My point is that the simulation does not have to be as detailed as reality, in part because the agents within the simulation don’t have any reliable experience of being in reality, being themselves less detailed than “real” agents, and so don’t know what level of detail to expect. A simulation could even have simplified reality plus a global rule that manipulates any agent’s working memory to remove any realization it might have that it is in a simulation.
That requires very detailed rules about manipulating agents within the system rather than doing a straight physics simulation (otherwise what do you do when it modifies its memory system). I’m not arguing that it isn’t possibly doable, just that it doesn’t seem necessarily to be likely.
My point is that the simulation does not have to be as detailed as reality, in part because the agents within the simulation don’t have any reliable experience of being in reality, being themselves less detailed than “real” agents, and so don’t know what level of detail to expect. A simulation could even have simplified reality plus a global rule that manipulates any agent’s working memory to remove any realization it might have that it is in a simulation.
That requires very detailed rules about manipulating agents within the system rather than doing a straight physics simulation (otherwise what do you do when it modifies its memory system). I’m not arguing that it isn’t possibly doable, just that it doesn’t seem necessarily to be likely.