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jhuffman comments on Getting Over Dust Theory - Less Wrong
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It's basically modal realism for compsci geeks. In a universe without ontologically fundamental mental things, we can't perceive reality directly; our thoughts are implemented in brains. But then, once you concede that thoughts are implemented somehow, it seems to follow that there's no way to tell that you're not actually being implemented in a computer situation. And if you buy some strong Machian principles, you start thinking, well, if I can't possibly tell whether or not I'm in a simulation or the "real world," then maybe there is no fact of the matter. Maybe the universe is just pure information, all possible programs, all possible mathematical structures, and I'm an observer that just happens to find itself embedded in the "dust" of random bits. Cf. Tegmark level IV.
ADDENDUM--- Yeah, I don't buy it, either.
Care to share why you don't buy it?
I mean, I don't either but I can't think of a rational reason not to.
Also we should note that it doesn't even really matter if you are running in a computer simulation; your conscious state could be encoded in anything with enough detail structure to represent your entire state for a particular time slice. Whether there is an encoding for prior or latter time slices isn't even important.
Its easiest to work up to this by starting with "mind uploading" and then playing games with the information such as pausing it, rewinding it, removing time slices etc. Thats pretty much the first couple chapters of the novel.