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You could give this somewhat of a horror ending by having the characters realise, after figuring out the implication of turning the simulation off, that the top

by Lerc 6y ago

You could give this somewhat of a horror ending by having the characters realise, after figuring out the implication of turning the simulation off, that the top level would not have had the black sphere appear and as such would have no reason to keep their simulation running and were about to turn it off.

MereInterest 6y ago
True, but they also could just as easily exit debug mode and allow the simulated universe to run to completion. It costs them nothing to do so, and gives the simulated universe a full lifetime. That changes the story from horror to a question of empathy.
konjin 6y ago
They did, but because you have infinite computing power all the lower levels completed the simulation in the time it took to shut down.
curiousllama 6y ago
Of course - why do you think the story ended?
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JoeAltmaier 6y ago
You don't 'turn it off'. Its a simulation. They run it over any part of the timeline of the universe, any time they like. It's all there, all the time. The query of the quantum database doesn't create or erase the database.
- staticman2 6y ago
  The story itself says they need to be careful not to turn it off. Also a database isn't conscous but the simulated entities seem to be.
  - JoeAltmaier 6y ago
    Uh. Don't know how to respond to that. Sure 'the story says', but that means 'the author wrote a character to say...'. I'm saying different. Because I read the story, and am responding to what it said.
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Chris2048 6y ago
But if they did turn it off, when they turned it back again everything that was there before would be back, including the memory of having turned it off. Other than the realisation they they had periodically ceased to exist (or only existed since they last turned it on..) there wouldn't be a great difference. That said, the black sphere would cause the "top" to diverge anyway at that point, wouldn't it? So it'not really in their control..

by Lerc 6y ago

MereInterest 6y ago

True, but they also could just as easily exit debug mode and allow the simulated universe to run to completion. It costs them nothing to do so, and gives the simulated universe a full lifetime. That changes the story from horror to a question of empathy.

konjin 6y ago

They did, but because you have infinite computing power all the lower levels completed the simulation in the time it took to shut down.

curiousllama 6y ago

Of course - why do you think the story ended?

deleted 6y ago

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JoeAltmaier 6y ago

You don't 'turn it off'. Its a simulation. They run it over any part of the timeline of the universe, any time they like. It's all there, all the time. The query of the quantum database doesn't create or erase the database.

staticman2 6y ago
The story itself says they need to be careful not to turn it off. Also a database isn't conscous but the simulated entities seem to be.
- JoeAltmaier 6y ago
  Uh. Don't know how to respond to that. Sure 'the story says', but that means 'the author wrote a character to say...'. I'm saying different. Because I read the story, and am responding to what it said.

deleted 6y ago

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Chris2048 6y ago

But if they did turn it off, when they turned it back again everything that was there before would be back, including the memory of having turned it off. Other than the realisation they they had periodically ceased to exist (or only existed since they last turned it on..) there wouldn't be a great difference. That said, the black sphere would cause the "top" to diverge anyway at that point, wouldn't it? So it'not really in their control..