Jaan Tallinn's Metaphysical Quest
| Speaking at this year's Singularity Summit, Jaan Tallinn, creator of Skype and Kazaa, narrates a story that explores the notion of existing in multiple places simultaneously, the multiverse and the possibility we are living in a simulation of the computronium. |
Talinn starts his talk by saying that in recent years his mind was blown twice, first by the realization that the entire universe might transform as a result of the technology of the Singularity, and second the thought that the Singularity might not be as transformative if his model of the universe were different. He structures his talk around the possibilities of hard take-off scenarios in the form of a story aided by outstanding cartoons from an unnamed Estonian artist.
Drawing on the work of Michael Vassar, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Nick Bostrom, Max Tegmark, Carl Shulman, Justin Shovelain and others, Taalin ventures forth on his metaphysical discussion.
Tallinn's goes on to present an anthropic argument for our apparently unusual position at the cusp of the Singularity. If post-Singularity super intelligent AIs or augmented people across causally disconnected parts of the multiverse are trying to communicate with each other by mutual simulation, then they might simulate the entire history of the universe from the Big Bang to find the other super intelligences. According to this argument, We ourselves may be part of a simulated multiverse.
Today, we run many simulations in our world. Similarly, says Nick Bostrom, our descendants are likely to be running many simulations of our universe: A multiverse.
The idea of the universe/multiverse as computation is still philosophically controversial, but if we live in a simulation, then our universe is indeed a computational simulation, possibly just another part of the computronium.
If we are just living in a simulation should that make us go crazy? Talin says no and gives two reasons. The first is that our actions still have consequences, and these might even influence the simulators. The second was first posed by Michael Vassar - if you think you are Napoleon, and everyone that thinks this way is in a mental institution, you should still act like Napoleon, because if you are, your actions matter a lot.
In his talk, Talinn references this simulation of the universe:
SOURCE Singularity Summit on FORA TV
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As a space-time singularity, the augmented universe becomes plausible under reductionism, as an observation. The truth about reductionism is that it augments reality into a third type observation. The third observation constitutes simulation of a multi objective phenomenon called conservation law. The conjecture of simulation is a constant law of observables, as a plausible constant to renew observation.
ReplyDeleteSandra Garcia
South Africa
Of course there's also the anthropic argument for the Singularity in that we (or I) may simply be Singularity "tourists" witnessing the birth of the Singularity through a simulated life, just to see how it all took off.
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