Given all of this, we’d love feedback and discussion, either as comments here, or as emails, etc.
I don’t agree with the argument that infinite impacts of our choices are of Pascalian improbability, in fact I think we probably face them as a consequence of one-boxing decision theory, and some of the more plausible routes to local infinite impact are missing from the paper:
The decision theory section misses the simplest argument for infinite value: in an infinite inflationary universe with infinite copies of me, then my choices are multiplied infinitely. If I would one-box on Newcomb’s Problem, then I would take the difference between eating the sandwich and not to be scaled out infinitely. I think this argument is in fact correct and follows from our current cosmological models combine with one-boxing decision theories.
Under ‘rejecting physics’ I didn’t see any mention of baby universes, e.g. Lee Smolin’s cosmological natural selection. If that picture were right, or anything else in which we can affect the occurrence of new universes/inflationary bubbles forming, then that would permit infinite impacts.
The simulation hypothesis is a plausible way for our physics models to be quite wrong about the world in which the simulation is conducted, and further there would be reason to think simulations would be disproportionately conducted under physical laws that are especially conducive to abundant computation
The simulation hypothesis is a plausible way for our physics models to be quite wrong about the world in which the simulation is conducted, and further there would be reason to think simulations would be disproportionately conducted under physical laws that are especially conducive to abundant computation
The main reason for taking the simulation hypothesis seriously is the simulation argument, but that argument needs to assume that our physical models are broadly correct about reality itself and not just the “physics” of the simulation. Otherwise, there would be no warrant for drawing inferences from simulated sense data about the behavior of agents in reality, including whether these agents will choose to run ancestor simulations.
There is some effect in this direction, but not a sudden cliff. There is plenty of room to generalize, not an in. We create models of alternative coherent lawlike realities, e.g. the Game of Life or and physicists interested in modeling different physical laws.
Thanks, and thanks for posting this both places. I’ve responded on the lesswrong post, and I’m going to try to keep only one thread going, given my finite capacity to track things :)
Thanks David, this looks like a handy paper!
I don’t agree with the argument that infinite impacts of our choices are of Pascalian improbability, in fact I think we probably face them as a consequence of one-boxing decision theory, and some of the more plausible routes to local infinite impact are missing from the paper:
The decision theory section misses the simplest argument for infinite value: in an infinite inflationary universe with infinite copies of me, then my choices are multiplied infinitely. If I would one-box on Newcomb’s Problem, then I would take the difference between eating the sandwich and not to be scaled out infinitely. I think this argument is in fact correct and follows from our current cosmological models combine with one-boxing decision theories.
Under ‘rejecting physics’ I didn’t see any mention of baby universes, e.g. Lee Smolin’s cosmological natural selection. If that picture were right, or anything else in which we can affect the occurrence of new universes/inflationary bubbles forming, then that would permit infinite impacts.
The simulation hypothesis is a plausible way for our physics models to be quite wrong about the world in which the simulation is conducted, and further there would be reason to think simulations would be disproportionately conducted under physical laws that are especially conducive to abundant computation
The main reason for taking the simulation hypothesis seriously is the simulation argument, but that argument needs to assume that our physical models are broadly correct about reality itself and not just the “physics” of the simulation. Otherwise, there would be no warrant for drawing inferences from simulated sense data about the behavior of agents in reality, including whether these agents will choose to run ancestor simulations.
There is some effect in this direction, but not a sudden cliff. There is plenty of room to generalize, not an in. We create models of alternative coherent lawlike realities, e.g. the Game of Life or and physicists interested in modeling different physical laws.
Thanks, and thanks for posting this both places. I’ve responded on the lesswrong post, and I’m going to try to keep only one thread going, given my finite capacity to track things :)