X-Message-Number: 17404 From: "Tim Freeman" <> Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 19:16:03 -0700 Subject: Some situations aren't worth planning for (was ... Simulations) References: <> Here's the exit I can see to the simulation conundrum: The purpose of my guesses about what is going on in the universe is to allow me to make good plans about what I will do next. In situations where nothing I can do makes any difference, it doesn't matter what I plan to do, so I can ignore those possibilities when I make my plans. If I'm living in a simulated universe, and the entities running the simulation have chosen to give me no clues about what's going on in the real universe, then there's no way for me to get any traction on the problem of making a difference in the real universe. Thus nothing I do makes any difference, so I don't have to consider this possibility when I'm making my plans. Thus, the situations I'm willing to plan for are a real universe, or a simulated universe with a communicative God. I haven't received any credible communications from God, so at the moment I choose to treat the universe as real. -- Tim Freeman ; formerly Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=17404