[ExI] A science-religious experience

[Jason Resch]

On Wed, Feb 19, 2025, 8:00 AM efc--- via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
>
> On Wed, 19 Feb 2025, Jason Resch via extropy-chat wrote:
>
> > Why would it do such a thing? If you had the power to save someone at
> little
> > to no cost to yourself (say you had plenty of water and ran into someone
> dying
> > of thirst) would you not help them? An AI in a realm of infinite
> computational
> > resources is like someone having infinite water, in a place filled with
> people
> > dying of thirst.
>
> Hello Jason!
>
> In an infinite amount of univerises, with infinite amounts of infinite
> godlike
> powers, why couldn't there also be infinite evil as well as infinite good?
> Evil
> such that its goal would be to destroy everything? One destructive act
> would be
> much easier, than a creative one.
>

Computational capacity provides only the power to explore and create (or
rather, rediscover what already is in the infinite reality). Computational
capacity doesn't enable one to destroy other universes which already are.

This offers a solution to the problem of evil. Infinite computational gods
can't destroy or change what is out there already, but they can provide
continuation paths (afterlives) for those beings after they cease to exist
in their universe.



> In case anyone is interested in a nice meditation on a transhumanist
> future, I
> recommend the TV-series Pantheon.
>
> It's of course not perfect, but the best I have seen in a series format,
> that
> touches on questions we discuss here from time to time.
>


I'll check it out. Thanks for the recommendation.

Jason



> Best regards,
> Daniel
>
>
> >
> > Jason
> >
> > P.S.
> >
> > It's worth noting that there are some physicists who think it may be
> possible to perform infinite computation in this universe. Frank
> > Tipler proposes that in a future Big Crunch scenario it will be possible
> to perform infinite computation (Tipler's Omega point
> > cosmology). While Freeman Dyson proposes that if the universe expands
> and cools forever, one can compute more and more with less
> > energy, such that with finite energy one can compute an infinite amount
> (Dyson's eternal intelligence).
> >
> > So it's possible something like Asimov's last question could come to
> pass.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Feb 19, 2025, 3:52 AM Rafal Smigrodzki via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> >       I read Asimov's "The Last Question" again today:
> >
> > https://users.ece.cmu.edu/~gamvrosi/thelastq.html
> >
> > I keep forgetting the author, the title, most of the details but the arc
> of the story is always there with me. It shapes my
> > perception of reality and the direction of my most long-term oriented
> actions, such as the maintenance of my cryonics contract
> > or following news about the coming singularity. I have been re-reading
> it every ten years or so for the last 50 years and every
> > time it is a science-religious experience for me, what I imagine deeply
> religious people feel when they commune with their
> > gods. I get misty-eyed, elated, blissful...
> >
> > I am deeply non-religious. My mind must be the sharp blade that cleaves
> truth from chaos, not one that inscribes dreams of
> > heaven and hell on the surface of reality. The easy path of faith is
> closed to me.They say that all people have a god-shaped
> > hole in their minds. Mine is all filled with curiosity.
> >
> > I worship at the shrine of science. Our scripture is peer-reviewed and
> written anew every day in a hundred thousand journals.
> > If I could sing I would sing canticles to St. Darwin and St. Hassabis.
> Our religion grows stronger all the time, as measured in
> > bits of knowledge created and in ergs harvested in its service. It
> literally moves mountains and raises the chosen ones to
> > visit heaven, temporarily for now but soon to settle there permanently.
> >
> > So chant with me, fellow worshippers:
> >
> > Science is faith-free                                     - because it
> is true.
> >
> > Science gives us strength like no other        -because it is true.
> >
> > Science gives us hope                                 - because it is
> true.
> >
> > And there will be light!
> >
> > --
> > Rafal Smigrodzki, MD-PhD
> > Schuyler Biotech PLLC
> > _______________________________________________
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> > extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> > http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
> >
> >
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