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Most people generally think that it means that there is a higher-level reality, and that there are beings within that higher-level reality engaged in creating o

Most people generally think that it means that there is a higher-level reality, and that there are beings within that higher-level reality engaged in creating our simulation. "Gods" for lack of a better word. I prefer Greg Egan's interpretation in Permutation City, where simulations can become self-bootstrapping and that simulations need no "simulator" at all. No one's loaded universe.exe in some higher-lever reality, it runs itself. That still won't stop me from attempting rowhammer attacks.

gchamonlive 1y ago
Until we can download some else's consciousness from a different universe into this one, similar to what happens to Durham, this is just an interesting thought experiment. And even then, how could we distinguish an alien human consciousness from someone having a severe dissociation episode?
cluckindan 1y ago
It could also mean there is a lower-level, more fundamental reality, in which the building blocks of our reality emerge. It could even be a very simple system, as long as it produces complex behavior.
- EMIRELADERO 1y ago
  Relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY6Y4lE3LTo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY6Y4lE3LTo
IIAOPSW 1y ago
Adding to this, I think people naturally confuse / extrapolate a universe that appears to have discritized / computational laws with the discritized simulations and computations we use to approximate our (previously assumed continuous) reality. As I put it, the older understanding of the universe working in mechanical ways does not imply the universe is actually a machine nor that it was built by someone or for some purpose similar to the way we build machines. Likewise, the newer understanding of the universe working in computational ways does not imply the universe is actually running on some computer nor that its code was written by someone or for some purpose similar to the way we run simulations.

gchamonlive 1y ago

Until we can download some else's consciousness from a different universe into this one, similar to what happens to Durham, this is just an interesting thought experiment. And even then, how could we distinguish an alien human consciousness from someone having a severe dissociation episode?

cluckindan 1y ago

It could also mean there is a lower-level, more fundamental reality, in which the building blocks of our reality emerge. It could even be a very simple system, as long as it produces complex behavior.

EMIRELADERO 1y ago
Relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY6Y4lE3LTo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY6Y4lE3LTo

IIAOPSW 1y ago

Adding to this, I think people naturally confuse / extrapolate a universe that appears to have discritized / computational laws with the discritized simulations and computations we use to approximate our (previously assumed continuous) reality. As I put it, the older understanding of the universe working in mechanical ways does not imply the universe is actually a machine nor that it was built by someone or for some purpose similar to the way we build machines. Likewise, the newer understanding of the universe working in computational ways does not imply the universe is actually running on some computer nor that its code was written by someone or for some purpose similar to the way we run simulations.