shminux comments on The Useful Idea of Truth - Less Wrong
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Well, if the universe actually runs on a computer, then presumably that computer includes data for all stars, not just the ones that are visible to us.
If the universe doesn't run on a computer, then you have to actually digitize the universe so that your model is identical to the real universe as if it were on a computer, not stop halfway when it gets too hard or physically impossible.
I don't think any of these principles will actually be practical. Even the sense-experience principle isn't useful. It would classify "a particle accelerator the size of the Milky Way would generate evidence of photinos" as meaningful, but no one is going to build a particle accelerator the size of the Milky Way any more than they are going to digitize the universe. The goal is to have a philosophical tool, not a practical plan of action.
Why should it if its purpose is to simulate reality for humans? What's wrong with a version of The Truman Show?
Because since everything would be a simulation, "all stars" would be identical in meaning with "all stars that are being simulated" and with "all stars for which the computer includes data".
In a Truman Show situation, the simulators would've shown us white pin-pricks for thousands of years, and then started doing actual astrophysics simulations only when we got telescopes.