Where do those digits of pi exist? Do they exist in the same sense that I exist, or that my journal entries (stored on my hard drive) exist?
No, of course not. No more than do simulated entities on your hard-drive exist as sentient agents in this universe. As sentient agents, they exist in a simulable universe. A universe which does not require actually running as a simulation in this or any other universe to have its own autonomous existence.
What does it mean for information to ‘exist’?
Now I’m pretty sure that is an example of mind projection. Information exists only with reference to some agent being informed.
If my journal entries are deleted, it is little consolation to tell me they can be recovered from the Library of Babel — such a recovery requires effort equivalent to reconstructing them ex nihilo.
Which is exactly my point. If you terminate a simulation, you lose access to the simulated entities, but that doesn’t mean they have been destroyed. In fact, they simply cannot be destroyed by any action you can take, since they exist in a different space-time.
That’s of little comfort to me, though, if I am informed that I’m living in a simulation on some upuniverse computer, which is about to be decommissioned.
But you are not living in that upuniverse computer. You are living here. All that exists in that computer is a simulation of you. In effect, you were being watched. They intend to stop watching. Big deal!
I don’t really wish to play word games here. Obviously there is some physical thing made of paper and ink on your bookshelf. Equally obviously, Borges was writing fiction when he told us about Babel. But in your thought experiment, something containing the same information as the book on your shelf exists in Babel.
No, of course not. No more than do simulated entities on your hard-drive exist as sentient agents in this universe. As sentient agents, they exist in a simulable universe. A universe which does not require actually running as a simulation in this or any other universe to have its own autonomous existence.
Now I’m pretty sure that is an example of mind projection. Information exists only with reference to some agent being informed.
Which is exactly my point. If you terminate a simulation, you lose access to the simulated entities, but that doesn’t mean they have been destroyed. In fact, they simply cannot be destroyed by any action you can take, since they exist in a different space-time.
But you are not living in that upuniverse computer. You are living here. All that exists in that computer is a simulation of you. In effect, you were being watched. They intend to stop watching. Big deal!
Do you also argue that the books on my bookshelves don’t really exist in this universe, since they can be found in the Library of Babel?
Gee, what do you think?
I don’t really wish to play word games here. Obviously there is some physical thing made of paper and ink on your bookshelf. Equally obviously, Borges was writing fiction when he told us about Babel. But in your thought experiment, something containing the same information as the book on your shelf exists in Babel.
Do you have some point in asking this?