X-Message-Number: 16663 Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 08:55:46 -0700 From: Lee Corbin <> Subject: We're Living Only in a Simulation - Not! Bill Walker writes >Well of course we're probably all living in a simulation. >Every inhabited universe has zillions of simulations with >only one "real" level, so the odds are huge that you're in >a simulation. And the simulations have simulations in them, >so you're probably ten levels down. There are two reasons that this should be regarded as incorrect. First, if you are living in a simulation of the real 21st century Earth, then it is semantically correct to realize that the word "this" has two equally valid referents: the original Earth and the simulation. Therefore, this is just as much the original as the simulation. Yes, it is *possible* that a simulation is running that is not a re-creation of the original Earth. But the existence of an original Earth such as this is quite probable anyway, which constitutes my second reason that this, if a simulation, is also the original: Our best physical theories suggest that the visible universe is not all that there is, and in fact we have no reason to suppose at the present time that only finitely many stars exist. But if the number of stars is infinite, then it follows by the ergodic hypothesis, that an Earth arbitrarily close to this exists elsewhere---infinitely many, in fact. Also, the Many Worlds Interpretation is every year gaining further adherants, and will probably soon be held by a majority of physicists, if it isn't already. As the failings of the Copenhagen Interpretation become more and more apparent, so the logic and simplicity of MWI become more evident. But if you believe the MWI, then you also have to reckon that the word "this" has referents in many universes, so that the phrase "this is a simulation" is both true and false, since the you making this statement resides in the original Earth as well as in the simulation. Lee Corbin Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=16663