I regularly seek inspiration by taking long solo walks; and during my most recent such, considering what practical consequences (if any) there would be of the universe I know being a simulation - something flipped in my head, and I thought to myself, "Screw the simulators. If I'm the first copy of me, I should make it as hard as possible for any simulation of me to keep up with me - and if I'm a simulation, I'm going to try to do even better than my original did."
Ignoring the impracticality of trying to out-do myself, is there anything that someone living in an 'original' universe can do that would make it harder for a future simulator to reproduce them? And, mirror-wise, is there anything someone in a simulated universe could do to differentiate themselves from their original? And, if the answer to either question is 'yes'... would it be a good or bad idea to try?
(And is there any way to gather any actual data that might support the answers to such questions, instead of merely making guesses of a similar nature to classic college/stoner "Our whole universe could be, like, an /atom/, man" musings?)
Precisely (or at least arguably) - and that's part of the point.
I'll try describing this a different way: What actions can we take that would have an effect on the actions of a simulation-builder? What can we do that would make them more likely to not create a simulation at all, then to create a new one containing copies of ourselves who are ignorant of the builder's level of reality?
If it's in my own best interests to have a few future copies of myself as possible placed into simulations to dance to the simulation-builder's tune, then how can I nudge the probabilities so that future copies of myself tend to be placed into my preferred sorts of environments?