the simulacrants wouldn’t realize the simulation is ever not running.
Kurzgesagt made a video about how in a dying universe (from heat death) civilizations that uploaded their consciousness into a simulation could live forever, by intermittently running the simulation and pausing it for greater and greater amounts of time as expendable energy in the universe diminishes. The consciousness would not perceive the time the simulation isn’t running and to them things just go on and on for eternity.
What I find interesting is how we abstract away the actual work needed to keep either scenario running reflects how billionaires justify their own extremes. The heat death being a most extreme example as there is no “spare” energy for other organism to be conscious. The uploaded consciousness is detached from reality, living in a dieing universe, and still insists it has a right to exist at the cost of new venues of consciousness.
If this is a way for our simulation creator to decide to pull the plug without guilt, I guess just go ahead and do it. I was holding out hope that this was all real, but it has been getting more clear that it’s not.
Couldn’t they just make us all infertile and let us die naturally or something?
You can “simulate” life inside your brain, too.
[Alt text: this is Bob. Bob is a figment of you imagination. When you leave, Bob will leave too. “Don’t leave” says Bob]The Bob in your head is intelligent, it can communicate in English. Is it unethical to stop thinking about Bob? Was it unethical of me to show you this picture, creating a “Bob” in your head? Is any story unethical to tell?
Intelligence isn’t the important factor there - consciousness is. Does it feel like something to be those entities in the simulation? If yes, then I’d argue that ending the simulation is like killing a person painlessly in their sleep.
I personally don’t think ending the simulation is even the most troubling part. We could unintentionally create a simulation that’s effectively a hell and then populate it with entities that have subjective experiences we don’t realize exist. The only thing worse than ending a life is creating one just for it to suffer through its entire existence.
We could unintentionally create a simulation that’s effectively a hell and then populate it with entities that have subjective experiences we don’t realize exist. The only thing worse than ending a life is creating one just for it to suffer through its entire existence.
And this is basically the plot of the TV series Severance. Has me wondering how they intend to address it.
Didn’t scientists train brain cells to exclusively play Doom? It’s like their whole conscience is stuck in a video game version of hell through a brain in a vat experience.
Not really. It’s not nearly enough cells to have any kind of consciousness as we know it. A few neurons learning to play a game is a far cry from tying a being into a simulation of hell.
Somewhere in a box in your childhood home, a Tamagotchi is slowly dying…
Slowly? Those things would ‘die’ in under 24 hours!
Did you just watch “Plaything” on Black Mirror?
Sometimes I think of that episode when I play Rimworld and start harvesting blood and organs from a prisoner
I was thinking the microverse battery from Rick and Morty!
Depends, are they sentient? If they are conscious beings, yeah I think it would be unethical to mass murder them
no, because if you dont use the kill switch you get The Ring happening.
Is that “the ring” cannon or are you just yes anding?
“cannon”?
Uhh, like part of the story.
Cannon is a thing you shoot big lumps of exploding metal to the distance of tens of kilometers.
Canon is the thing with the plots and stories. Also, a camera.
Ohh, I can see how you could be totally confused becuase im the dumb one.
Don’t worry about it. From what I’ve seen, about 75% of people make the same mistake lol.
In my experience it’s far higher. That and “rouge” seem to be very common misspellings.
