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steven0461 comments on The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology is soliciting ideas - Less Wrong
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Bryan says:
"why couldn't economic growth of 1% (or 10%) continue forever in simulations? In the real world, we can't all be emperor of an infinite universe. But I don't see why every one of us couldn't preside over our own simulated utopias?"
My comment there was:
"The universe is made of atoms - and other particles. Virtual reality - and all the things economists study - is made of that stuff. You can't have simulations or value without things being ultimately made out of matter."
However, that doesn't prevent simulated high-utility worlds. It seems like the wirehead problem. Yes: we could go into a virtual world and award ourselves a centillion utility points - but then we and our simulated utopias would most likely be obliterated by the very first aliens that come across us - if a meteorite didn't dispatch us long before that.
It's not an either/or thing. You could spend, say, 1% of your resources on setting up a colonization wavefront.
Right - but there are practically bound to be aliens out there somewhere who just want to conquer the universe - and couldn't care less about ecstacy or utopias. Those folk seem likely to eat utopias for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Unless we are a lot more confident that those folk are nowhere nearby, we should probably behave conservatively.