I remember loving the short stories on this stie! I used to binge read them way back when.
Another site with good sci-fi is http://www.galactanet.com/writing.html - stories by Andy Weir's (writer of The Martian).
I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility (2007)
111–120 of 164 posts
Re: I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility (2007)
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
This conclusion requires, as an independent postulate, the premise that there cannot be infinite regress, which, if asserted without independent justification, amounts to begging the question.
> If every constituent member of that order is causally dependent on something prior to itself, then it appears that the order in question must consist of an infinite chain of causes. Yet Aquinas denies this implication (fourth premise): if the causal order is infinite, then (obviously) there could be no first cause. But without a first cause, then (necessarily) there could be no subsequent effects—including the inte…
> But without a first cause, then (necessarily) there could be no subsequent effects.
This is where there seems to be a somewhat subtle implied premise, as the most one can say about necessity here is that without a first cause, then either there could be no subsequent effects or there is an infinite causal regress.
And regardless of that, this argument tells us nothing about what sort of first cause there might be, so when Aquinas says “to which everyone gives the name God”, he's just winging it, in that just about everyone's notion of God has some specific characteristics.
The use of "manifestly", and appeals to plausibility, intuition or convention such as "to which everyone..." are something of a tell: when philosophers resort to such language, we know they cannot prove that they have a sound argument.
These sort of arguments are quite entertaining to discuss, but Alvin Plantinga, for one, is under no illusion that they actually prove the existence of God.
Re: I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility (2007)
#113I remember loving the short stories on this stie! I used to binge read them way back when. Another site with good sci-fi is http://www.galactanet.com/writing.html - stories by Andy Weir's (writer of The Martian).
I could swear Ted Chiang also used to have a website with some of his stories, but I can't find it now by Googling, and Wikipedia doesn't provide much except Internet Archive'd versions of his stories appearing in different places. Did I imagine the Chiang archive?
Re: I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility (2007)
#114You could give this somewhat of a horror ending by having the characters realise, after figuring out the implication of turning the simulation off, that the top level would not have had the black sphere appear and as such would have no reason to keep their simulation running and were about to turn it off.
You don't 'turn it off'. Its a simulation. They run it over any part of the timeline of the universe, any time they like. It's all there, all the time. The query of the quantum database doesn't create or erase the database.
The story itself says they need to be careful not to turn it off. Also a database isn't conscous but the simulated entities seem to be.
Re: I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility (2007)
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
About 1: There are some recursions that after some iterations approach a stable cycle, in the most simple cases it can be a cycle of length 2, like A -> B -> A -> B -> ... but there are longer cycles, and in some cases no cycles at all. This example has a lot of possible behaviors changing the parameter r https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logistic_map
I don't think there are any causal cycles here - I don't think a simulation can have a causal effect in the sumulation (or real world) which launched it. Even though the simulator can observe the simulated, which might seem to provide a channel for communication, the latter cannot do anything that was not determined by the rules set up by the simulator.
Events in the physical world cannot do anything that was not determined by the laws of physics, and yet they affect the rest of the physical world.
Re: I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility (2007)
#116Ian M. Banks novel “surface detail” comes to mind. Please note it is better than the tawdry wiki write up. Somehow, it gets similar points across — similar to this essay, but deeper in feeling. Let me also say the authors here have done really well with so short a format. To paraphrase my toddler son, I want more story!
I've been an avid fantasy fan since forever, but I'm a relative latecomer to sci-fi novels. I recently finally completed making my way through all of the Culture novels - thoroughly enjoyed every one, and was kind of sad to have reached the end! Have you come across any other sci-fi authors that approach the style of Ian M. Banks? Otherwise, any recommendations for other sci-fi with the depth that the Culture series…
Charles Stross.
Re: I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility (2007)
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
>These guys seem nice, and surprisingly already mentioned ethical implications early, so their corruption might take longer or develop along unexpected paths. It's hard to treat people below you worse when you know that he people above you will do the same thing if you do. It's an unstable equilibrium made stable by the fact it's already happened. Put another way, you won't start tap dancing on someones head when you…
You could treat simulations of other people worse, and the simulation of you better. (Assuming you are the guy who controls the computer at all levels.)
Simulate yourself twice and conduct a little A/B testing.
Re: I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility (2007)
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't 'turn it off'. Its a simulation. They run it over any part of the timeline of the universe, any time they like. It's all there, all the time. The query of the quantum database doesn't create or erase the database.
The story itself says they need to be careful not to turn it off. Also a database isn't conscous but the simulated entities seem to be.
Uh. Don't know how to respond to that. Sure 'the story says', but that means 'the author wrote a character to say...'. I'm saying different. Because I read the story, and am responding to what it said.
Re: I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility (2007)
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think there are any causal cycles here - I don't think a simulation can have a causal effect in the sumulation (or real world) which launched it. Even though the simulator can observe the simulated, which might seem to provide a channel for communication, the latter cannot do anything that was not determined by the rules set up by the simulator.
Events in the physical world cannot do anything that was not determined by the laws of physics, and yet they affect the rest of the physical world.
Fair point - I suppose that, for example, a simulation runner could make a note of something that occurred in her simulation, and that would count as a causal effect on the simulating world from the simulated one.
I still feel, however, that the story's requirement, that the simulated world mirrors the simulating world (except when the latter is the real world), depends on the physics of the real world (and its simulations) being maximally deterministic (in that everything that is possible happens with probability 1) or else the butterfly effect will cause them all to diverge quite rapidly. But with that level of determinancy, there is no need for a feedback mechanism to achieve "midpoint stability" - there is no possibility of divergence from the already-determined future.
Re: I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility (2007)
#120I remember loving the short stories on this stie! I used to binge read them way back when. Another site with good sci-fi is http://www.galactanet.com/writing.html - stories by Andy Weir's (writer of The Martian).
I could swear Ted Chiang also used to have a website with some of his stories, but I can't find it now by Googling, and Wikipedia doesn't provide much except Internet Archive'd versions of his stories appearing in different places. Did I imagine the Chiang archive?