The answer seems fairly simple under modal realism (roughly, the thesis that all logically possible worlds exist in the same sense as mathematical facts exist, and thus that the term “actual” in “our actual world” is just an indexical).
If the simulation accurately follows a possible world, and contains a unit of (dis)utility, it doesn’t generate that unit of (dis)utility, it just “discovers” it; it proves that for a given world-state an event happens which your utility function assigns a particular value. Repeating the simulation again is also only rediscovering the same fact, not in any sense creating copies of it.
I’ve long felt that simulations are NOT the same as actual realities, though I can’t precisely articulate the difference.
One of them has some form of computational device on the outside. One of them doesn’t. Does there need to be more difference than that? ie. If you want to treat them differently and if some sort of physical distinction between the two is possible then by all means consider them different based on that difference.
I’ve long felt that simulations are NOT the same as actual realities, though I can’t precisely articulate the difference.
The answer seems fairly simple under modal realism (roughly, the thesis that all logically possible worlds exist in the same sense as mathematical facts exist, and thus that the term “actual” in “our actual world” is just an indexical).
If the simulation accurately follows a possible world, and contains a unit of (dis)utility, it doesn’t generate that unit of (dis)utility, it just “discovers” it; it proves that for a given world-state an event happens which your utility function assigns a particular value. Repeating the simulation again is also only rediscovering the same fact, not in any sense creating copies of it.
One of them has some form of computational device on the outside. One of them doesn’t. Does there need to be more difference than that? ie. If you want to treat them differently and if some sort of physical distinction between the two is possible then by all means consider them different based on that difference.