A suggestion: I feel like the story focuses too much on ‘feelings’ (e.g., “if all desirable bodily sensations a human body and brain is capable of experiencing”) which people discount a lot and have trained themselves to not optimize in favor of things that are more satisfying. (Taking a bath and eating cake would yield more immediate physical, pleasurable sensations than writing this comment but I know I’ll find this more satisfying. .. I’ll slice some cake in a minute.) Ah—this was better said in LukeProg’s recent post Not For the Sake Of Pleasure Alone.
It would more convincing to appeal to the stronger, concrete desires of people...
Sales girl: Don’t you want to know how the world works? Your simulated brain can read and process 100 books a day and invent the equivalent of a PhD thesis on any subject just by directing your attention. When you leave the simulation, you’ll need to leave your knowledge behind, but you can return to it at anytime.
I wonder about the last sentence I felt compelled to add. Why can’t we come and go from the simulator? Then wouldn’t it be a no-brainer, to choose spend something like 10 minutes of every hour there? (It would make pleasant experiences more efficient, yielding more time for work.)
Someone else’s turn: what else can be done in the simulator that would be most irresistible?
A suggestion: I feel like the story focuses too much on ‘feelings’ (e.g., “if all desirable bodily sensations a human body and brain is capable of experiencing”) which people discount a lot and have trained themselves to not optimize in favor of things that are more satisfying. (Taking a bath and eating cake would yield more immediate physical, pleasurable sensations than writing this comment but I know I’ll find this more satisfying. .. I’ll slice some cake in a minute.) Ah—this was better said in LukeProg’s recent post Not For the Sake Of Pleasure Alone.
It would more convincing to appeal to the stronger, concrete desires of people...
Sales girl: Don’t you want to know how the world works? Your simulated brain can read and process 100 books a day and invent the equivalent of a PhD thesis on any subject just by directing your attention. When you leave the simulation, you’ll need to leave your knowledge behind, but you can return to it at anytime.
I wonder about the last sentence I felt compelled to add. Why can’t we come and go from the simulator? Then wouldn’t it be a no-brainer, to choose spend something like 10 minutes of every hour there? (It would make pleasant experiences more efficient, yielding more time for work.)
Someone else’s turn: what else can be done in the simulator that would be most irresistible?