Generating all possible minds and then picking out the one you want is identical to simply building the one you want. In the same way, finding a book in Borges’ Library of Babel is equivalent to writing the book yourself. In both cases, if you follow the improbability, all the work lies in determining which one you want.
A possible solution is to not pick out. Generate all possible minds (with some realistic constrains), and let them all live their lives.
If we have enough computational resources to run billions of slightly different versions of Archimedes, then we create billions of virtual habitats for them, and let them be.
One of them will be the Archimedes. We don’t know which one, but at least we succeeded in bringing him back.
Generating all possible minds and then picking out the one you want is identical to simply building the one you want. In the same way, finding a book in Borges’ Library of Babel is equivalent to writing the book yourself. In both cases, if you follow the improbability, all the work lies in determining which one you want.
A possible solution is to not pick out. Generate all possible minds (with some realistic constrains), and let them all live their lives.
If we have enough computational resources to run billions of slightly different versions of Archimedes, then we create billions of virtual habitats for them, and let them be.
One of them will be the Archimedes. We don’t know which one, but at least we succeeded in bringing him back.