Colbert: So I can live forever, but later. So I just need to live long enough for later to become now.

That's the plan Stephen. That's the plan.

Here's the Comedy Central video, but if it's blocked in your country, here's a somewhat crappy youtube recording of same.

Therefore, in this scenario, every human being would have a solemn duty to make the world as interesting as possible.

Great post but this is where you lost me. I have a hard time prioritzing "interesting" over reducing suffering, and I find it repugnant that some beings created a universe where quintillions of sentient creatures have been suffering and dying for half a billion years on this planet alone. OK, maybe the creators had the decency to "shortcut" all the suffering so it wasn't actually experienced, that's the upside of the thought.

Hmm, that makes for a good religion too, you only remember the suffering, but during the actual moments you were zombified, you're misremembering!

It seems to me that if you were going to create a universal simulation, you would do it because you wanted to see what would happen inside. And we humans have a rather strong attachment to existing, so we should try to continue that state of affairs as far as possible. Therefore, in this scenario, every human being would have a solemn duty to make the world as interesting as possible.

That seems to share some ideas with Neal Stephenson's fictional religion of Kelx, as described in Anathem.

Robin Hanson has written on this topic.

You know, I was musing on the "Universe as Matrix" idea a while back, and I came to some interesting conclusions.

I realized first that, given sufficiently attentive creator(s), any attempt to prove that the Universe was a simulation must inevitably fail. Because if if such a proof were found, the proverbial Dark Lords could simply pause the sim, patch out the error that revealed the discrepancy, and roll back to before it was revealed. Similarly, proof that we weren't in a Matrix should be equally impossible, since any evidence that proved the impossibility could simply be falsified by the system to maintain the illusion.

At this point my train of thought went on to a different track: if we did know that we were living in a simulated universe, what should we do about it? After some pondering, I concluded that we would have spent all of our existence living in the sim anyway, so I wouldn't see much need for massive upheavals of human life. And if the Dark Lords were indeed trying to enforce a "realistic" simulation, then attempting to communicate with them would be fruitless, since they would not respond. But...

For whatever reason, the creators would have created this universe. It seems to me that if you were going to create a universal simulation, you would do it because you wanted to see what would happen inside. And we humans have a rather strong attachment to existing, so we should try to continue that state of affairs as far as possible. Therefore, in this scenario, every human being would have a solemn duty to make the world as interesting as possible.

It was at that moment that I realized that I had created a religion.

The Sequences: How to Become Less Wrong

I'm actually in favor of keeping "The Sequences" in the title. "Rationality" is unfortunately a vague term for most people, and might even turn off some. There are several routes other than "catchy" - for ascetic purposes it's okay to be a little esoteric. The Sequences sounds like part of something mysterious and important. Plus it fits nicely with Eliezer Yudkowski's Bayesian Conspiracy motif.

Kinetic Novel. I didn't know that was a thing until you mentioned it just now.

Kids are reading the same sort of stuff they were 17 years ago.

OK thanks.

I don't know why I didn't see it - I tried searching the page for Icarus before posting :(

Shoot them?