And a string of bits can be interpreted as implementing any arbitrary program, given an arbitrary choice of the interpreter.
You could discriminate between heaven and hell by considering the minimum length of an interpreting program. Such a program would have to produce output that would be directly comprehendible by us, and it would have to be written in a language that we wouldn’t regard as crazy.
In order to see heaven in hell, your interpreter probably has to contain hell.
Fair enough; that’s true when it comes to an arbitrary program. However, consider a program that contains both heaven and hell in different branches, and will take one of these different branches depending on the interpreter. Or, alternatively, consider a program simulating a “good” world that will, given some small tweak in the orignal interpreter, simulate a much worse world because some simple but essential thing will be off. Such thought experiments, as far as I see, override this objection.
You could discriminate between heaven and hell by considering the minimum length of an interpreting program. Such a program would have to produce output that would be directly comprehendible by us, and it would have to be written in a language that we wouldn’t regard as crazy.
In order to see heaven in hell, your interpreter probably has to contain hell.
Fair enough; that’s true when it comes to an arbitrary program. However, consider a program that contains both heaven and hell in different branches, and will take one of these different branches depending on the interpreter. Or, alternatively, consider a program simulating a “good” world that will, given some small tweak in the orignal interpreter, simulate a much worse world because some simple but essential thing will be off. Such thought experiments, as far as I see, override this objection.