodora
writes
>+> For all intents and purposes universes really shouldn't be talked
>+> of unless we are invoking some sort of physics and the like. Computer
>+> programs while they involve the forces of physics don't make universes.
and I agree with her majesty. Your use of "universe" seems strange,
but I've also heard people use "world" in the same way, e.g., "I was
immersed in the world of dungeons and dragons", or "we're each in
our own world".
Mike continues
> An image is not a portrayal, it is a solid record, like a book. It is a
> database. It is not an executable. I may have a kernel in my imagination
> USE that image to imagine such a planet.
I will adopt your usage. It was said that painters portrayed a scene,
or a face, but I'll drop the confusing usage.
> The physical puppet in the city park is a portrayal. The mental puppet
> in my memory, after watching the performance, having further adventures
> is in a universe of its own, but may or may not be a sentient being.
Can you give some examples of things in your mind that are
sentient beings but who are not you? I thought that only
some MPS patients had that kind of thing going, and even
they are under suspicion for having made it all up.
I don't think that you have any evidence that any human
being has ever hosted a separate sentient being or personality
after having watched a performance.
> The problem with using the term 'puppet' as an example is that
> puppets are under external control with no volition, etc.
That's the point: puppets on their own are empty. I needed
a word that distinguished someone you might know in a simulated
Earth that you were living in, but who wasn't really a separate
person (i.e. he was not being emulated). This person has only
the appearance of being a real person. In reality, he's a puppet
being controlled by the operating system.
Thus if you have two brothers that you've grown up with, and
then you find out you're living in a simulated Earth, it might
further turn out that brother A is real, has actual experiences,
can suffer pain, and so on, but that brother B is a complete
fiction.
> A simulation is a universe, but I believe we were treating an
> 'emulation' as some sort of character or entity within it.
Yes, but you can see that one *might* speak of the entire
Earth or city or whatever as being an emulation, if it
emulates everything within it. Of course, why emulate
a street-car within a simulation, when it need only be
portrayed? All that is important to the real emulations
(i.e. the people and animals) are the gross characteristics
of the street car.
Lee
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