- On whether we’re living in a simulation (scottaaronson.blog)
If they say, maybe you should live your life differently, just from knowing that you might be in a simulation, I respond: I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I have a vague feeling that this discussion predates the 80 or so years we’ve had digital computers! Why not just join the theologians in that earlier discussion, rather than pretending that this is something distinctive about computers? Is it relevantly different here if you’re being dreamed in the mind of God or being executed in Python? OK, maybe you’d prefer that the world was created by a loving Father or Mother, rather than some nerdy transdimensional adolescent trying to impress the other kids in programming club. But if that’s the worry, why are you talking to a computer scientist? Go talk to David Hume or something.
