Are you living in a computer simulation? [pdf]
simulation-argument.com
Are you living in a computer simulation? [pdf]
1–10 of 42 posts
Re: Are you living in a computer simulation? [pdf]
#2Classic memetic hazard. Almost as potent as post-modernism.
Re: Are you living in a computer simulation? [pdf]
#3Right now I suspect that I'm living in an epidemiological model with entirely unreasonable parameters.
Re: Are you living in a computer simulation? [pdf]
#4Since the term computer and its usability has been known recently (few hundred years, it seems fair.
What about before this "computers" ? Universe cannot be run in computer-simulation if the term is not known before that.
Later if something else comes up, we might believe, its "that" technology
Re: Are you living in a computer simulation? [pdf]
#5I remain unconvinced. On some level the logic is sound. On the other hand, reminds me of the arguments by Saint Augustine and other philosophers "proving" the existence of God. Centuries later, we look back at these arguments as cute, naive attempts that probably sounded very clever at the time. I feel like we'll look back at these "we're living in a simulation" proofs the same way.
Re: Are you living in a computer simulation? [pdf]
#6I see this link has been submitted time and time again to HN, almost without exception without attracting many comments. Occasionally it gets a "not this again!" and "I hoped it would raise new arguments".
Re: Are you living in a computer simulation? [pdf]
#7I really enjoy this paper/argument, it's fairly simple and produces an extraordinary conclusion. For anyone else who enjoys this work, he (Nick Bostrom) also released a book called SuperIntelligence regarding predictions/outcomes for various paths of AI.
Re: Are you living in a computer simulation? [pdf]
#8I see this link has been submitted time and time again to HN, almost without exception without attracting many comments. Occasionally it gets a "not this again!" and "I hoped it would raise new arguments".
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Re: Are you living in a computer simulation? [pdf]
#9I think it's complete nonsense. Here's a thought experiment that explains one reason why (there are two more):
Any computer program can be executed manually by a human given that he has access to a read/write memory. The memory can be as simple as a piece of paper with pen and eraser, or a hard disk. So let's say we simulate the feeling of pain in this way. When does the simulated being feel pain, when the "human CPU" makes read/write operations? Or even when the memory is in an idle state? If you have a large enough hard disk with the right data, is there actually someone in pain?
In addition, there are different ways you can encode the memory data, you can say that when this memory location is set to 0, it actually means 1, and vice versa. This means that any data on a large-enough hard disk means that some simulated being is in pain.
Re: Are you living in a computer simulation? [pdf]
#10Since the term computer and its usability has been known recently (few hundred years, it seems fair. What about before this "computers" ? Universe cannot be run in computer-simulation if the term is not known before that. Later if something else comes up, we might believe, its "that" technology
What's next in the series:
verbal narrative, hand-written text, manual printing press, industrial printing press, mechanical tabulation, punched card computing, Von Neumann computing, distributed public computing, ?