I think you’ve successfully analyzed your beliefs, as far as you’ve gone—it does seem that “substrate independence” is something you don’t believe in. However, “substrate independence” is not an indivisible unit; it’s composed of parts which you do seem to believe in.
For instance, you seem to accept that the highly detailed model of EY, whether that just means functionally emulating his neurons and glial cells, or actually computing his hamiltonian, will claim to be him, for much the same reason he does. If we then simulate, at whatever level appropriate to our simulated EY, a highly detailed model of his house and neighborhood that evolves according to the same rules that the real life versions do, he will think the same things regarding these things that the real life EY does.
If we go on to simulate the rest of the universe, including all the other people in it, with the same degree of fidelity, no observation or piece of evidence other than the anthropic could tell them they’re in a simulation.
Bear in mind that nothing magic happens when these equations go from paper to computer: If you had the time and low mathematical error rate and notebook space to sit down and work everything out on paper, the consequences would be the same. It’s a slippery concept to work one’s intuition around, but xkcd #505 gives as good an intuition pump as I’ve seen.
I think you’ve successfully analyzed your beliefs, as far as you’ve gone—it does seem that “substrate independence” is something you don’t believe in. However, “substrate independence” is not an indivisible unit; it’s composed of parts which you do seem to believe in.
For instance, you seem to accept that the highly detailed model of EY, whether that just means functionally emulating his neurons and glial cells, or actually computing his hamiltonian, will claim to be him, for much the same reason he does. If we then simulate, at whatever level appropriate to our simulated EY, a highly detailed model of his house and neighborhood that evolves according to the same rules that the real life versions do, he will think the same things regarding these things that the real life EY does.
If we go on to simulate the rest of the universe, including all the other people in it, with the same degree of fidelity, no observation or piece of evidence other than the anthropic could tell them they’re in a simulation.
Bear in mind that nothing magic happens when these equations go from paper to computer: If you had the time and low mathematical error rate and notebook space to sit down and work everything out on paper, the consequences would be the same. It’s a slippery concept to work one’s intuition around, but xkcd #505 gives as good an intuition pump as I’ve seen.
what is this btw?
xkcd #505.