From: Hal Finney (hal@rain.org)
Date: Thu Aug 06 1998 - 15:23:10 MDT
Joe Jenkins, <joe_jenkins@yahoo.com>, writes:
> Does not the fact that we can dream indicate that the compute power of
> our minds includes the compute power needed to run artificial
> environment simulations? Does this not provide an existence proof
> that realistic artificial environment simulations for uploaders should
> ultimately require relatively little compute power compared to the
> uploaded mind?
This may turn out to be true, but dreaming isn't quite like VR. With most
of my dreams, much of my mind seems to be asleep. Bizarre events occur
and I don't even notice. The story changes, I find myself somewhere
else without actually going there, etc. As a dream author I seem to be
quite incompetent, and the only thing which saves me is the inattention
of my audience.
Creating a true artificial environment which can fool an alert, attentive
mind will be a more difficult task. You may be correct that it will
be easier than simulating a mind, which will no doubt require massive
computing resources. But dreams don't make the case.
Hal
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