[ExI] Our Lives, Controlled From Some Guy's Couch?

[Bryan Bishop]

Just some of my thoughts that might stimulate some extropian 
discussion. :)

On Tuesday 14 August 2007 23:18, Olga Bourlin wrote:
> ... and Nick Bostrom weighs in, too:

>From the article:
> It’s unsettling to think of the world being run by a
> futuristic computer geek, although we might at last dispose
> of that of classic theological question: How could God allow
> so much evil in the world? For the same reason there are
> plagues and earthquakes and battles in games like World of
> Warcraft. Peace is boring, Dude.     

That is very biased on the side of us humans- "peace"? 
Boredom? That adds to the lot of gunk to sort through. Though 
I suspect this might just be the style that Bostrom works 
with.

> A more practical question is how to behave in a computer
> simulation. 

My best answer so far: we do not know ... but this does not 
mean we should do nothing. Rather we should be doing as much 
as possible. This seems to follow from the fundamental 
structure of Pascal's wager (disregarding the religious 
components).

I seem to remember discovering Nick Bostrom back in 2005 with 
his paper re: the opportunity cost and astronomical waste due 
to our waiting to colonize space (lost possibilities, cosmic 
constraints, etc.). That spawned many, many hours of 
discussion with my friends. :)

By the way:
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=site%3Amindstalk.net+Bostrom

- Bryan