Re:Planetary 'autopsies' indicate worlds like Earth common i...
by simonh on Monday October 21, 2019 @02:55AM
(#21309888)
Demanding proof either way is unhelpful as it’s not possible, but we can I think trim down the balance of probability.
Looking at our own universe, building a simulator for it inside itself looks like a non starter. We’re even detecting gravity waves from black hole collisions billions of light years away, that's how detailed the simulation would have to be. There’s no way to build a simulator with that level of detailed fidelity of a universe in that same universe. Imagine designing a computer chip to run a simulation of itself. Yes we run low fidelity weather simulations, but to simulate outcomes in our universe at a general level like that you wouldn’t need to simulate consciousness. In the same way that we don't think superintelligent AI would necessarily need to be conscious, the actors in a history simulation wouldn't need to be either. Our universe is too detailed to be a statistical simulation and too complex to be an accurate simulation. The parameters don’t make sense.
That only really leaves the possibility that the simulator is running in a dramatically more complex universe, so simulating ours would be relatively easy. But then, there would be almost infinitely many less complex universes they could simulate, why choose ours? The more complex the universe running the simulator(s), the more lower complexity universes there are available to simulate. As the number and complexity of universes available to run simulators goes up, the number of lower complexity universes (and the complexity of them) that it's possible for them to simulate also goes up, so the probability they will bother with ours probably stays steady at a very low prior.
Looking at our own universe, building a simulator for it inside itself looks like a non starter. We’re even detecting gravity waves from black hole collisions billions of light years away, that's how detailed the simulation would have to be. There’s no way to build a simulator with that level of detailed fidelity of a universe in that same universe. Imagine designing a computer chip to run a simulation of itself. Yes we run low fidelity weather simulations, but to simulate outcomes in our universe at a general level like that you wouldn’t need to simulate consciousness. In the same way that we don't think superintelligent AI would necessarily need to be conscious, the actors in a history simulation wouldn't need to be either. Our universe is too detailed to be a statistical simulation and too complex to be an accurate simulation. The parameters don’t make sense.
That only really leaves the possibility that the simulator is running in a dramatically more complex universe, so simulating ours would be relatively easy. But then, there would be almost infinitely many less complex universes they could simulate, why choose ours? The more complex the universe running the simulator(s), the more lower complexity universes there are available to simulate. As the number and complexity of universes available to run simulators goes up, the number of lower complexity universes (and the complexity of them) that it's possible for them to simulate also goes up, so the probability they will bother with ours probably stays steady at a very low prior.