Elevating the Human Condition
By what empirical means can a person determine whether he or she is presently awake or dreaming? Any conceivable test addressing this question, which is a special case of the classical metaphysical doubting of reality, must be statistical (for the same reason that empirical science is, as noted by Hume).
Far future generations of evolved, post-biological humans might spread to the stars and join the community of extremely advanced civilizations.
A pretty wide ranging discussion of interest to transhumanists.
Quantum simulators are devices that actively use quantum effects to answer questions about model systems and, through them, real systems.
“Set in a hostel in the 1980s, ‘Digital Physics’ follows Khatchig, a man searching for truth in mathematics, physics, logic, and life. As he monopolizes the sole computer in the hostel to make sense of a counter-intuitive result, he has an epiphany: We may be living in a computer simulation.”
If you hold the AIXI theory for universal intelligence to be correct; that it is a useful model for general intelligence at the quantitative limits, then you should take the Simulation Argument seriously.
Are we already living in an advanced family history simulation? If we run many family history simulations, we probably already live in one.
“When a hyper intelligent designer of universes uses mathematical entities of exceptional type (e.g. the exceptional Lie algebras, or the exceptional finite simple groups, etc) to help it in its design work, it will choose the largest example of the exceptional type it is using.”
In a recent article over at the ironically named “Evolution News”, an intelligent design blog, ID advocate and frequent critic of transhumanism Wesley J. Smith gets nearly everything wrong.
