Re: Extropian gods

Wei Dai (weidai@eskimo.com)
Wed, 7 Jan 1998 23:10:30 -0800


On Wed, Jan 07, 1998 at 09:19:29AM -0800, Hal Finney wrote:
> People often complain about God's management of the universe, with the
> existence of evil and suffering often being suggested as signs of God's
> nonexistence or even his evil nature. But it may be that in as little
> as a few decades we will have the ability to create conscious simulated
> entities within computers, which we can rule absolutely. This will be
> an awesome power, with heavy responsibilities. Will we do better than
> the universe we see around us? Should we insure that our creatures live
> lifes of ease and comfort, with never an unpleasant moment? Or may it
> turn out that we must subject them to difficulties and give them freedom
> to behave badly in order to produce the most fulfilling lives? In a few
> years we may not find it so easy to criticize God for his mismanagement.

We may become gods in a few decades, but we won't become Gods at least
until the end of the universe. The moral responsibilities of a God with
unlimited resources must be qualitatively different from those of a god
who is merely unimaginably powerful.

A God with unlimited resources has a responsbility to create a globally
optimal universe for his creatures. It is conceivable that our universe is
actually the best of all possible worlds, but it doesn't seem likely.
If we can figure out how far away from optimum this universe is, it may
allow us to get an estimate of the computational power of the god that
created it.