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jasonmcdowell comments on Torture Simulated with Flipbooks - Less Wrong
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What you've said makes sense to me, that the flipbooks do not constitute a calculation. However, it feels like there is a fuzzy boundary somewhere nearby, similar to the fuzzy boundary of what constitutes life. Maybe there is a information theory explanation which relates the two.
If the flipbooks contain enough information to continue the calculation then they are the same as a backup. Ok, so a flipbook is a series of closely spaced backups. What constitutes a calculation? I've read about these things, but I've never tried to work it out for myself before.
A backup is a static result of a calculation. Static results are static. They don't count as alive, they don't count as a calculation.
What counts as a calculation? I'm getting stuck. Let's say we do the calculation as a state machine. You have static states that are updated according certain rules. State 1 determines/causes state 2. The calculation is implemented somewhere. So there are patterns of matter/energy that represent the states and represent the arithmetic needed to change states. I guess the calculation is here?
Other points that tickle my mind:
The uniqueness of a calculation matters. Running the same program twice doesn't give you a new result.
Does cause and effect (and representation of state) really matter that much? (Dust theory). My answer: still confused.
As a whole, a pattern of behavior of matter/energy can be called a calculation when State 1 causes State 2. When this happens, we can at least point to the calculation. With dust, states do not cause other states, and states can have different representations.
Right now (for at least the next minute) I don't think calculations exist. There must be some kind of illusion here. Related stuff: timeless physics, static states, causality, consciousness, memory. Memory is static. Consciousness is dynamic. Flipbook pages are static. Calculations are dynamic.
Running the program a second time is definitely an ethical violation. It would be analogous to me torturing you for an hour, wiping your memories of the past hour, and then torturing you for another hour. Alternatively, if I torture "you" in this universe, and then pop on over to the adjacent universe, it's no less of a crime for me to torture your counterpart.