So did Devs just rip this off?
Deffo.
I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility (2007)
31–40 of 164 posts
Re: I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility (2007)
#32If everything is simulated, and there is infinite number of simulated realities, as simulation is only reflection of possible reality - then maybe what is simulated continues to live in reality regardless of being switched off as just infinite number of realities that exist always at the same time.
That's pretty similar to Tegmark's mathematical universe theory, by the way, if you hadn't heard of it.
Re: I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility (2007)
#33If everything is simulated, and there is infinite number of simulated realities, as simulation is only reflection of possible reality - then maybe what is simulated continues to live in reality regardless of being switched off as just infinite number of realities that exist always at the same time.
This idea is close to the idea of modal realism: all possible worlds are real to their inhabitants, in the same way that our world is real to us. No substrate required.
It's still fun to think how simulations or other types of "nesting" interacts with modal realism. E.g. maybe there is an "Occam's razor" type of effect where we should expect to find ourselves in a world with the simplest physics that allows conscious inhabitants, simply because such worlds have more "instances" within other worlds.
Re: I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility (2007)
#34What if the double-slit experiment is nothing but a bug in the simulator's code ? If so: either we found an exploit or we're building an entire complex theory (QM) to explain a mistake ...
Imagine being the one assigned to that ticket
Re: I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility (2007)
#35He's one of the best modern sci-fi writers. The whole collection of short stories here is fantastic, as is the "Anti-mimetics division" series he wrote over on SCP wiki.
Re: I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility (2007)
#36If everything is simulated, and there is infinite number of simulated realities, as simulation is only reflection of possible reality - then maybe what is simulated continues to live in reality regardless of being switched off as just infinite number of realities that exist always at the same time.
A speculative execution bug? I like the sound of that. Another HN once theorised / joked that the speed of light was the maximum value an integer could store and planks length was the smallest floating point number.
Thanks for the laugh. How accurately could we simulate physics/a universe if we simplified some of the constant values like how the fundamental particles behave. Not a physicist or a mathematician so be gentle if it's absolute cod's wallop.
Re: I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility (2007)
#37After "don't roll your own crypto", we're witnessing "don't roll your own universe".
My, this escalated quickly.
Re: I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility (2007)
#38A further short story by the same author, very short and very suspenseful, about a powerful AI facing an existential task: https://qntm.org/transit
If you like longer stories, then https://qntm.org/ra. "Magic is real. Discovered in the 1970s, magic is now a bona fide field of engineering. There's magic in heavy industry and magic in your home. It's what's next after electricity." Magic as an abstraction layer.
Re: I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility (2007)
#39Good story and I absolutely believe this to be true. It just seems like the most logical thing. I mean, as soon as any civilization ever can simulate a universe, or even a galaxy, they would. And they would do it infinite times. So the chances that we're the original are infinite to 1. Doesn't mean our lives aren't real though and we should change our behavior. We still experience joy. So experience as much joy as yo…
> can simulate a universe
That's a pretty huge and unfounded assumption.
Re: I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility (2007)
#40What if the double-slit experiment is nothing but a bug in the simulator's code ? If so: either we found an exploit or we're building an entire complex theory (QM) to explain a mistake ...
What if uncertainty is just a kludge added to prevent multiple particles from occupying the same place at the same instant?