[extropy-chat] simulation argument may be just a dream

[ben]

Something that Ian Goddard said triggered a thought related to the
simulation argument.

Everybody seems to assume that the simulation argument relates to
someone/s/thing/s deliberately doing some kind of experiment, but if you
think about it, any intelligent mind constantly creates models of the
world as a sort of background task, in order to help it make sense of
what happens/happened/will or might happen.

A sufficiently powerful mind might well make these models in such fine
detail that they could count as full-blown simulations. These are the
sort of things that happen in our subconscious, even (maybe especially)
when we dream.

Maybe we are just some super-powerful mind's random dream, and will
disappear without trace in the morning.

ben