Consider either an infinite universe, or better yet, a Tegmark multiverse. In this infinite universe, there will be infinitely many copies of you, and of the world. Some will be run on what we would clearly consider to be simulations (a sci-fi super computer programmed by elegant post humans or bug-eyed monsters). Some would be in places we would consider “real”. Other would be in places we might or might not consider to be simulations (eg on a giant game of life board, inside a tower of simulations with no conscious simulation at any level, etc...). Add in dust theories, by which we can consider that we are sequences of events from wildly different space-time zones in the multivese.
Amazingly, we can still make decisions in this setting, by appealing to principle like entropy or artificial induction (ie “induction may or may not work, but if it doesn’t work, we can’t do anything anyway, so we may as well assume it works”). However, asking “are we a simulation” involves some sort of dividing an infinite number of copies of us (some clearly simulations, some occasionally simulations (see the dust theories) some completely ambiguous) by another infinity, without a clue of as to what measure to put on the whole collection. And the answer, if calculated, would be dependent entirely on the assumptions we made and would not be in any way observable.
Hope that helps clarify what I mean! Subquestions of these (like “will we see god-like beings saying “it’s all a simulation!”?” or “will quantum mechanists come to accept MWI?”) I could have answered, but not the questions as asked.
Right, let’s try and explain...
Consider either an infinite universe, or better yet, a Tegmark multiverse. In this infinite universe, there will be infinitely many copies of you, and of the world. Some will be run on what we would clearly consider to be simulations (a sci-fi super computer programmed by elegant post humans or bug-eyed monsters). Some would be in places we would consider “real”. Other would be in places we might or might not consider to be simulations (eg on a giant game of life board, inside a tower of simulations with no conscious simulation at any level, etc...). Add in dust theories, by which we can consider that we are sequences of events from wildly different space-time zones in the multivese.
Amazingly, we can still make decisions in this setting, by appealing to principle like entropy or artificial induction (ie “induction may or may not work, but if it doesn’t work, we can’t do anything anyway, so we may as well assume it works”). However, asking “are we a simulation” involves some sort of dividing an infinite number of copies of us (some clearly simulations, some occasionally simulations (see the dust theories) some completely ambiguous) by another infinity, without a clue of as to what measure to put on the whole collection. And the answer, if calculated, would be dependent entirely on the assumptions we made and would not be in any way observable.
MWI suffers partially from a similar problem (how do we count those places where we are MWI simulations on classical computers? Waveform collapse simulations on quantum computers? Universes where MWI is false?) and partially from my lack of understanding of what “quantum measure squared” is. It does not feel like classical probability, see http://lesswrong.com/lw/ixr/quantum_versus_logical_bombs/ and http://lesswrong.com/lw/g9n/false_vacuum_the_universe_playing_quantum_suicide/ . Until I sort that out, I can’t even trust an empirical experiment to confirm MWI, let alone logical arguments.
Hope that helps clarify what I mean! Subquestions of these (like “will we see god-like beings saying “it’s all a simulation!”?” or “will quantum mechanists come to accept MWI?”) I could have answered, but not the questions as asked.