Source: Philosophy of life as knowledge, panspermia, and the simulation hypothesis
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BenSibelman
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Added heading with back-link
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''This was a session at the August 2018 [[Resilient Communities Mini-Unconference]].''
== Attendees ==
* [[Shawn]] (convener)
* [[Ben]] (note-taker)
* [[Eric]]
* Steve
* Judy
== Discussion ==
Philosophy of Life as Knowledge
* At first the universe just knew how to exist, then chemistry, then with life, it finally found a way to persist knowledge
* The environment trims away knowledge (in DNA) that doesn't work
* Similarly in science, a model that is a better predictor (works better) will persist longer that one that doesn't
Panspermia
* Intelligence as fruiting body for life
* If we can't send ourselves to other stars, we can at least send microbes as [http://www.panspermia-society.com/ Dr. Mautner proposes]
Simulation Hypothesis
* Assumptions
** An intelligence can create models of a universe and has some reason to do so
** We're likely to be able to simulate, within these models, more intelligent minds than exist on Earth
** The simulated minds won't be able to tell that they're in a simulation
* Steve: This relates to my skepticism about uploading: Can consciousness arise within a computer simulation?
** Eric: John Searle argues that we have no idea if computing processes can map onto the consciousness process; I'm agnostic
* Shawn's similar argument about panspermia: if we can develop the ability to send life to newly forming star systems, and we find a reason to do it, and we send them to many such systems, we're probably the product of a similar project 5 billion years ago
** Eric: The existence of Dr. Mautner proves that someone can find the motivation to do this, making it very likely that someone has done it in the past
* Fermi Paradox argument
** Shawn: There's a very small chance that any given spore will succeed