>> if god existed he would _not_ be "nice", just look at this deathist
>> planet and universe. Being omnipotent = being responsible for all that
>> happens.
Anders Sandberg wrote:
>If I start a huge game of life simulation, I cannot predict exactly
>what will happen and while I am omnipotent from the perspective of the
>simulation (I can change any state at any point in the run) I would
>have a hard time determining the eventual outcome unless it was very
>simple and obvious. I expect the same for other creators (be they
>omnipotent entities, posthumans playing with planet-sized cellular
>automata machines or myself at my workstation); they cannot be held
>responsible for the individual events in their creations, although
>they are responsible for the creation as a whole. It might be
>impossible to prevent nasty (from the perspective of inhabitants)
>events without constantly intervening and wrecking the autonomy
>of the created world.
OK, but the least thing a creator could do is to check if
sentient entities occur in his simulation (e.g. universe).
If so, he (/she/it) could make backup copies of their states
just prior to their destruction. The saved backup copies could
then be restored in a separate simulation (heaven/hell?).
This way he doesn't disturb the simulation, but he does save
the sentient beings, which after all are indirectly created
by him and therefore are his responsibility.
Of course that separate simulation is the same as a separate
universe is to us. There is no way the sentient inhabitants
of the original simulation can find out about the other
simulation, but only to wait until they are restored there
themselves.
So, IMO a creator *can be held responsible* for the individual
events in their creations.
(Isn't this the same issue as a creator being responsible
for any artificial sentient being(s) he has created.)
By the way, at Transvision98 we will show a television documentary
which will illustrate exactly this issue: "A creator of a simulation
containing sentient beings is being held responsible" :->
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>Hkl ------> Technology & Future at http://www.stack.nl/~hkl
Transcedo --> Dutch Transhumanist Society http://www.dse.nl/~transced
Because the future is where we will spend the rest of our lives ...
You see things and ask "Why?" ; I dream things and ask "Why not?"