What seems odd isn’t that we should prefer A to B, it’s that the Omega-civilization should be indifferent between the two.
Can we assume shutting down all 100 copies also means the starting data and algorithm cannot be later restarted, or only at too high a cost ?
Would the Omega-civilization be indifferent between preserving exactly one of 100 extant copies of an undecipherable text left behind by the mysterious but otherwise quite uninteresting Rhoan culture, or taking a 99:1 gamble between destroying all copies and preserving all ?
Because the Rhoan text can be easily reproduced from one copy, if the Omegans have an interest epsilon in it they should prefer preserving one copy. (If less than epsilon, this whole discussion is already more of an inconvenience to them than chucking all 100 copies down the nearest black hole.)
On this view, what matters is seeing how the Rhoan book turns out in the end; it doesn’t seem to make a difference that the “reader” interested in how the book turns out is the book itself (or a character within it). However many copies exist, it’s the same reader finding out how the same book turns out—except if zero copies remain.
The assumption is that the simulation is being run for purely utilitarian purposes, for benefit of the inhabitants. They have no interest in knowing how our universe turns out.
It’s consistent with the scenario, and probably helps separate the issues, if we assume in either case a copy of the database can be archived at negligible cost.
Interesting...
What seems odd isn’t that we should prefer A to B, it’s that the Omega-civilization should be indifferent between the two.
Can we assume shutting down all 100 copies also means the starting data and algorithm cannot be later restarted, or only at too high a cost ?
Would the Omega-civilization be indifferent between preserving exactly one of 100 extant copies of an undecipherable text left behind by the mysterious but otherwise quite uninteresting Rhoan culture, or taking a 99:1 gamble between destroying all copies and preserving all ?
Because the Rhoan text can be easily reproduced from one copy, if the Omegans have an interest epsilon in it they should prefer preserving one copy. (If less than epsilon, this whole discussion is already more of an inconvenience to them than chucking all 100 copies down the nearest black hole.)
On this view, what matters is seeing how the Rhoan book turns out in the end; it doesn’t seem to make a difference that the “reader” interested in how the book turns out is the book itself (or a character within it). However many copies exist, it’s the same reader finding out how the same book turns out—except if zero copies remain.
The assumption is that the simulation is being run for purely utilitarian purposes, for benefit of the inhabitants. They have no interest in knowing how our universe turns out.
It’s consistent with the scenario, and probably helps separate the issues, if we assume in either case a copy of the database can be archived at negligible cost.