So then what’s so bad about going from this holodeck to another?
The idea that this whole universe including us is simulated is that we ourselves are part of the simulation. Since we are and we know we are conscious, then we know that the simulated beings can be (and very likely are) conscious if they seem so. If they are, then they are “real” in an important sense, maybe the most important sense. They are not mere mindless wallpaper.
I think in order to make the simulation argument work, the simulation needs to be unreal, the inhabitants other than the person being fooled must have no inner reality of their own. Because if they have an inner reality, then in an important sense they are real and so the point of the thought experiment is lost.
I think most readers will have taken that interpretation for granted. The simulations are not indistinguishable from real people, but the person in the simulation is fooled sufficiently to not pry.
So then what’s so bad about going from this holodeck to another?
The idea that this whole universe including us is simulated is that we ourselves are part of the simulation. Since we are and we know we are conscious, then we know that the simulated beings can be (and very likely are) conscious if they seem so. If they are, then they are “real” in an important sense, maybe the most important sense. They are not mere mindless wallpaper.
I think in order to make the simulation argument work, the simulation needs to be unreal, the inhabitants other than the person being fooled must have no inner reality of their own. Because if they have an inner reality, then in an important sense they are real and so the point of the thought experiment is lost.
I think most readers will have taken that interpretation for granted. The simulations are not indistinguishable from real people, but the person in the simulation is fooled sufficiently to not pry.