[extropy-chat] The world as a Sim ? Irrelevant

[Brett Paatsch]

Alfio Puglisi writes:

> >I reckon (without believing) that it is NOT a sim and could
> >NOT easily be a sim.
> >
> >I think that to entertain the notion that it is is to run the risk of
> >repeating (now dead) Pascal's wager and betting the same
> >wrong way. Of betting that there is a super-natural being that
> >is going to come to the rescue like Santa Claus.
> 
> It's exactly the other way around. The biggest concern, when 
> one lives inside a sim, is the possibility that it will be shut down.
> Just turned off and erased, as any computer program.

I disagree. If one was in a sim that would imply a creator/designer
that at least had an interest in creating/designing the sim. There
would be some possibility that an observer of the sim they set
up would be watching it. 

Then there would be the question are they in a sim, and so on.
Phooey to the notion that its turtles all the way down. I am with
Sagan on that one. Let's just save the step.

The hard atheistic position is that there is no evidence whatsoever
to suggest that reality in total as one experiences it is designed in 
any way. Ergo the relationship of one to a sim is of some *hope* 
for outside assistance.   - Perhaps some folks sim is between
their ears and they need assistance from outside *that* space !?

I know, and if I forget but read this list from time to time then no
lesser person that Robert Bradbury will remind me with a
broadband message - hey guys one bit of inbound space junk
could ruin our whole day! (My paraphrasing).

To one in a sim there is the possibility that the 'space junk' (or)
the desire to turn off the sim may be avoided by some in the sim
continuing to be entertaining. 

To one not in a sim there is not even that hope. So I figure flip
the hypothetical simulator the bird (that enough to give any 
sorry meta-geezer some entertainment) and then ignore the
sim scenario as the likely extrapolation of a generation over-
impressed by the computing models and architectures.

There is not all that much new in the computing paradigms. 
There is some useful stuff thought though so heck God bless
Babbage, and Turin and Shannon even Gates. God can bless
'em I am just grateful for the work that they save me as I am 
assuming I am not in a sim. But as I hope I have just 
demonstrated I am reckoning not believing even on the 
matter of the sim. 

This 'conversation' would not have been worth my having had
I not wanted to communicate and empower potential allies.

Regards,
Brett