From: Jason Joel Thompson (jasonjthompson@home.com)
Date: Sat Sep 02 2000 - 05:09:01 MDT
----- Original Message -----
From: "John M Grigg" <starman125@lycos.com>
>
> At UAA in the class "philosopy of mind" this example was used by the
professor early on. For some reason he used the scenario of a human brain
being stolen by aliens from Alpha Centauri and given artificial outputs that
are unrecognizable from the real thing. He challenged us to find a way to
recognize such a deception...
The only way to recognize such a deception is to admit that it is possible.
Otherwise your mind will interpret 'flaws' in the experience as being a part
of reality.
For instance, let us suppose that the simulation is necessarily grainy--
discrete at the sub-atomic level due to limitations in the modelling
software. If we do not allow that it may be a simulation we will simply
conclude that reality is grainy. If we assume that what we are looking at
is the truth, we will intepret events in the context of a priori assumptions
and adjust them to fit the current model.
--
::jason.joel.thompson::
::founder::
www.wildghost.com
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