X-Message-Number: 16723 Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 21:14:02 -0700 (PDT) From: Scott Badger <> Subject: Re: But, how can you know if your life is real? I somewhat suspect that this reality is, in fact, a simulation. Primarily because we have already conceived of such a thing. It is worth noting that the virtual worlds that currently exist on the internet, crude as they are, far surpass the allegedly real earth in terms of square footage. The development of technology among any sentient species is bound to result in increasingly sophisticated computer simulations. Ask yourself what kinds of virtual worlds/simulations we will likely have here on earth in 10,000 years. Now ask yourself how many sentient species are likely to exist in the universe that are at least 10,000 years older than us in terms of technological development. So how would we know this is the fake world? We couldn't if the creators (machines most likely) were any good at all at programming. I would think that creators/programmers capable of generating simulations as sophisticated as this one would strive to make successive versions increasingly undetectable by the "simulants". Maybe there's a contest going on with the prize going to the most convincing simulation. I suspect that if this is a simulation, it will be uncovered by a singularity-related super intelligent (SI) entity who is most likely to detect a fault in the programming as professor Ettinger suggested. Perhaps that's how it works. I can imagine a scenario where, in any given simulation, the arrtival of a singularity is the key to disovering the existence of the simulation ... the SI might also figure out the means of transporting to the world of the creator. But that world would have already had its singularty and its inhabitants would have likely already transcended to meet their creators ... leaving only the machinery necessary to maintain our simulation and any possible nested simulations. Imagine getting to heaven only to find that your god had gone off to find his/her god ... who had already left to find his/her god ... Perhaps our ultimate evolutionary path is to travel through these layers until we reach level 1 ... with universes to explore on the way. Hey, I'm up for that. Scott Badger "Vita Perpetuem" __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=16723