Simulations

Sun, 01 Jun 2003 11:34:00 -0400
/society

The title: “The Simulation Argument: Why the Probability that You Are Living in a Matrix is Quite High” is strange as the first paragraph directly contradicts it: “The Matrix got many otherwise not-so-philosophical minds ruminating on the nature of reality. But the scenario depicted in the movie is ridiculous: human brains being kept in tanks by intelligent machines just to produce power.”

Nevertheless, this is interesting stuff.

Now we get to the core of the simulation argument. This does not purport to demonstrate that you are in a simulation. Instead, it shows that we should accept as true at least one of the following three propositions:
(1) The chances that a species at our current level of development can avoid going extinct before becoming technologically mature is negligibly small

(2) Almost no technologically mature civilisations are interested in running computer simulations of minds like ours

(3) You are almost certainly in a simulation.

These arguments assume finite computational power. If you also consider the possibility of infinite computational power and infinite storage (a real stretch, I know) then simulations could be recursive. The probability of being in a simulation becomes even higher and our ‘God’ is also probably in a simulation.

Via Slashdot