From: Louis Newstrom (louisnews@comcast.net)
Date: Thu May 02 2002 - 12:20:10 MDT
From: "Mike Lorrey" <mlorrey@datamann.com>
> Sure, but WHOS entertainment? Are you really just a brain in a vat in a
> higher level metaverse? If so, then it is YOU who are being entertained
> by your vision problems. You could have chosen them as an interesting
> handicap to overcome, or accepted a contract that assigned you a random
> probability of random impairments while in this simulation.
I notice an interesting difference between you and me. When looking at the
hypothetical case that we might be in a simulation without our knowledge,
you seem to assume that we consented to it, or even chose it. I do not. I
cannot think of few plausable non-sinister reasons that I wouldn't know if I
were in a simulation.
> whatever the purposes of the simulation operators are, they are entirely
> immaterial to YOU and your existence and life. You make your own meaning
> in life. Fuck THEM.
It does matter to me what their purpose is. If they don't get their
purpose, they might terminate my life. You say Fuck THEM. If I am in a
simulation where someone else is controlling everything that happens to me,
I think I'm the one who's fucked.
> You are also assuming that the simulation operators had some sort of
> control in the actual decision to give you bad sight. This is really an
> inappropriate assumption to make.
No it isn't. The thread was talking about a simulation so real, we couldn't
see the difference. If "they" can program the entire universe, they can
control my vision. Or at least, program the world to accept that my level
of vision was "normal". I see no reason that the world could not be
calibrated to allow whatever vision I end up with to be what everyone else
has too.
> It's like blaming an airline pilot for
> the hijacking, bombing, bird strike, lighting strike, or random
> mechanical failure that causes the plane to crash.
No.
I would blame the person who programmed a hijacker to attack my plane. I
would blame the programmer who told the lightning to hit my plane. Nothing
in a simulation is random. (Even if someone programmed "random events" some
intelligent being DECIDED to put in a chance of my death.)
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