Escape Clause

[Atticus]

Hey guys,

How do we know WE are not the ones in charge of the simulation? ie: We
created it, and are now running through the program? People talk of
glitches and errors we might encounter, but how do we get out?

As per the research I have done on the topic, it seems that death is
the only escape, though that works for any life scenario. It is
logically impossible to be completely unconscious; SOMETHING will
happen seeming right away when we die. Would we get to escape back to
the start of the program and tweak things around in the program life
we lead?

[Matthew]

On Dec 13, 8:02 pm, Atticus <daryl.odono...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey guys,
>
> How do we know WE are not the ones in charge of the simulation? ie: We
> created it, and are now running through the program? People talk of
> glitches and errors we might encounter, but how do we get out?

Wow, Atticus, this is pretty mind-blowing. :) Talk about recursion!
Reminds me of work by Douglas Hofstadter, and a few Charlie Kaufman
movies.

One way I think your fascinating idea could come about is this: we
actually are real people in pod's time, 2189, or thereabouts. But to
truly understand the 20th century, we volunteered to let pod copy our
present personalities (whatever that means) and genetic attributes
into ACs in his sim. Of course, to be useful ACs, in the process he
wiped the memories of the AC copies of us, all memory of the 22nd
century, but kept our personalities intact. As the sim plays out, the
real "us" will each be amused and interested to see how our AC clones
behaved in a different century.

I find this quite enthralling. If I could copy myself into an AC, and
put that AC into Renaissance Italy, and watch what "I" do there, my
first instinct is hell yes, I would do that, to see what "I" would
have been like in a different time.

(...but what do we do with these AC copies when the sim is shut
down...? Will they be jealous that they have to live online while
their real twins get to live in the real world? Would I feel obligated
to chat online with my AC twin to make him feel better, as a sperm
donor might want to let his child talk to him once in a while...?)

But what if I felt that life in that time would make this AC version
of me more likely to suffer than experience joy? (See other thread on
this hedonistic equation.) Certainly no matter what situation I put my
AC self into, there is that risk, but if my AC self made bad choices,
I guess I would feel "he" deserves the suffering. C'est la vie. But I
don't think I would put an AC copy of myself into, say, a family in a
part of history which I know was about to inflict genocide on that
family's race. That would be needless suffering. (And by the Golden
Rule, then wouldn't it be wrong for me to create *any* AC in that
situation? Am I forgiven if it is merely a random out-of-my-hands
determination if, say, an AC is born into a Jewish family in Germany
in 1925? I did not choose it so much as allow it to randomly happen;
is that OK? It's not *certain* that AC would suffer, just more likely
than average; does that absolve me?