[extropy-chat] The Simulation Argument (was: Atheists launchinquisition...)

[Eugen Leitl]

On Thu, Dec 02, 2004 at 12:14:42PM -0800, "Hal Finney" wrote:

> Maybe we could call this SA+ to distinguish it from the SA.  I think
> most people who complain about the SA or say they disagree with it are
> actually disagreeing with the SA+.

I'm disagreeing with the premise that there is a tooth fairy. Or
circumsaturnine tea cups. Or wombats with green hair, and no halitosis.
 
> As far as Eugen's point about costs, this is discussed in Nick's paper
> in some detail.  He looks at various estimates of how much it takes to
> simulate a brain, and compares it with people's guesses about how much

I've read various estimates, and they're silly. The low-level sims are
entirely prohibitive, and high-level sims assume internal representation is
completely different from inside view. (If anyone has a recipe on how to
derive such transcoding algorithms, I'm all ears). 
If we're talking that metaverse has same physics as simulated 
universe -- see wombats with green hair, and everything-list at ers.

> compute power a future posthuman civilization will have.  Add a bit of
> hand-waving and it looks like simulations would be cheap compared to the

I disagree. Mature evolutionary systems don't have any atoms to waste.

> overall capabilities of such a civilization.  On the other hand there
> might well be more useful things they could do with that computing power,
> so it's hard to say what they will decide.

So basically, we agree that any quality discussion time spent of tooth
fairies, steaming circumsaturnine tea cups, green-haired wombats and
simulation arguments is a waste of our collective time.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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