From: Gordon Mohr (gojomo@usa.net)
Date: Fri Aug 18 2000 - 13:52:07 PDT
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.
The Population Reference Bureau guesstimates that there have been
about 105 billion human lives since the dawn of agriculture. Let's
say another 20 billion get born before ultratechnology arrives,
yielding a fixed total of 125 billion lifetimes before ultratechnology.
Post-ultratechnology, the number of simulated lifetimes could become
arbitrarily larger than 125 billion.
So, for any one perceived lifetime chosen at random (for example,
mine or yours), the probability that it is one of the original
125 billion natural lifetimes is (125 bln / X ) as (X approaches
infinity). Or essentially, zero.
So, welcome to the Singularity, everyone! Eliezer et al, stop
working so hard!
- Gordon
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Aug 18 2000 - 13:56:58 PDT