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#1
08-19-2007, 12:40 PM
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The Matrix rediscovered
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/sc...ml?ref=science
interesting article positing that all of modern civilization is a computer game played by posthumans. 
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#3
08-20-2007, 06:54 PM
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Re: The Matrix rediscovered
[ QUOTE ]
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/sc...ml?ref=science interesting article positing that all of modern civilization is a computer game played by posthumans. [/ QUOTE ] "Dr. Bostrom assumes that technological advances could produce a computer with more processing power than all the brains in the world, and that advanced humans, or “posthumans,” could run “ancestor simulations” of their evolutionary history by creating virtual worlds inhabited by virtual people with fully developed virtual nervous systems." Enough processing power to simulate large numbers of brains is not enough. You also need to be able to accurately simulate the entire universe, and that means every particle and every force. Otherwise these virtual people could uncover physical anomalies in their world that real people could not.
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#4
08-20-2007, 07:43 PM
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Re: The Matrix rediscovered
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/sc...ml?ref=science interesting article positing that all of modern civilization is a computer game played by posthumans. [/ QUOTE ] "Dr. Bostrom assumes that technological advances could produce a computer with more processing power than all the brains in the world, and that advanced humans, or “posthumans,” could run “ancestor simulations” of their evolutionary history by creating virtual worlds inhabited by virtual people with fully developed virtual nervous systems." Enough processing power to simulate large numbers of brains is not enough. You also need to be able to accurately simulate the entire universe, and that means every particle and every force. Otherwise these virtual people could uncover physical anomalies in their world that real people could not. [/ QUOTE ] Not every particle. Just every observable particle. However, as I think it mentions in the article (I'm not sure I first read the article a couple of weeks ago), the issue with processing power is that eventually the processing power in your simulated universe will start to approach the processing power on your simulation computer. As soon as it does so you are pretty much screwed because (unless your simulation is running at 1:1 sim:real time) you aren't going to be able to add processing power faster than your simulation. I think its possible that within our lifetime (except for the older 2+2ers) we will get to a point where our world has as much processing power as a theoretical simulation computer. From that point on according to our theory its possible that our universe could end at any time due to an insufficient memory error.
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#5
08-20-2007, 07:53 PM
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Re: The Matrix rediscovered
old news. already been posted here.
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#6
08-20-2007, 09:09 PM
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Re: The Matrix rediscovered
[ QUOTE ]
I think its possible that within our lifetime (except for the older 2+2ers) we will get to a point where our world has as much processing power as a theoretical simulation computer. From that point on according to our theory its possible that our universe could end at any time due to an insufficient memory error. [/ QUOTE ] LOL that's like a bad episode of Red Dwarf. My program done blowed up the universe on my Intel Infinite Processor.
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#7
08-20-2007, 09:43 PM
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Re: The Matrix rediscovered
[ QUOTE ]
Not every particle. Just every observable particle. [/ QUOTE ] The computer itself must be made of observable particles, so how can it simulate itself PLUS the rest of them, at any reasonable speed? In any case I still think simulating all observable particles AND their interactions would lead to a huge combinatorial explosion of information to be processed. And virtual beings are going to probe with their telescopes and microscopes just like we do, so the observables are always increasing as their (virtual) technology develops.
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#8
08-20-2007, 09:48 PM
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Re: The Matrix rediscovered
[ QUOTE ]
think its possible that within our lifetime (except for the older 2+2ers) we will get to a point where our world has as much processing power as a theoretical simulation computer. From that point on according to our theory its possible that our universe could end at any time due to an insufficient memory error. [/ QUOTE ] [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]
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#9
08-20-2007, 10:12 PM
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Re: The Matrix rediscovered
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] think its possible that within our lifetime (except for the older 2+2ers) we will get to a point where our world has as much processing power as a theoretical simulation computer. From that point on according to our theory its possible that our universe could end at any time due to an insufficient memory error. [/ QUOTE ] [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] [/ QUOTE ] If our universe is a computer simulation, someone might trip over the plug and kill us all instantly. Of course they could simply restore from the last backup and how would we ever know.
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#10
08-20-2007, 11:18 PM
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Re: The Matrix rediscovered
[ QUOTE ]
interesting article positing that all of modern civilization is a computer game played by posthumans. [/ QUOTE ] How can anyone write an article this long about this subject and never mention Descartes?
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