Mark Peaty wrote:
SP: 'You don't actually have to emulate the entire universe, just enough
to fool its inhabitants. For example, you don't need to emulate the
appearance of a snowflake in the Andromeda galaxy except in the unlikely
event that someone went to have a look at it.'
MP: I think this turns on how smart the inhabitants are, which
ultimately comes down to whether or not they have discovered scientific
method or not. Scientific method makes the species much smarter -
despite themselves! If the matrixian species discovers scientific
method, the matrix maker [Nerd, the Holy One] will have to lift
his/her/its game to be able to cover all scientific questions the
matrixians ask. That will not be easy! I am not sure if what I am saying
relates well to what Colin Hales was saying about 1st person awareness
and the nature of scientific endeavour, I don't think I really
understood Colin's argument. I am fairly confident here though that
scientific method imposes a discipline upon sentient observers that
provokes the asking of truly interesting questions which eventually must
lead to the true 'edges' of the practically testable world. The Nerd god
will be forced to expend exponentially greater resources each time the
matrixians make a new discovery in basic science otherwise his children,
the matrixians, will come to smell a Rat.
Maybe we already have. The linearity and unitary evolution of QM implies that
we exist in superpositions of states - but we only experience one.
Brent Meeker
"Is that the truth?"
"No, but it's a lot simpler."
--- Walt Kelly, in Pogo
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