I am not in any way excluding the possibility of being in a simulation. I am only saying that one particular scenario that involves simulation does not make sense to me. I am asking for some way in which “acausal blackmail by a distant superintelligence” can make sense—can be rational as a belief or an action.
As I see it, by definition of the scenario, the “blackmailer” cannot communicate with the simulated entity. But then the simulated entity—to say nothing of the original, who is supposed to be the ultimate target of the blackmail—has no way of knowing what the blackmailer wants.
I am not in any way excluding the possibility of being in a simulation. I am only saying that one particular scenario that involves simulation does not make sense to me. I am asking for some way in which “acausal blackmail by a distant superintelligence” can make sense—can be rational as a belief or an action.
As I see it, by definition of the scenario, the “blackmailer” cannot communicate with the simulated entity. But then the simulated entity—to say nothing of the original, who is supposed to be the ultimate target of the blackmail—has no way of knowing what the blackmailer wants.