Metacomputing, Accidental Nuclear War, and the future

QuantumBalance · Post by **QuantumBalance** » 11 Jan 2008 00:35

Hey Shred Heads. I have been researching a lot of stuff lately and I stumbled upon dub dub dub dot gyre dot org. That's www.gyre.org for the rest of you. It is a fascinating site about metcomputing, which is all humans and all our computers all connected and growing more and more connected. It is actually a beautiful thing except for the fact that us humans aren't really doing a good job of controlling our growth or remaining calm and focused enough to wield the computer that we are striving to build. This website has sooo much information, and it is all about the future and really puts into perspective the course that humanity is charting. I highly recomend a visit to this site and click on random things like accidental nuclear war, metacomputing, artificial intellingence.. and many other keywords. I woudlnt let this site get you down though, cuz you can always die through stupidity just as accidental nuclear war doesn't happen yet, so consider yourself lucky to even be learning about this, and if it happens you are REALLY lucky cuz you could have just fallin down some stairs.

Hey, let me know what you find cuz I dont have time to read the entire thing right now. Peace out birds and bees.

Buzz,
69samurai

QuantumBalance · Post by **QuantumBalance** » 11 Jan 2008 01:10

Just wanted to twist your brain a little more here.

www.simulism.org

Universe 2029'
Let's take a leap forward. As computers become more and more advanced, and computing power is growing exponentially, it is not hard to imagine that in 2029, approximately 20 years after the release of Spore, a game would be feasible that simulates a large part of the universe, including many of its laws of physics. Having evolved from Pac-Man, Sim City folk, The Sims characters and Spore species, the characters of 'Universe 2029' will be very human-like. They will have emotions, social skills and, most important, (artificial) intelligence. If you take into account the advances in the field of computer graphics, 'Universe 2029' would probably look amazingly realistic too.

[edit] Simulism
Why this history of computer simulation games? Think about it for a moment. Suppose that the more advanced computers become, the closer to reality simulations would become. If the characters in the simulation act intelligently, have all 5 basic senses, and can make their own decisions based on their virtual suroundings, they would act very human-like.

This is where the philosophical underpinning of Simulism enters the arena. The characters in 'Universe 2029' would not know they are simulated. Within the virtual world created for them, they live a life, even though, to us, this life is not real. In the movie 'The Matrix', one of the main characters, Morpheus, states: "If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply signals interpreted by your brain". This leads to a statement about reality: If the virtual characters in Universe 2029 have simulated senses, the simulated world is as much real for them, as the real world is to us.

If the characters in Universe 2029 will be intelligent enough, they can create computer games about simulations, and eventually, some of them might start to realize they are living in a simulation, and, in their simulated world, create a website about Simulism... you see where I'm going?

Also, many people have argued "No life, in any universe, has evolved sufficiently to be able to create the technology required to support such a simulation." Now, lets think. If you have any understanding of game programming you would know to make the game interactive you would need graphics, correct? Well, if we actually do live in a simulation, our graphics could be in a VERY low quality form. Many reasons of this could be: Us, as a human race, have adopted to the 3D world we live in, and have never seen anything different (example: in a different simulation the "graphics" could be better or worse). Another reason would be that it would be programmed into our minds that we are actually in a 3D world with really high quality. The possibilities could be endless.

[edit] A matter of chance
Suppose in the future, 'Universe 2029' will become as popular as The Sims has been. The Sims has been sold about 7 million times worldwide. If 'Universe 2029' is that popular too, then one time, 7 million simulated universes will be run by players. That is 7 million parallel universes, each containing simulated people not aware of being simulated, and unaware of the existence of all these other simulated worlds. In his article 'The Simulation Argument', Nick Bostrom proposes that if there are that many virtual worlds, and only 1 real world, the chance that we are living in the real world, is very small. Weird?

Well, that is not weird if you accept that, like with the 'Universe 2029' people, our 'reality' is defined by our surroundings, by everything we hear, see, smell, feel, think. We are not unsimulatable.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 11 Jan 2008 03:02

Interesting. You should read some Ray Kurzweil. The Singularity Is Near or his essays online. Here is one;

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/kurzwei ... ty_p2.html

Very thought provoking read.

HighDemonslayer · Post by **HighDemonslayer** » 11 Jan 2008 10:04

Sounds kinda related to trans-humanism.

Cool topic thread.

-hds

BainbridgeShred · Post by **BainbridgeShred** » 11 Jan 2008 10:32

I've been interested in this stuff for a long time.

Thankfully, nearly all predictions of the future have come out totally wrong, so I'm not too worried.

Darkshredder · Post by **Darkshredder** » 15 Jan 2008 11:22

the other day I read news that "they" want to setup an international computer surveillance network called Server in the Sky. Server in the Sky. . sky. skyNet? My friend and I had a good chuckle over this for a while.

oh and robotics and computer mechanics in general are making leaps and bounds over the last few years.

professor · Post by **professor** » 27 Mar 2008 12:33

Here's a wired article on singularity:
http://www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/maga ... ntPage=all

Interesting.