[ExI] Simulation

[Anders Sandberg]

On 2012-12-18 21:26, ablainey at aol.com wrote:
> Well we can both claim some prior credit for this old chestnut although
> I can't say it was something I was seriously considering back in 87. I
> did certainly put forward the probability factor based upon future
> simulation before Nicks paper.

It is interesting that the basic idea was floating around in our 
community long before the paper. In a sense reality as a simulation is 
of course ancient (think Plato, Buddhism and Descartes) and as Nick 
points out right at the start, futurists and sf authors have already 
talked about vast future computing (and mind simulations).

I guess it the simulation argument would have been a case of Stigler's 
law of eponymy if Nick's name had gotten attached to it.

In general, our community has plenty of other equally interesting 
notions as part of the intellectual air we breathe. Yet many of these 
are unknown on the outside, so when one of us writes something that 
makes the concept citable it is often seen as a brilliant insight. So I 
urge you all: write more stuff!


-- 
Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford University