If we're in a sim...

AdeleneDawner

My father, who is home recovering from surgery, emailed the following web page to me and a few other members of my family, and expressed interest in reading interesting responses.

If We Are In A Computer Simulation

Is the universe just a big computer simulation running in another universe? Suppose it is. Then I've got some questions:

Are intelligent entities modeled as objects? In other words, are they instantiated and managed as distinct tracked pieces in the simulation? Or is the universe just modeled as huge numbers of subatomic particles and energy?

If intelligences aren't modeled as objects are they at least tracked or studied by whoever is running the sim? Or is the evolution of intelligence in the sim just seen as an uninteresting side effect and irrelevant to the sim's purposes?

Is The Big Bang the moment the sim started running? Or did it start long before that point? Or has it been started at a much later point with data loading in to make it look like it started earlier?

Do the creators of the sim intervene as it runs? Do they patch it?

What is the purpose of the sim? Entertainment? Political decision-making? Scientific research?

Were the physical laws of the universe designed to reduce the computational cost of the sim? If so, what aspects of the physical laws were designed to make computation cheaper?

Imagine the purpose of the sim is entertainment or decision-making. Either way, it could be that out-of-universe sentient beings actually enter this universe and interact with some of its intelligent entities. Interact with simulated people for fun. Or interact in order to try out different experiments of political development. In the latter case I would expect more rerunning of the same sim backed up to restart at the same point but with some alteration of what some people say or do.

So what's your (simulated) gut feeling? Are you in a sim? If so, what's it for?

Any thoughts?

My father, who is home recovering from surgery, emailed the following web page to me and a few other members of my family, and expressed interest in reading interesting responses.

If We Are In A Computer Simulation

Is the universe just a big computer simulation running in another universe? Suppose it is. Then I've got some questions:

Are intelligent entities modeled as objects? In other words, are they instantiated and managed as distinct tracked pieces in the simulation? Or is the universe just modeled as huge numbers of subatomic particles and energy?

If intelligences aren't modeled as objects are they at least tracked or studied by whoever is running the sim? Or is the evolution of intelligence in the sim just seen as an uninteresting side effect and irrelevant to the sim's purposes?

Is The Big Bang the moment the sim started running? Or did it start long before that point? Or has it been started at a much later point with data loading in to make it look like it started earlier?

Do the creators of the sim intervene as it runs? Do they patch it?

What is the purpose of the sim? Entertainment? Political decision-making? Scientific research?

Were the physical laws of the universe designed to reduce the computational cost of the sim? If so, what aspects of the physical laws were designed to make computation cheaper?

Imagine the purpose of the sim is entertainment or decision-making. Either way, it could be that out-of-universe sentient beings actually enter this universe and interact with some of its intelligent entities. Interact with simulated people for fun. Or interact in order to try out different experiments of political development. In the latter case I would expect more rerunning of the same sim backed up to restart at the same point but with some alteration of what some people say or do.

So what's your (simulated) gut feeling? Are you in a sim? If so, what's it for?

Any thoughts?

I should probably emphasize that I should expect that we are created by a mechanism that is indifferent to us. But given a mechanism that is not indifferent to us, I would guess that the conscious beings simulating us are empathetic and friendly. They are empathetic because they are conscious beings interested in simulating other conscious beings. If empathetic, I think they are friendly because I think that being empathetic and unfriendly is perverse -- a pattern twisted on itself and unstable in the long run. There is some probability that we are so different they are unable to empathize with us very well, or they empathize more fully with the our more intelligent predecessors, but in these scenarios they are not very intelligent and are not learning enough as they go from the simulation. And while I finally wouldn't give this case of somewhat-stupid simulators a necessarily small probability, that scenario is closer on the spectrum to our universe having been created by accident. Semi-intelligent beings might have managed to hack this universe together, in which case they didn't intend us and their attitudes aren't predictable.

Since you've made me think about this further (usually, no reason to develop such ideas very much), I will add that even if we were created by benevolent, caring beings, I doubt very much that exactly 'we' were the point of the simulation and chances are we are just a blip in an evolutionary procession towards their intended friends. In which case, I empathize with these future friends in considering them benevolent and caring.

I would guess that the conscious beings simulating us are empathetic and friendly. They are empathetic because they are conscious beings interested in simulating other conscious beings. If empathetic, I think they are friendly because I think that being empathetic and unfriendly is perverse -- a pattern twisted on itself and unstable in the long run.

This seems unjustified. Humans are interested in how other life works. We often poke it and do terrible stuff to it. We have our children cut off the heads of some living things just to see what happens. We... (read more)

7

If we're in a sim...

7

7

7

If we're in a sim...

7

7