Whether the distinction is worth making or not, it is irrelevant to my point, since both are very unlikely and therefore require much more evidence than we have now.
Look, does this seem like solid reasoning to you? Because your arguments are beginning to sound quite like it.
I am not the first Lesswronger to think of a causality-evading idea, btw.
Look, does this seem like solid reasoning to you? Because your arguments are beginning to sound quite like it.
"Species can't evolve, that violates thermodynamics! We have too much evidence for thermodynamics to just toss it out the window."
Listing arguments that you find unconvincing, and simply declaring that you find your opponent's argument to be similar, is not a valid line of reasoning, isn't going to make anyone change their mind, and is kind of a dick move. This is, at its heart, simply begging the question: the similarity that you thin...
A self-modifying AI is built to serve humanity. The builders know, of course, that this is much riskier than it seems, because its success would render their own observations extremely rare. To solve the problem, they direct the AI to create billions of simulated humanities in the hope that this will serve as a Schelling point to them, and make their own universe almost certainly simulated.
Plausible?