From: mike99 (mike99@lascruces.com)
Date: Mon Mar 29 2004 - 15:53:57 MST
Wei Dai wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 28, 2004 at 08:29:34PM -0700, mike99 wrote:
> > For a detailed consideration of the argument that we are living in a
> > simulation, see Nick Bostrom's page with essays by various
> contributors at:
> > http://www.simulation-argument.com/
>
> I've read that paper, but my question is different from the one he
> addresses. Bostrom focuses on the possibility that we're living in an
> ancester-simulation run by posthumans. This doesn't really apply to an SI,
> who I think would be much more interested in the possibility that it's
> living in a universe simulation running in a computationally much richer
> base reality.
The SI might consider this possibility from more than one perspective. From
its own perspective as an intelligent entity, the SI would want to know the
truth about reality, whatever that might be. But the SI might also run some
simulations of its own, in order to understand why a simulation of the type
it could be existing within, might have been constructed in the first place.
By trying to consider the motivations of its purported simulation creators,
the SI might find that a simulation is a useful way of trying out various
alternatives (including the parameters of the simulation itself, as well as
the strategies developed and employed by the simulated beings within it).
>From this, the SI might conclude that if it is living in a simulation, and
if that simulation is not hellish, the motivations of the purported
simulation creators are benign and should be respected. Thus, without ever
having determined conclusively that it is in fact living in a simulation,
the SI would continue doing whatever it deems essential, enjoyable or
interesting, confident that the results it obtains may be useful to those
who created the simulation.
Regards,
Michael LaTorra
mike99@lascruces.com
mlatorra@nmsu.edu
"For any man to abdicate an interest in science is to walk with open eyes
towards slavery."
-- Jacob Bronowski
Member:
Extropy Institute: www.extropy.org
World Transhumanist Association: www.transhumanism.org
Alcor Life Extension Foundation: www.alcor.org
Society for Technical Communication: www.stc.org
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