X-Message-Number: 9600
Date: Sat, 2 May 1998 21:15:54 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: Information Conservation

Ettinger () wrote:

> Frank Tipler's book, THE PHYSICS OF IMMORTALITY (Doubleday, 1994), includes 
his
> conclusion that, in the far future, computing power will be unlimited and
> subjective life span also unlimited, so that we or our descendants or
> successors could resurrect anyone who ever lived (and more).

Computer scientist and roboticist Hans Moravec takes this to its logical
conclusion: in the far future, machine intelligences should have the power
to "replay" Earth's prior epochs (such as ours), simulating everything
down to the atomic level. Indeed, we could be living in such a simulation
right now. If we assume that the simulation will be run more than once,
while there is only one "source" reality, the odds are heavily in favor of
our current universe being a simulation.

In other words, we don't have to wait to be resurrected; it has happened
already.

Needless to say, this knowledge is no more useful than a belief in
reincarnation; and I regard speculation such as Tipler's as being
tangential, at best, to our immediate concerns.

--CP

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