JGWeissman comments on We are not living in a simulation - Less Wrong

-9 Post author: dfranke 12 April 2011 01:55AM

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Comment author: dfranke 12 April 2011 03:53:00AM 1 point [-]

I think I can justly paraphrase you as follows:

The gravity, and the qualia, are occurring inside the simulation. You only need to worry about having an actual sphere, or an actual brain, if you want to have effects outside the simulation.

If this paraphrasing is accurate, then I ask you, what does "occurring inside the simulation mean"? What is the physical locus at which the gravity and qualia are happening? I see two reasonable answers to this question: either, "at the simulator", or "nowhere". In the former case, I refer you back to my previous reply. In the latter case, you concede that neither the gravity nor the qualia are real.

Comment author: JGWeissman 12 April 2011 04:11:42AM 1 point [-]

I think I can justly paraphrase you as follows:

The gravity, and the qualia, are occurring inside the simulation. You only need to worry about having an actual sphere, or an actual brain, if you want to have effects outside the simulation.

Not quite. Where as with the simulation of the sphere you need to an actual sphere or equivalent mass to produce the simulated effect outside the simulation, with a simulated person you need only the simulated output of the person, not the person (or its physical components) itself, to have the same effect outside the simulation as the output of a person from outside the simulation. The improbability of having a philosophy paper copied from with the simulation that describes qualia is explained by the qualia within the simulation.