This is not the clearest or the best explanation of simulacrum levels on LessWrong, but it is the first. The later posts on the subject (Simulacra and Subjectivity, Negative Feedback and Simulacra, Simulacra Levels and Their Interactions) are causally downstream of it, and are some of the most important posts on LessWrong. However, those posts were written in 2020, so I can’t vote for them in the 2019 review.
I have applied the Simulacrum Levels concept often. I made spaced-repetition cards based on them. Some questions are easy to notice and ask, in simulacrum level terms, and impossible to ask otherwise: What things drive it higher or lower? What level is my conversational partner at? Can I make things more object-level? These questions were hard to notice before, but I think I’ve been able to answer them, in contexts where I wouldn’t.
For someone who reads the Best of 2019 Review books, I think failing to mention the simulacrum levels would be a grave disservice, both because they’re a really key concept for understanding the conversations that happened on LessWrong, and for understanding the world in general.
So I’m voting for inclusion. It’s not the best of the explanations, but it’s good enough, and it’s the one we’ve got.
This is not the clearest or the best explanation of simulacrum levels on LessWrong, but it is the first. The later posts on the subject (Simulacra and Subjectivity, Negative Feedback and Simulacra, Simulacra Levels and Their Interactions) are causally downstream of it, and are some of the most important posts on LessWrong. However, those posts were written in 2020, so I can’t vote for them in the 2019 review.
I have applied the Simulacrum Levels concept often. I made spaced-repetition cards based on them. Some questions are easy to notice and ask, in simulacrum level terms, and impossible to ask otherwise: What things drive it higher or lower? What level is my conversational partner at? Can I make things more object-level? These questions were hard to notice before, but I think I’ve been able to answer them, in contexts where I wouldn’t.
For someone who reads the Best of 2019 Review books, I think failing to mention the simulacrum levels would be a grave disservice, both because they’re a really key concept for understanding the conversations that happened on LessWrong, and for understanding the world in general.
So I’m voting for inclusion. It’s not the best of the explanations, but it’s good enough, and it’s the one we’ve got.