In LessWrong contributor Scott Alexander's essay, Espistemic Learned Helplessness, he wrote,
Even the smartest people I know have a commendable tendency not to take certain ideas seriously. Bostrom’s simulation argument, the anthropic doomsday argument, Pascal’s Mugging – I’ve never heard anyone give a coherent argument against any of these, but I’ve also never met anyone who fully accepts them and lives life according to their implications.
I can't help but agree with Scott Alexander about the simulation argument. No one has refuted it, ever, in my books. However, this argument carries a dramatic, and in my eyes, frightening implication for our existential situation.
Joe Carlsmith's essay, Simulation Arguments, clarified some nuances, but ultimately the argument's conclusion remains the same.
When I looked on Reddit for the answer, the attempted counterarguments were weak and disappointing.
It's just that, the claims below feel so obvious to me:
- It is physically possible to simulate a conscious mind.
- The universe is very big, and there are many, many other aliens.
- Some aliens will run various simulations.
- The number of simulations that are "subjectively indistinguishable" from our own experience far outnumbers authentic evolved humans. (By "subjectively indistinguishable," I mean the simulates can't tell they're in a simulation. )
When someone challenges any of those claims, I'm immediately skeptical. I hope you can appreciate why those claims feel evident.
Thank you for reading all this. Now, I'll ask for your help.
Can anyone here provide a strong counter to Bostrom's simulation argument? If possible, I'd like to hear specifically from those who've engaged deeply and thoughtfully with this argument already.
Thank you again.
Yup, I agree.
This makes my case even stronger! Basically, if a Friendly AI has no issues with simulating conscious beings in general, then we have good reasons to expect it to simulate more observers in blissful worlds than in worlds like ours.
If the Doomsday Argument tells us that Friendly AI didn't simulate more observers in blissful worlds than in worlds like ours, then that gives us even more reasons to think that we are not being simulated by a Friendly AI in the way that you have described.