[extropy-chat] the structure of randomness

[Jeff Medina]

On 12/30/05, Russell Wallace <russell.wallace at gmail.com> wrote:
>  I haven't come across any story like that... my guess for what it's worth
> is that the reasoning isn't applicable here, on the following grounds:
>
>  Simulating the entire visible universe would require an impractically large
> amount of computation.

Your assessment of how much computation counts as impractical is based
on how much computation goes on in our observed world, posited here as
a potential simulation. If we *are* in a simulation, then we have no
idea what the limits of computation are in the "parent world", nor how
much computation is considered an impractically large amount.

Which is not to say we're in one; just that any argument that starts
from the quoted premise is not sound, and hence not grounds for
dismissing or discounting the possibility.

--
Jeff Medina
http://www.painfullyclear.com/

Community Director
Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
http://www.singinst.org/

Relationships & Community Fellow
Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies
http://www.ieet.org/

School of Philosophy, Birkbeck, University of London
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/phil/