In this shortform I will try and write the loopiest most LW anthropics memey post I can muster.
In this comment I will try and write the most boring possible reply to these questions. đ These are pretty much my real replies.
why are we here?
âOurs not to reason why, ours but to do or do not, there is no try.â
why do we live in such an extraordinary time?
Someone must. We happen to be among them. A few lottery tickets do win, owned by ordinary people who are perfectly capable of correctly believing that they have won. Everyone should be smart enough to collect on a winning ticket, and to grapple with living in interesting (i.e. low-probability) times. Just update already.
Is the simulation hypothesis true? If so, is there a base reality?
It is false. This is base reality. But I can still appreciate Eliezerâs fiction on the subject.
Why do we know weâre not a Boltzmann brain?
The absurdity heuristic. I donât take BBs seriously.
Is existence observer-dependent?
Even in classical physics there is no observation without interaction. Beyond that, no, however many quantum physicists interpret their findings to the public with those words, or even to each other.
Is there a purpose to existence, a Grand Design?
Not that I know of. (This is not the same as a flat ânoâ, but for most purposes rounds off to that.)
What will be computed in the Far Future?
Either nothing in the case of x-risk, nothing of interest in the case of a final singleton, or wonders far beyond our contemplation, which may not even involve anything we would recognise as âcomputingâ. By definition, I canât say what that would be like, beyond guessing that at some point in the future it would stand in a similar relation to the present that our present does to prehistoric times. Look around you. Is this utopia? Then that future wonât be either. But like the present, it will be worth having got to.
Consider a suitable version of The Agnostic Prayer inserted here against the possibility that there are Powers Outside the Matrix who may chance to see this. Hey there! I wouldnât say no to having all the aches and pains of this body fixed, for starters. Radical uplift, weâd have to talk about first.
In this comment I will try and write the most boring possible reply to these questions. đ These are pretty much my real replies.
âOurs not to reason why, ours but to do or do not, there is no try.â
Someone must. We happen to be among them. A few lottery tickets do win, owned by ordinary people who are perfectly capable of correctly believing that they have won. Everyone should be smart enough to collect on a winning ticket, and to grapple with living in interesting (i.e. low-probability) times. Just update already.
It is false. This is base reality. But I can still appreciate Eliezerâs fiction on the subject.
The absurdity heuristic. I donât take BBs seriously.
Even in classical physics there is no observation without interaction. Beyond that, no, however many quantum physicists interpret their findings to the public with those words, or even to each other.
Not that I know of. (This is not the same as a flat ânoâ, but for most purposes rounds off to that.)
Either nothing in the case of x-risk, nothing of interest in the case of a final singleton, or wonders far beyond our contemplation, which may not even involve anything we would recognise as âcomputingâ. By definition, I canât say what that would be like, beyond guessing that at some point in the future it would stand in a similar relation to the present that our present does to prehistoric times. Look around you. Is this utopia? Then that future wonât be either. But like the present, it will be worth having got to.
Consider a suitable version of The Agnostic Prayer inserted here against the possibility that there are Powers Outside the Matrix who may chance to see this. Hey there! I wouldnât say no to having all the aches and pains of this body fixed, for starters. Radical uplift, weâd have to talk about first.