crucial information! I.e., we know that we are not in any of the simulations that we have produced.
I think the point has to do with belief consistency here. If you believe that our posthuman descendants will probably run a vast number of simulations of their ancestors (the negation of the second and first alternatives), then you have to accept that the particular case of being a non-simulated civilization is one in a vast number, and therefore highly improbable, and therefore we are almost certainly living in a simulation. You cannot know that you are not in a simulation because you are supposed to believe that huge numbers of simulations are probably run by post-human civilizations.
Maybe he meant simulating our ancestors someday would be evidence that advanced posthuman civilization in general simulate their ancestors. But if so, who are these other posthuman civilizations? Where do they exist? Why should we think they exist?
If we could run a vast number of simulations someday, that would be strong statistical evidence in favor of the third alternative. And we would know nothing of them, just as people living in our simulations wouldn’t know anything about us.
[Edited this, because I had mistaken the order of alternatives]
“If we could run a vast number of simulations someday, that would be strong statistical evidence in favor of the third alternative. And we would know nothing of them, just as people living in our simulations wouldn’t know anything about us.”
If we actually do this and run those simulations then we would know that we aren’t in any of them. What is the connection between the Indifference Principle and this strong statistical evidence? Thank you, I am appreciative.
I think the point has to do with belief consistency here. If you believe that our posthuman descendants will probably run a vast number of simulations of their ancestors (the negation of the second and first alternatives), then you have to accept that the particular case of being a non-simulated civilization is one in a vast number, and therefore highly improbable, and therefore we are almost certainly living in a simulation. You cannot know that you are not in a simulation because you are supposed to believe that huge numbers of simulations are probably run by post-human civilizations.
If we could run a vast number of simulations someday, that would be strong statistical evidence in favor of the third alternative. And we would know nothing of them, just as people living in our simulations wouldn’t know anything about us.
[Edited this, because I had mistaken the order of alternatives]
“If we could run a vast number of simulations someday, that would be strong statistical evidence in favor of the third alternative. And we would know nothing of them, just as people living in our simulations wouldn’t know anything about us.”
If we actually do this and run those simulations then we would know that we aren’t in any of them. What is the connection between the Indifference Principle and this strong statistical evidence? Thank you, I am appreciative.