The is really no reason for this network of thinking machines to do anything more than share information, create stories, animals, plants, and thinking, moving “beings” entirely in their minds. IN FACT, THERE IS NO ADVANTAGE TO THEM IN CREATING BIOLOGY AT ALL SINCE IT CAN ALL BE SIMULATED. ANY SCENARIO CAN BE ENACTED, EDITED, AND THEN RERUN A THOUSAND TIMES. The ultimate reality could be that teenagers wearing a VR headset are the VR of these machines.
The advantages of keeping all “history” virtual are many
- No time constraints. Biological entities have a process flow constraint Chronobiology – Wikipedia that regulates when we sleep, when we eat, when we mate, and when we die. In a simulation, your lifeline can be sped up a million times with the various stimuli that make you “what you are” provided right on time. Perhaps this is how God reviews our life at the Pearly Gate.
- No location constraints. Your location is your perception of your environment. The Star Trek Holodeck Holodeck – Wikipedia was a “movie set” that the participant selected. Of course, the metaphysical problem is whether the participant controls the scene (like a dream), or the machine controls the action based on the participant’s actions.
- No continuity constraints. There is no “timeline”. Just like the editing of this blog post, all of the previous versions have disappeared (or mistappeared as my young son Jeff would say). There obviously would be machines that would always be critical of the final version. To quote Phil Conners in Groundhog Day, “If there is no tomorrow, we can do whatever we want to”.
The main argument that I can find for us not being in a simulation is that we seem to be constrained by the Laws of Physics. As I noted in the introduction, the world now and always has been governed by the laws of physics, the laws of chemical reactions, and the laws of logic.
In order to get from the “mental” state of the machines to the physical manipulation of the environment, mechanical devices are required. This is the most difficult hurdle to overcome in the development of a pre-biological living entity. The “machine” is limited to what is in its immediate vicinity and has few manipulative tools.
- It can generate a voltage using solar cells
- It can generate a magnetic field from an electrical current. That field could move a piece of iron
- It can create a chemical reaction by heating an element or compound
Even with logical supervision, it would take many tries to get the meaningful movement of an object. But unlike the theory of evolution, all of the attempts are remembered and shared by the machines until they finally get a “mechanical device” that can create other things.
Next Chapter – Organic Robots
