A pig's brain has been frozen with its cellular activity locked in place • Hacker News Board

Re: A pig's brain has been frozen with its cellular activity locked in place

#181

Post by nextaccountic » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 3:29 AM UTC

sho_hn wrote: post #134

exe34 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worse part is you can't know that your current life isn't one of those. Everything that you think of as perks of being alive could be part of the protocol to keep you cooperative.

Feels like the world religions that doubled down on reincarnation/rebirth/cyclic narratives were, literally, ahead of their time. Cherish it if the Great RNG In The Sky gave your simulation cycle a good seed.

Scott Aaronson wrote a bit about the following thought [0]. If copying a brain and simulating reality ala The Matrix is possible at all, then if you get your brain copied you live one biological live but your copies have an unbounded number of existences (millions? billions? trillions?)

So, if copying brains is possible, and you don't know which version of you you are, you might have odds of, say, 1 to 1 trillion to be living your first, biological live.

Which is to say, if copying brains is possible, you are likely to be running in a simulation already.

[0] there's multiple links and I can't find where I first read, but I found this one from 2024, https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=7774 and uhh.. turns out the argument isn't from him personally (and he doesn't even believe on it), and is best presented here https://simulation-argument.com/ (though it's presented very differently so idk)

Re: A pig's brain has been frozen with its cellular activity locked in place

#182

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 5:43 AM UTC

exe34 wrote: post #169

Nevermark wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, the incentives to goof off, fail and flail are unrelenting. My compliance is complete.

the important thing is for you to think you have the options, and that when you do them, you get the whole benefits and the simulation pays the whole cost. they could easily put precalculated memories in your address space and save the compute.

[deleted]

Re: A pig's brain has been frozen with its cellular activity locked in place

#183

Post by thunfischtoast » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 8:27 AM UTC

defined wrote: post #101

thunfischtoast wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chip of Theseus

Ship?

It's a word play

Re: A pig's brain has been frozen with its cellular activity locked in place

#184

Post by ozlikethewizard » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 9:05 AM UTC

thesmtsolver2 wrote: post #35

simonask wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can recommend the comic “Transmetropolitan” by Warren Ellis, which deals with this and many other questions. You have to imagine what it would be like for someone who lived in 1826 too wake up today, in a world where nothing they know is relevant, they have no connections, no idea what to do with any of it. Historians might want to interview you, or the first couple of people like you, but then what? You will be an…

If a large number of people get reanimated, I don't think this will be their fate. I can imagine "educators" who can get them up speed. In a future where people get reanimated, I would think this shouldn't be a problem long term. Any existence may be better than non existence.

We dont retrain people who get left behind in sector wide redundancies and such now. I admire the optimism, but I'm here for a good time not a long time, and I'm not betting on the future being better than right now.

Re: A pig's brain has been frozen with its cellular activity locked in place

#185

Post by foxyv » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 8:23 PM UTC

Procrastes wrote: post #26

Here's a thought experiment. I offer you the chance to be put in a medically induced coma and shipped around the world to strangers you know nothing about. You don't know what economic, political, or moral system you'll awaken to. The only thing you know for sure is they, for some reason we're interested in receiving an unconscious person, no questions asked. Do you take the deal? Do you sign your family up for it?

Already went through this exact process. It wasn't too bad but I think I got lucky this time. I celebrate the anniversary every year. Most of my memories were about how to walk and be afraid of animals with big teeth though.

Re: A pig's brain has been frozen with its cellular activity locked in place

#186

Post by jlarocco » Fri, Mar 27, 2026, 4:15 PM UTC

colechristensen wrote: post #21

jlarocco wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, count me out. I don't even like how the world's played out in the 40 years I've been here. Imagine waking up in 200 years and finding out 90% of the world is still poor, we can't feed everybody, the rich still get to do whatever they want, we're still warring for no good reason, etc.

So... same as the whole of human history? You're upset that your generation isn't going to fix all of the problems of civilization that have existed forever?

I don't know why you think I'm upset. It's not my responsibility to fix the world's problems.

But I don't have much faith in humanity to make things better, so I'm not sure I'd want to see a future with another 200 years of people making things worse.

I guess I would say I'm happy to live my life now and let the future can take care of itself.