X-Message-Number: 8201
Date: Sun, 11 May 1997 21:39:06 -0700 (PDT)
From: John K Clark <>
Subject: Simulated Worlds

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If the computer in the original, hereafter called the "real" universe, 
is able to perform an infinite number of calculations, either by being 
infinitely fast or by having an infinite amount of time to do them in,  
then there is no reason a computer in a simulated world could not be 
infinitely powerful also. There is also no reason you couldn't have an  
infinite number of nested simulations with infinite computation in every 
one of them.

If the real computer could not perform an infinite number of calculations,  
then obviously a simulated computer could not either.  For this reason the 
knowledge of the maximum number of calculations possible in the universe 
would not help in determining if you lived in the real world or a simulated 
one.

As for being a brain in a vat,  I don't know about vats but I'll tell you one 
thing, if I'm not a brain in a vat then I'm certainly a brain in a skull.


                                              John K Clark    

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