Introduction to the Simulation Hypothesis: are we living in a comprehensive computer simulation? How would we know? And why would civilisations create simulations?
"One may be tempted to ask: what if the technology is physically impossible?" Video games progress doesn't suggest that its not impossible. If something is impossible then progress that looks like 1% of the way there doesn't matter at all. 90% of the needed steps for a warp drive will never get you a warp drive. You need 100%. If something is impossible you can devote a trillion years trying to make it happen and won't get any closer. Its hard to deal with something that could never happen cause something could always guess well maybe it could happen.. eventually. Unless its impossible in which case it doesn't matter how impressive chances are; maybe you hit a limit tomorrow or the next day. You don't know. If something is impossible no arguments about fast progress happen because no amount of time you devote can make the universe able to do things it CAN'T. So if its impossible then it will never happen. And if it is possible maybe it has happened. But there is no reason to rule out it being impossible.
That’s a great point, I think you’re essentially saying that there may be a hurdle that we can never overcome, and that’s totally reasonable. That’s point 2 of Bostrom’s possibilities regarding simulation theory. We’ll never know for certain until that time comes - if it does.
"One may be tempted to ask: what if the technology is physically impossible?" Video games progress doesn't suggest that its not impossible. If something is impossible then progress that looks like 1% of the way there doesn't matter at all. 90% of the needed steps for a warp drive will never get you a warp drive. You need 100%. If something is impossible you can devote a trillion years trying to make it happen and won't get any closer. Its hard to deal with something that could never happen cause something could always guess well maybe it could happen.. eventually. Unless its impossible in which case it doesn't matter how impressive chances are; maybe you hit a limit tomorrow or the next day. You don't know. If something is impossible no arguments about fast progress happen because no amount of time you devote can make the universe able to do things it CAN'T. So if its impossible then it will never happen. And if it is possible maybe it has happened. But there is no reason to rule out it being impossible.
That’s a great point, I think you’re essentially saying that there may be a hurdle that we can never overcome, and that’s totally reasonable. That’s point 2 of Bostrom’s possibilities regarding simulation theory. We’ll never know for certain until that time comes - if it does.
yea fair enough. Their may be hurdles that can't be overcome, exactly.