I think if you accept the premise that the machine somehow magically truly simulates perfectly and indistinguishably from actual reality, in such a way that there is absolutely no way of knowing the difference between the simulation and the outside universe, then the simulated universe is essentially isomorphic to reality, and we should be fully indifferent. I’m not sure it even makes sense to say either universe is more “real”, since they’re literally identical in every way that matters (for the differences we can’t observe even in theory, I appeal to Newton’s flaming laser sword). Our intuitions here should be closer to stepping into an identical parallel universe, rather than entering a simulation.
The experience machine does not need to be an exact simulation of the entire observable universe, it merely needs to be a passably high quality simulation of your brain and how it would change. You can’t see the fundamental particles around you, or the evolution of the universal wavefunction. A superintelligence would thus not need to perfectly fake reality to perfectly deceive you and leave you with the same level of confidence that you’re in a simulation as you have right now.
In fact, this is the original construction of the argument- it didn’t involve perfectly simulating the universe, it just involved deceiving the subject to such a degree that they wouldn’t be smart enough to figure out which was real.
However, I think it’s not actually possible to have such a perfect experience machine, which would explain our intuition for not wanting to step inside. First, if this machine simulates reality using our knowledge of physics at the time, it’s entirely possible that there are huge parts of physics you would never be able to find out about inside the machine, since you can never be 100% sure whether you really know the Theory of Everything. Second, this machine would have to be smaller than the universe in some sense, since it’s part of the universe. As a result, the simulation would probably have to cut corners or reduce the size of the simulated universe substantially to compensate.
This can’t “explain” our intuitions, because the fact that physically simulating the entire universe in exact detail is impossible is evidently not what’s causing those intuitions. People who disagree with the experience machine include those who have no idea what a “wave function” is, those who think the earth is flat and the entire universe is in a small crystal dome, leading physicists, philosophers who think building the experience machine as described is possible, and I allege many of the readers of this post before they knew that simulating the universe in exact detail was physically impossible.
Can it explain your disagreement? That’s something for you to think about yourself.
I personally would not step in, because I am at least mildly robust to attempts to hijack my senses. Whenever the map could become disentangled from the territory due to the plots of mad philosophers, I will try to avoid this.
Is that your real disagreement with the experience machine?
The experience machine does not need to be an exact simulation of the entire observable universe, it merely needs to be a passably high quality simulation of your brain and how it would change. You can’t see the fundamental particles around you, or the evolution of the universal wavefunction. A superintelligence would thus not need to perfectly fake reality to perfectly deceive you and leave you with the same level of confidence that you’re in a simulation as you have right now.
In fact, this is the original construction of the argument- it didn’t involve perfectly simulating the universe, it just involved deceiving the subject to such a degree that they wouldn’t be smart enough to figure out which was real.
This can’t “explain” our intuitions, because the fact that physically simulating the entire universe in exact detail is impossible is evidently not what’s causing those intuitions. People who disagree with the experience machine include those who have no idea what a “wave function” is, those who think the earth is flat and the entire universe is in a small crystal dome, leading physicists, philosophers who think building the experience machine as described is possible, and I allege many of the readers of this post before they knew that simulating the universe in exact detail was physically impossible.
Can it explain your disagreement? That’s something for you to think about yourself.
I personally would not step in, because I am at least mildly robust to attempts to hijack my senses. Whenever the map could become disentangled from the territory due to the plots of mad philosophers, I will try to avoid this.