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existential risks...
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 5:56 am
by Freakaloin
this is a good read...unless ur a moron...
http://www.nickbostrom.com/existential/risks.html
4.3 We’re living in a simulation and it gets shut down
hehe..
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 5:58 am
by Massive Quasars
Ah yes, Dr. Bostrom.
May I ask, where did you come across this article?
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 6:03 am
by Freakaloin
on the intrawebs...
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 6:03 am
by Massive Quasars
fancy that
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 6:08 am
by Freakaloin
gamma ray is in article...
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 6:18 am
by Freakaloin
fuck u...
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 6:53 am
by busetibi
old
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 7:30 am
by bitWISE
He also forgot to include the one that is guaranteed to happen, the death of the sun.
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 8:27 am
by Transient
bitWISE wrote:He also forgot to include the one that is guaranteed to happen, the death of the sun.
By the time the sun dies, we should be so technologically advanced that it won't matter.
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 10:23 am
by Pext
or allready dead?
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 10:27 am
by Transient
True enough.
Good read, BTW.
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 10:44 am
by MKJ
Transient wrote:bitWISE wrote:He also forgot to include the one that is guaranteed to happen, the death of the sun.
By the time the sun dies, we should be so technologically advanced that it won't matter.
actually, the next inflation will be more of a risk and will mnost likely happen sooner than the death of the sun
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 10:54 am
by Transient
By the time the sun inflates, we should be so technologically advanced that it won't matter.
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 10:54 am
by MKJ
im not talking about the sun :icon32:
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 10:55 am
by Transient
Well that won't kill us.

Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 10:59 am
by MKJ
:icon33:
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 10:16 pm
by kapitalkev
Good read! *thumbs up*
[21]
Of course, intelligence enhancements can make evil persons better at pursuing their wicked ambitions, and surveillance could be used by dictatorial regimes... In the case of surveillance, it seems important to aim for the two-way transparency advocated by David Brin [100], where we all can watch the agencies that watch us.
Gonna have to pick this one up:
[100] Brin, D. (1998). The Transparent Society. Reading, MA.: Addison-Wesley.
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 10:20 pm
by hate
sounds fucking riveting
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 10:27 pm
by kapitalkev
certainly does.
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 11:03 pm
by plained
hey the way you stated how it "sounds riviting"" and the way you say "certainly does"
make me almost ask 4 a summery
so yea close one
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 11:19 pm
by Guest
Hmmm... you know... he's wrong on a few of his points but it's pretty good overall.
For example, he talks about advanced civilizations creating an artificial intelligence so intelligent it basicly takes over the whole universe OR, he also talks about us doing things like creating an experiment in which a cascade effect of destruction begins here because of us and continues throughout the universe destroying everything in it's path, or things like the universe being a simulation and being shut down.
Well... if it was a simulation, we would never know it was shut down even if it was.
As for the others, it's unlikely that we're the only intelligent life in the universe and if it were possible i'm certain an alien species would have already have been responsible for doing it since the universe has been around for so long and we've basicly evolved over a pretty short period of time. So the problem I'm having with his universal demise ideas is that they would have already happened by now from another species.
Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 1:23 am
by Wizard .3
Kracus wrote:As for the others, it's unlikely that we're the only intelligent life in the universe and if it were possible i'm certain an alien species would have already have been responsible for doing it since the universe has been around for so long and we've basicly evolved over a pretty short period of time. So the problem I'm having with his universal demise ideas is that they would have already happened by now from another species.
How can you be so sure? They might have taken an alternative technological path that avoided the demise of their species and the universe.
In short, you don't know.
Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 1:42 am
by Transient
Kracus wrote:Well... if it was a simulation, we would never know it was shut down even if it was.
That doesn't mean it can't still happen, thus it still belongs on his list. Just because we don't know what kills us doesn't mean it can't kill us.
As for the others, it's unlikely that we're the only intelligent life in the universe and if it were possible i'm certain an alien species would have already have been responsible for doing it since the universe has been around for so long and we've basicly evolved over a pretty short period of time. So the problem I'm having with his universal demise ideas is that they would have already happened by now from another species.
The same could then be said about the likelihood of the other intelligent life causing the problem. You're inviting a paradox; it has to start somewhere. Plus, you read wrong. He said "our part of the cosmos" and "that [it] would sweep through the galaxy and beyond at the speed of light," that doesn't mean the WHOLE universe.
Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 2:07 am
by kapitalkev
plained wrote:hey the way you stated how it "sounds riviting"" and the way you say "certainly does"
make me almost ask 4 a summery
so yea close one
ahh... come again?
Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 2:56 am
by bitWISE
Transient wrote:bitWISE wrote:He also forgot to include the one that is guaranteed to happen, the death of the sun.
By the time the sun dies, we should be so technologically advanced that it won't matter.
Until we leave Earth its a risk.