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Tuesday, September 3, 2002
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Living La Vida Simula
This one's for you, dad!
Are we live or are we simulated?. "Are We Living in a Computer Simulation?" A white-paper from a Yale philosophy professor who's working on a book-length version.
Abstract: This paper argues that at least one of the following propositions is true: (1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a [base "]posthuman[per thou] stage; (2) any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof); (3) we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation. It follows that the transhumanist dogma that there is a significant chance that we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor-simulations is false, unless we are currently living in a simulation. A number of other consequences of this result are also discussed.
I wonder, though (duh). Arguments that we're living in a simulation remind me of arguments about The International Jewish Banking Conspiracy -- if there is such a Conspiracy, how come I never got a check? Likewise, if I am a simulation of my pre-post-human self, then why wouldn't I simulate an environment for me that, generally speaking, kicked more ass?
Link
Discuss
(Thanks, Pamela!) [Boing Boing Blog]
10:10:32 AM 
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PermaBand Internet Connections
The problem with "permanent" as a replacement for "broadband" is that it's too generic. I propose "permaband" connection, to denote a permanent internet connection.
Broadband: It's not the breadth, it's the availability. Matt Jones is working on a new meme, saying "Permanet" instead of "Broadband." The problem with "Broadband" is that it implies that the crucial thing about high-speed Internet access is its speed, but the real actual important thing is actually the fact that it's always on -- that it is always there with you. Of course, speed is important, but a dialup lag is a much higher transaction cost than network lag.
Link
Discuss [Boing Boing Blog]
10:07:04 AM
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© Copyright 2002 deeje.
Last update: 2002-10-03; 23:21:26.
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