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You're missing the point. What makes an iPhone more real than an emulator? Is it that we consider an iPhone to be real and an emulator to be a simulator, is it

You're missing the point. What makes an iPhone more real than an emulator? Is it that we consider an iPhone to be real and an emulator to be a simulator, is it that one came first? An emulator is still real. One could emulate an emulator - which of those then is real? Is the "real" iPhone not a simulator? It's all a matter if semantics. Even if we live in a universe created by an intelligence, we are not in a simulator - we are in a universe created by an intelligence. If we are in a simulator, what are we simulating? The real universe which is like this one?

logicallee 13y ago
What makes the iPhone real in this case is that its chips are running the code, whereas the simulator runs code that does not control actual chips, and functions as though it did as emergent behavior. The calls in the code running in the simulator don't actually touch the hardware they're coded to touch, they are not subject to actual hardware behavior. That's all. It's not a distinction without a difference. Javascript does not run on the CPU, Firefox does. If you recreate Firefox in javascript (i.e. a whole slow VM) then it is still a simulation of a computer running Firefox. The physical computer is not actually executing the C++ instructions that Firefox is coded with. It is quite easy to see this level of abstraction difference. The question is, am I existing in a physical sense with my atoms being 'the metal' or are there some more fundamental laws that are used to 'interpret' (at a higher level) the laws of our universe, without being bound by them, and are only interpreting the movement of my atoms. This is quite an easy question to understand and don't see why it poses such a metaphysical conundrum to you. If we are in a simulator, all that means is that there are more fundamental rules that are being used to create our universe at a higher logical level as an emergent property. (The way a VM that is done in Javascript does: http://bellard.org/jslinux/ http://bellard.org/jslinux/). The question is, is our code running at the lowest level, or is some other code running at the lowest level but simulating our laws as an emergent property? (a la linux in javascript).

logicallee 13y ago

What makes the iPhone real in this case is that its chips are running the code, whereas the simulator runs code that does not control actual chips, and functions as though it did as emergent behavior. The calls in the code running in the simulator don't actually touch the hardware they're coded to touch, they are not subject to actual hardware behavior. That's all. It's not a distinction without a difference. Javascript does not run on the CPU, Firefox does. If you recreate Firefox in javascript (i.e. a whole slow VM) then it is still a simulation of a computer running Firefox. The physical computer is not actually executing the C++ instructions that Firefox is coded with. It is quite easy to see this level of abstraction difference. The question is, am I existing in a physical sense with my atoms being 'the metal' or are there some more fundamental laws that are used to 'interpret' (at a higher level) the laws of our universe, without being bound by them, and are only interpreting the movement of my atoms. This is quite an easy question to understand and don't see why it poses such a metaphysical conundrum to you. If we are in a simulator, all that means is that there are more fundamental rules that are being used to create our universe at a higher logical level as an emergent property. (The way a VM that is done in Javascript does: http://bellard.org/jslinux/ http://bellard.org/jslinux/). The question is, is our code running at the lowest level, or is some other code running at the lowest level but simulating our laws as an emergent property? (a la linux in javascript).