[extropy-chat] Is our Universe in a Brain?

[Ian Goddard]

--- Russell Wallace wrote:

> Ian Goddard wrote:
>
> > Another way to ask ben's question [1] is: if the
> > common universe outside our brains is a dynamic
> > model within a computer, then how do we know 
> > whether or not that computer is an *organic* 
> > computer like a brain?
> 
> Unlikely. Our universe exhibits the ability to run
> long chains of serial computation quickly and with 
> high precision; this is something that organic 
> brains are notoriously bad at.


 That certainly holds for organic brains as they
evolved under Earth-defined circumstances. But since
the question at hand entails consideration of some
brain that came to be under unknown circumstances, I'm
not so sure we can place Earth-defined limits on such
a hypothetical brain. 
 
 My meta-sense here is that there may be no way we can
rule in or out the extrapolations explored here
regarding the Simulation Argument (which posits that
the universe is a computer-generated simulation). So
my underlying argument tends to be that we cannot rule
out ben's conjecture, as was done.

 Such an undecidable state of affairs might be
inherent in formulating hypotheses about what the
whole universe is. Is the universe a simulation? Is it
a simulation of type A or B or ... ? Did it arise
spontaneously? Was it created? If so, by who? And who
or what created such a creator? .... I think it's
reasonable to assume that it may be the case that we
simply cannot know exactly what the whole universe is,
at least so long as we cannot step outside it. And yet
if we could step outside the universe, then where are
we and what's the nature of that place? ...

~Ian


		
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