X-Message-Number: 16663
Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 08:55:46 -0700
From: Lee Corbin <>
Subject: We're Living Only in a Simulation - Not!

Bill Walker writes

>Well of course we're probably all living in a simulation.
>Every inhabited universe has zillions of simulations with
>only one "real" level, so the odds are huge that you're in
>a simulation. And the simulations have simulations in them,
>so you're probably ten levels down.

There are two reasons that this should be regarded as
incorrect.  First, if you are living in a simulation of
the real 21st century Earth, then it is semantically
correct to realize that the word "this" has two equally
valid referents:  the original Earth and the simulation.
Therefore, this is just as much the original as the
simulation.

Yes, it is *possible* that a simulation is running that
is not a re-creation of the original Earth.  But the
existence of an original Earth such as this is quite
probable anyway, which constitutes my second reason that
this, if a simulation, is also the original:

Our best physical theories suggest that the visible universe
is not all that there is, and in fact we have no reason to
suppose at the present time that only finitely many stars
exist.  But if the number of stars is infinite, then it
follows by the ergodic hypothesis, that an Earth arbitrarily
close to this exists elsewhere---infinitely many, in fact.

Also, the Many Worlds Interpretation is every year gaining
further adherants, and will probably soon be held by a majority
of physicists, if it isn't already.  As the failings of the
Copenhagen Interpretation become more and more apparent,
so the logic and simplicity of MWI become more evident.  But
if you believe the MWI, then you also have to reckon that
the word "this" has referents in many universes, so that the
phrase "this is a simulation" is both true and false, since
the you making this statement resides in the original Earth
as well as in the simulation.

Lee Corbin

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