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Randy_M comments on Proofs, Implications, and Models - Less Wrong
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I am surprised to hear this. What is your basis for claiming that this is the premise most people object to?
Also, if you are aware of or familiar with this objection - would you mind explaining the following questions I have regarding it?
What reason is there to suspect that a simulated me would have a different/distinguishable experience from real me?
What reason is there to suspect that if there were differences between simulated and real life, that a simulated life would be aware of those differences? That is, even if it is distinguishable - I have only experienced one kind of life and can't say if my totally distinguishable experience of life is that of a simulated life or a real one.
A magic super computer from the future will be able to simulate one atom with arbitrary accuracy - right? A super-enough computer will be able to simulate many atoms interacting with arbitrary accuracy. If this super computer is precisely simulating all the atoms of an empty room containing a single human being (brain included). If this simulation is happening - how could the simulated being possibly have a different experience than its real counterpart in an empty room? Atomically speaking everything is identical.
Maybe questions 1 and 3 are similar - but I'd appreciate if you (or someone else) could enlighten me regarding these issues.
I think enough people are non-reductionist/materialist to have doubt about whether a simulation can be said to have experiences. And we don't exactly have demonstration of this at this time, do we? I mean, in the example cited, Cvilization PC games, there aren't individuals there to have experiences (unless one counts the ai which is running the entire faction), rather there are some blips in databases incrementing the number of units here or there, or raising the population from an abstract 6 to 7. I don't think people will be able to take simulation theory seriously until they have personal interaction with a convincing ai.
That's probably as much an answer as I can give for any of the questsions, other than that I don't see why we can assume that magic super computers are plausible. Related, I don't know if I trust my intuition or reasoning as to whether an infinite simulation will resemble realty in every way (assuming the supercomputer is running equations and databases, etc, rather than actually reconstucting a universe atom by atom or something).
It feels like you're asking me to believe that a map is the same as the territory if it is a good enough map. I know that's just an analogy, but I have a hard time comprehending the sentence that "reality is the solution to/ equations and nothing more" (as opposed to even "reality is predictable by equations").
This is probably not the LW approved answer, but then, I did say most people and not most LW-ers.
I don't understand subjective experience very well, so I don't know if a simulation would have it. I know that an adult human brain does, and I'm pretty sure a rock doesn't, but there are other cases I'm much less certain about. Mice, for example.