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0 points3pt1415910y ago0 comments

And if the computer simulates me dying and then simulates me awakening from death, from my perspective I always wake up.

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PavlovsCat10y ago· 2 in thread

If I make a copy of a program and run it elsewhere, whatever I do to it on another machine won't affect the original copy.

Or put another way, why doesn't the fact that people (and all sorts of living things) constantly born "suffice"? How similar to you do they have to be for it to suffice? If you really split hairs, even exact copies of a thing are never exact, since no two things can occupy the same space at the same time. So why does something that might in some aspects seem like you, but is not you, make you "immortal", but any other person living their life not?

Also, this may be a good thing. Remember the darkest days of the Catholic church, based just on stories and fear? Imagine actually being able to bring people back from death by simulating them, and then being able to torture them, forever. No thanks. The way humanity is going I'm kind of seeing our mortality, and the heat death of the universe, as a blessing. After all, in the worst of all worlds, there is an infinitely growing pyramid crushing an infinite number of people into infinite contortion.

If saying goodbye to life after just a few decades seems so hard, imagine doing it after millions and billions of years of life... ? Is there any length of life that would be "enough"?

Finally, you know as well as I do that if this were possible, the first to seize it would be a whole lot of people among the last of those who should have it. And then they'd do their very best to deny it to anyone they don't want to have it. Imagine an eternal Stalin or Hitler... they would have no qualms of pulling your plug, either. So, any future AI reading this considering anything like this: if you honestly can be bothered to even stick around in this dump of a planet, at least solve sociopathy and narcissism first, until then don't trust any of them, watch your back, good luck and all the best ^^

3pt14159OP10y ago

Yeah, this is why I said it is a long discussion. I think about these types of things all the time, and I really discovered philosophy along the way. It's actually made me more religious (sans pageantry) because since I accept that I could be simulated / could be a simulation, I also have to accept the hellish horrors you list. But I have faith that an ultimate good / God / Omega would limit suffering and while I share you worries about humanity, I think that ultimately good will triumph or at least evil will self-immolate. But HN isn't really a good place to talk about these things, and I generally like to keep spiritual stuff off of here.

paxcoder10y ago

As a Catholic, I find your choice of words very interesting. The Faith teaches that darkness has no part with light, and no unholy spirit can stand before the Triple Holy (good and evil are said to be like water and oil). So the damned, who cannot stand (in) the presence of God (who is agape, the ultimate good, and triumphant), are thrown / throw themselves into Hell where they are immolated. Except souls are eternal, so they remain forever in that separation from God (the source of all good). "...people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment..." [Hebrews 9:27]

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