People saying things like “just simulate all possible brains” are making implicit assumptions that can’t be supported in anything we’ve observed of the universe.
Sure, from our current (very limited) understanding of physics, simulating all possible brains seems to be impossible. But should we assume it will forever remain impossible?
It would take more than 10^10^20 seconds to find prime factors of some large integers. But after we’ve discovered one weird trick, we can (theoretically) do it many-orders-of-magnitude faster. Maybe there are similar tricks for searching in the space of all possible minds.
Judging by the history, the Clarke’s first law is more fundamental than any law of physics:
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
Fromthe linked article:
On 29 December 1934, Albert Einstein was quoted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as saying, “There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear energy] will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.” This followed the discovery that year by Enrico Fermi that if you bombard uranium with neutrons, the uranium atoms split up into lighter elements, releasing energy.
Sure, from our current (very limited) understanding of physics, simulating all possible brains seems to be impossible. But should we assume it will forever remain impossible?
It would take more than 10^10^20 seconds to find prime factors of some large integers. But after we’ve discovered one weird trick, we can (theoretically) do it many-orders-of-magnitude faster. Maybe there are similar tricks for searching in the space of all possible minds.
Judging by the history, the Clarke’s first law is more fundamental than any law of physics:
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
From the linked article: