On 10 Sep 2005, at 18:21, Lee Corbin wrote:
>
> Bruno wrote:
>> Still, a proof that such an hypothesis [SWE] is *necessarily*
>> redundant,
>> once we assume we are simulable on a computer, can be found in my
>> papers (1988 and sequitur) available from my url below. It also shows
>> that the comp hyp (i.e. we are simulable on a computer) is
>> empirically falsifiable.
>> http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/
>>
>
> That still seems philosophically impossible!
Agreed. It *seems* impossible.
>
> A really good virtual reality could provide
> any experience conceivable, including one
> in which Godel and Heisenberg rule.
Any stable enough virtual reality, as seen from inside, makes Godel
and Heisenberg inescapable, imo. To make Godel and/or Heisenberg
false would probably need infinite trickery from the virtual reality
administrator.
I am willing to bet that most of the *quantum* weirdness is a
consequence of the already virtual character of the possible
realities consistent with our digitalness.
If *you* are supported by a virtual reality, and if you have the time
and the space to do any conceivable experiments on your apparent
neighborhood, you will discover that your reality is virtual. Only if
both you and the virtual reality are updated each time you find a
"logical" discrepancy, you will not been able to infer the
virtuality. But then you are in a Harry Potter like structure which
will need some super-observer-administrator to trick you perpetually.
That would be a "malicious God"! And actually even if such malicious
God exists, I don't know how he will make you remaining, from your
point view, in that tricky reality, given that it will be more
probable from your point of view to continue on some normal extensions.
Assuming comp, a virtual reality built for making you believe that
you are in some "real reality" is bounded to fail statistically, for
the same reason that you cannot probabilistically *remain* in a Harry
Potter like situation.
The science-fiction book "SIMULACRON III", by Daniel B Galouye, does
illustrate the point that we *can* discover we are virtual or
dreaming, by finding logical discrepancies. Actually the "lucid
dreaming" phenomenon could be seen as a natural illustration of this.
(SIMULACRON III has also been made into a movie: "the thirteen floor").
Bruno
http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/
Received on Tue Sep 13 2005 - 11:24:59 PDT