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PrawnOfFate comments on Physicists To Test If Universe Is A Computer Simulation (link) - Less Wrong Discussion

4 Post author: D_Alex 17 April 2013 02:23AM

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Comment author: PrawnOfFate 17 April 2013 09:34:07AM 4 points [-]

It is extremely unlikely that the Universe is a simulation for a wide variety of reasons, foremost amongst them being expense

Unless our simulator are fooling us about the expense of computational power.

Comment author: TitaniumDragon 17 April 2013 09:38:11AM *  2 points [-]

If the Flying Spaghetti Monster is running the simulation, it is non-falsifiable, but also not worth considering because he can just stick his noodley appendage in and undo any results he doesn't like anyway retroactively. Its not like we would know the difference.

For us to break the fourth wall, either our creators would have to desire it or be pretty bad at running simulations.

Comment author: PrawnOfFate 17 April 2013 10:06:33AM 3 points [-]

..like the ones in The Matri, who allowed its denizens to evolve to knowledge of virtual reality, rather than keeping them at a medieval level, or using the bio-energy of sheep...

But I am more interested in the epistemic mistake people keep making. People keep assuming that it is possible for simulatees to know what is going on outside the simulation (or, equivalently, that basic laws must be same).

Comment author: John_D 18 April 2013 04:03:43AM *  1 point [-]

"For us to break the fourth wall, either our creators would have to desire it or be pretty bad at running simulations."

There is also the possibility that, assuming we live in a simulation, the creators simply do not care or mind whether they are discovered or not. This would also leave open the possibility of breaking the fourth wall.

Comment author: roystgnr 17 April 2013 06:12:51PM 0 points [-]

Deliberate "fooling" may not even be required. Are Redstone Computers colossal and slow because Notch was trying to deceive some Minecraft denizens? It seems to simply be a necessary fact of "emulation" that any computer built out of physics X is going to be no faster than the computer required to simulate physics X.