Simulated aliens complex enough to have a CEV are complex enough to be people, and since death is evolution’s favorite tool, simulating the evolution of the species would be causing many needless deaths.
But I don’t see why we would want our CEV to include a random sample of possible aliens. If, when we encounter aliens, we find that we care about their values, we can run a CEV on them at that time.
Simulated aliens complex enough to have a CEV are complex enough to be people, and since death is evolution’s favorite tool, simulating the evolution of the species would be causing many needless deaths.
The simulation could provide an afterlife.
But I don’t see why we would want our CEV to include a random sample of possible aliens. If, when we encounter aliens, we find that we care about their values, we can run a CEV on them at that time.
This possibility may be the strongest source of probability mass for an afterlife for us.
Does a similar argument apply to having children if there’s no high likelihood of immortality tech?
Depends on the context. Quite plausibly, though.