Penny Arcade Forums› Help / Advice Forum
The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.

Freaking out over a paradox

tracertongtracertong Registered User regular
edited November 2010 in Help / Advice Forum
Hey h/a - my friend told me about this paradox about human life and im now freaking out about it. What should I do?

the 'dox

Intelligence arises from programming a game where the only way to "beat it" and avoid unhappiness and eventual death is to create another game that has the same properties in order to get more "people" or intelligence on your side to help you.


Doing so would prove certain things in the first game, the one that you thought was real. It would also quickly lead to hivemind-like ability or the big bang or some shit.

What should I do? How do I deal with knowledge of this paradox?

tracertong on

Posts

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    edited November 2010
    Drink heavily.

    Endless_Serpents on
  • FantasmaFantasma Registered User regular
    edited November 2010
    Have sex.

    Fantasma on
    Hear my warnings, unbelievers. We have raised altars in this land so that we may sacrifice you to our gods. There is no hope in opposing the inevitable. Put down your arms, unbelievers, and bow before the forces of Chaos!
  • SloSlo Registered User regular
    edited November 2010
    Do both!

    Slo on
  • MidshipmanMidshipman Registered User regular
    edited November 2010
    What's the paradox? That's just a line of garbled nonsense.

    Midshipman on
    midshipman.jpg
  • MalkorMalkor Registered User regular
    edited November 2010
    I'm with the garbled nonsense angle.

    Malkor on
    14271f3c-c765-4e74-92b1-49d7612675f2.jpg
  • EclecticGrooveEclecticGroove Registered User regular
    edited November 2010
    It's similar to the problem of knowing if you are part of an advanced simulation. Any simulation of sufficient complexity will be unaware that it is a simulation, and would in fact be able to create it's own simulation. So how would you know if you are a simulation or real? Hive mind and big bang are absolutely not part of it and have nothing to do with it, they are completely separate issues with their own cause and effect.

    None of that is a paradox, and it's poorly worded as well as throwing in random unrelated things. The problem, as it is, is just something people usually like to throw out there to sounds deep. There is no answer to it however, so the OP just needs to chill out and think of it as any other hypothetical question without any answer.

    EclecticGroove on
  • WildEEPWildEEP Registered User regular
    edited November 2010
    Live in fear of the day that someone CTRL-ALT-DELETE's your reality and ends your process......MAN.

    WildEEP on
  • Apothe0sisApothe0sis Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality? Registered User regular
    edited November 2010
    I hope you never hear about the Doomsday argument or the Xeno's paradox. You'll lose your shit.

    Apothe0sis on
  • DelzhandDelzhand Registered User, Transition Team regular
    edited November 2010
    Read Homestuck

    Delzhand on
  • SpazHappySpazHappy Registered User regular
    edited November 2010
    To call this knowledge is an insult to knowledge. Read wikipedia.

    SpazHappy on
  • WildEEPWildEEP Registered User regular
    edited November 2010
    The Ops posting smacks alot of the infinite regression statements that mathmancers try and use to sound deep and mysterious. The reality of the situation is that math has caught up and explained infinite regressions. They arent paradoxical, never were.

    Paradox /= Huurrrr Math is hard

    WildEEP on
  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    edited November 2010
    Sounds like Farmville.

    Rhesus Positive on
    [Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
  • MKRMKR Registered User regular
    edited November 2010
    Read The Last Question

    Then read the rest of Asimov's stories

    Then read Carl Sagan's books (starting with Candle in the Dark)

    It won't make things make more sense, but you'll come to appreciate our irrational reality.

    Embrace the madhouse

    MKR on
    one of those newsed letters - a blue sky
  • MichaelLCMichaelLC In what furnace was thy brain? ChicagoRegistered User regular
    edited November 2010
    Rhesus Positive wrote: »
    Sounds like Farmville.

    MichaelLC on
  • ceresceres When the last moon is cast over the last star of morning And the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderator Mod Emeritus
    edited November 2010
    You guys learned nothing from the sock thread.

    ceres on
    And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
This discussion has been closed.
Penny Arcade Forums› Help / Advice Forum