Certainly, it is possible, but I see little to guarantee our descendants won’t create simulations that are like the world we live in now.
Our descendants may well not regard sims as having the same rights as persons.
Even if they do, if even a small number of rogue beings (or nations etc.) conducted such simulations, unethical as they may be, it is possible that simulations would soon outnumber real people- especially for critical junctures in history (e.g., right before the discovery of AGI.)
The essay gives at least two ethical reasons which, in my view at least, may offer enough good to outweigh the suffering- such that even a person who cared deeply about sims might still sanction the existence of a world in which they suffer to achieve their aims.
So given those factors, we may be in a simulation, and given that, I think an interesting question is “is our being in a simulation compatible with our simulators being good people”
Certainly, it is possible, but I see little to guarantee our descendants won’t create simulations that are like the world we live in now.
Our descendants may well not regard sims as having the same rights as persons.
Even if they do, if even a small number of rogue beings (or nations etc.) conducted such simulations, unethical as they may be, it is possible that simulations would soon outnumber real people- especially for critical junctures in history (e.g., right before the discovery of AGI.)
The essay gives at least two ethical reasons which, in my view at least, may offer enough good to outweigh the suffering- such that even a person who cared deeply about sims might still sanction the existence of a world in which they suffer to achieve their aims.
So given those factors, we may be in a simulation, and given that, I think an interesting question is “is our being in a simulation compatible with our simulators being good people”