playing God

[Skidoo]

If you mean that the indeterminacy of the standard model would be included in the simulation, I'd say whatever status the "beings" would have otherwise had as autonomous and self-determining would be reduced by doing so.

[Metric]

[ QUOTE ]
If you mean that the indeterminacy of the standard model would be included in the simulation, I'd say whatever status the "beings" would have otherwise had as autonomous and self-determining would be reduced by doing so.

[/ QUOTE ]
Increased, reduced -- I don't care. I simply mean that their status as sentient, self-determining beings beings can be made identical to ours. Except, of course, that you are their god.

[Skidoo]

OK, I won't argue with the premise of your OP that a (partially indeterminate) computational process can have subjective awareness.

[madnak]

[ QUOTE ]
Suppose that I, Metric, being a supreme a-hole, decided to halt the program while you were at lunch, and communicated with the computer beings, telling them that their creator, madnak, intends to destroy their universe and all of them with it at some roughly specified point in their future -- unless, of course, they could convince you otherwise. What would they be justified in thinking about you? And would you care?

[/ QUOTE ]

Ugh. Well, I don't think they'd be justified in coming to any conclusions. But they probably would.

I'd definitely care, because now I have a relationship with them. That indicates responsibility. I think if my only goal were to minimize suffering, I'd still zap them, but as it is I'd feel an obligation to work with them to improve things. Maybe take care of a few problems, and give them some way to "apply" for divine interventions. I'd also have to make sure that they didn't get deleted.

And I'd have to make you pay, sometime and somehow, when you were least expecting it.

[SitNHit]

What would be the reason for these beings, what would be their purpose? Is their a certain goal for them? Is their a universe in this place? Is their a history previous to them existing, I think these people in this world would start to wonder after a while why the heck they exist.

Great concept for a game if it was possible to produce a game of this liking.

I would think if you said that everybody is responsible for the decisions they make then you have no responsibility to them.

[Metric]

[ QUOTE ]

Ugh. Well, I don't think they'd be justified in coming to any conclusions. But they probably would.

I'd definitely care, because now I have a relationship with them. That indicates responsibility. I think if my only goal were to minimize suffering, I'd still zap them, but as it is I'd feel an obligation to work with them to improve things. Maybe take care of a few problems, and give them some way to "apply" for divine interventions. I'd also have to make sure that they didn't get deleted.

[/ QUOTE ]
Fascinating... So in this universe we have a god that doesn't do too much in the way of direct interaction (maybe occationally -- he does care about his "children" on some level), but with whom "belief/relationship" has become pretty much the road to salvation. Now that I think about it, it might even be +EV for the life forms there to kill off anyone in their community denying that "there is only one madnak and Metric is his prophet" to prevent atheistic or antimadnak views from becoming dominant, which would place their civilization at much greater risk of eventually getting unplugged.

[revots33]

[ QUOTE ]
Since you are completely omnipotent over this universe, what are your responsibilities to these life forms, and at what point do you become responsible?

[/ QUOTE ]

How about if you created a secondary program that would inflict eternal torture on any of the life forms who did not worship their programmer?

And how about you created the program in such a way that the life forms have no way of knowing who the programmer is?

Then I'd say you have some ethical explaining to do.

[Metric]

It's clear that they don't have any way of knowing the programmer, unless you intervene to cause them to. But I take it you're good with anything that doesn't involve eternal torture?

[madnak]

[ QUOTE ]
Fascinating... So in this universe we have a god that doesn't do too much in the way of direct interaction (maybe occationally -- he does care about his "children" on some level), but with whom "belief/relationship" has become pretty much the road to salvation. Now that I think about it, it might even be +EV for the life forms there to kill off anyone in their community denying that "there is only one madnak and Metric is his prophet" to prevent atheistic or antimadnak views from becoming dominant, which would place their civilization at much greater risk of eventually getting unplugged.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, when I say I'd "take care of a few problems" I mean I'd put a stop to that kind of thing, as well as disease and poverty and all that. Give them some wells of infinite resources, stuff like that.

[Metric]

Would you do that because you think anything less is unethical, or just because you're a good guy and the poor bastards love you so much?