From: Karl Anderson (kra@monkey.org)
Date: Fri Aug 18 2000 - 17:16:55 PDT
"Gordon Mohr" <gojomo@usa.net> writes:
> Kent Spaulding writes
> > Furthermore, assuming you buy into the whole multiverse explanation:
> >
> > We have no idea whether or not said Singularity already exists and is
> > responsible for presenting us with the Multiverse.
>
> Thinking down a very similar path:
>
> Say you believe that some ultratechnology will soon allow us to
> create simulated realities that cannot be differentiated from
> what we now perceive.
>
> We could then, just for kicks, live a few hundred "simulated natural
> lifetimes", in the blink of an eye -- if such an exercise were at all
> interesting. We could rerun the same life with slightly different
> initial conditions; we could invite friends over for guest-starring
> roles; we could discuss the twists and turns between lifetime sorties.
Yeah, but that would be extremely unethical, unless you don't believe
in hard AI, in which case "cannot be differentiated" is false.
"Whoops, I messed up the input parameters a notch - a version of you
just spent a lifetime getting gangraped by pirates. Butterfly effect,
dude!"
Don't even have to go that far.
"cool, I gave your mom red hair, & you turned out to be a piano
prodigy at age 10. Well, let's pull the plug on that one & try..."
-- Karl Anderson kra@monkey.org http://www.pobox.com/~kra/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Aug 18 2000 - 16:45:48 PDT