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NancyLebovitz comments on Open thread, July 29-August 4, 2013 - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: David_Gerard 29 July 2013 10:26PM

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Comment author: NancyLebovitz 31 July 2013 05:49:45AM 0 points [-]

And anyway, as soon as you can make a complete ancestral simulation (without knowing of any way to do so without giving consciousnesses/qualia/whatever to the simulated) you can be >99% that you live in a simulation no matter if you run anything yourself or not.

Do inaccurate ancestral simulations count for anything in this argument? Admittedly, I'm extrapolating from humans as I know them, but the combination of incomplete research, simulations modified for convenience and/or tolerability and/or to improve the story, and interest in what-if scenarios implies that even if you're a ancestor of an ancestor simulation creating civilization, you won't be that much like the actual ancestor.

Just for the fun of it, the Borgias on tv.

Comment author: Tenoke 31 July 2013 09:49:10AM 0 points [-]

It completely doesn't matter whether you are a simulation of an accurate ancestor, inaccurate ancestor or HJPEV. As I am trying to point out there is nothing special to ancestral simulations and no real reason to focus only on them.