4 ms·

Maybe but if there's no way for information to move in and out, what does it matter? It just ends up being one more turtle on the bottom of the stack.

rbanffy 5y ago
Unless it’s possible to attack the simulation from inside it and escape the sandbox. OTOH, every time an escape is detected and contained, the simulation can be reset to its last valid state and its inhabitants will never suspect the universe was reset.
- cainxinth 5y ago
  “There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.” -Douglas Adams
  - jamiek88 5y ago
    Aww you missed the best bit - ‘there’s another theory that says this has already happened’!
    - btschaegg 5y ago
      That's what always comes to my mind whenever someone mentiones quantum physics. :) Adams could even have gone a bit further and added: "We're just not sure how many times."
      - rbanffy 5y ago
        I'm pretty sure it happens all the time.
- monkeycantype 5y ago
  There’s a series of Greg Egan stories (in the book instantiation) about preparing and viewing images designed to exploit the simulator graphics library (when viewed) as a way to transfer between simulations, that considers these problems
Tenoke 5y ago
Some people value having a more complete picture for its own sake. It can also potentially influence some decisions at some point - e.g. an increased focus on looking for computationally cheaper shortcuts in the nature of reality or slightly decreased extremely long-term outlook if a simulation comes with a higher chance of being shutdown before the heat death of the universe etc.
zubspace 5y ago
If we're in a simulation there could be a way for information to flow out. In this case, we could do things we're really good at. We could influence a viewer by showing them a myriad of ads for example. Or shift their political views to our advantage.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- mcv 5y ago
  Pray, basically. That's effectively what it is: anyone running a simulation of an entire universe, controlling the rules and data of that simulation, in a position to turn it on or off, change it, etc, is effectively the god of that simulated universe.
simiones 5y ago
The idea of a simulation is essentially equivalent to religious idea of transcendence, just repacked in scientistic terms. You get another world, a creator, perhaps a meaning of life, perhaps even scientistic mind/body dualism (after all, our minds could be running different hardware than the rest of the simulation!). Of course, it is as useless a model of the world for scientific purposes as all religions are - it can't explain anything that we don't already know about. In fact, it's not even novel. The whole idea is quite similar to the Hindu notion of Māyā, the world we experience as an illusion that hides the real truths of the world.
ASalazarMX 5y ago
Our simulations have sandbox escape bugs, maybe this one has some too. What if we're stretching the edge cases with quantum computers, using computing resources from outside our sandbox?

rbanffy 5y ago

Unless it’s possible to attack the simulation from inside it and escape the sandbox. OTOH, every time an escape is detected and contained, the simulation can be reset to its last valid state and its inhabitants will never suspect the universe was reset.

cainxinth 5y ago
“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.” -Douglas Adams
- jamiek88 5y ago
  Aww you missed the best bit - ‘there’s another theory that says this has already happened’!
  - btschaegg 5y ago
    That's what always comes to my mind whenever someone mentiones quantum physics. :) Adams could even have gone a bit further and added: "We're just not sure how many times."
    - rbanffy 5y ago
      I'm pretty sure it happens all the time.
monkeycantype 5y ago
There’s a series of Greg Egan stories (in the book instantiation) about preparing and viewing images designed to exploit the simulator graphics library (when viewed) as a way to transfer between simulations, that considers these problems

Tenoke 5y ago

Some people value having a more complete picture for its own sake. It can also potentially influence some decisions at some point - e.g. an increased focus on looking for computationally cheaper shortcuts in the nature of reality or slightly decreased extremely long-term outlook if a simulation comes with a higher chance of being shutdown before the heat death of the universe etc.

zubspace 5y ago

If we're in a simulation there could be a way for information to flow out. In this case, we could do things we're really good at. We could influence a viewer by showing them a myriad of ads for example. Or shift their political views to our advantage.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
mcv 5y ago
Pray, basically. That's effectively what it is: anyone running a simulation of an entire universe, controlling the rules and data of that simulation, in a position to turn it on or off, change it, etc, is effectively the god of that simulated universe.

simiones 5y ago

The idea of a simulation is essentially equivalent to religious idea of transcendence, just repacked in scientistic terms. You get another world, a creator, perhaps a meaning of life, perhaps even scientistic mind/body dualism (after all, our minds could be running different hardware than the rest of the simulation!). Of course, it is as useless a model of the world for scientific purposes as all religions are - it can't explain anything that we don't already know about. In fact, it's not even novel. The whole idea is quite similar to the Hindu notion of Māyā, the world we experience as an illusion that hides the real truths of the world.

ASalazarMX 5y ago

Our simulations have sandbox escape bugs, maybe this one has some too. What if we're stretching the edge cases with quantum computers, using computing resources from outside our sandbox?