> From: Mike Tintner [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > This is a question I have barely thought about at all - but since AI and > science build so many simulations of parts of the world, and > philosophers > like Bostrom talk conceptually so much about similar simulations - it > seems > worth thinking about. > > What's the difference between a computer simulation of a pet operating > in a > virtual world, or weather conditions like storms and hurricanes > occurring > in a virtual world, and the real things - or direct > copies/replicas/clones > of the real things? > > I think, for the purposes of this discussion, we should assume that > computer > simulations could in principle be solid - and DON'T have to be confined > to > a flat screen - that they could, say, control solid footballers on a > solid > pitch and not just flat, televisual ones. > > It strikes me that the big difference will be that the computer > simulation > will contain vastly more rules and attached programs than the real thing > - > will contain a rulebook that is either much more complex than the actual > rules in living creatures' minds, or that doesn't actually exist for > inanimate objects but is merely a human conceptualisation (like > Newton's > laws). > > But these are my first thoughts. Comments?
Simulation is usually a subset. If you model the weather you use less bits than the actual. Though simulation can be a copy. If you simulate some dance moves at home before the ballroom show this can be a full copy in another environment. A difference between simulation and copy is in the purpose. Simulated weather is to make predictions. Simulated ballroom dancing is to make predictions but also change the outcome. Though you could change the weather... so a simulation seems to move a model out of its original timeframe. A simulation is full or partial isomorphism. But it could be a morphism in the same timeframe but different location. The simulation itself cannot be the simulated...or can it? The simulated entity can contain the simulation like how our minds simulate us. But say a mind is hologrammatic, and say it builds up hologrammatic models of the environment and samples external systems periodically in a feedback loop for accurate reality depiction. And then say that this mind simulates itself real-time. This mind is both the simulator and the simulated as the self representation exists in the hologrammatic generator and its reality is a diffractional contention over duality...coooool!!! John ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=80494497-6ac461
