I don’t understand the argument that a speed prior wouldn’t work: wouldn’t the abstract reasoner still have to simulate the aliens in order to know what output to read from the zoo earths? I don’t understand how “simulate a zoo earth with a bitstream that is controlled by aliens in a certain way” would ever get a higher prior weight than “simulate an earth that never gets controlled by aliens”. Is the idea that each possible zoo earth with simple-to-describe aliens has a relatively similar prior weight to the real earth, so they collectively have a much higher prior weight?
I don’t understand the argument that a speed prior wouldn’t work: wouldn’t the abstract reasoner still have to simulate the aliens in order to know what output to read from the zoo earths? I don’t understand how “simulate a zoo earth with a bitstream that is controlled by aliens in a certain way” would ever get a higher prior weight than “simulate an earth that never gets controlled by aliens”. Is the idea that each possible zoo earth with simple-to-describe aliens has a relatively similar prior weight to the real earth, so they collectively have a much higher prior weight?