A first riff on "The Physical World As Virtual Reality"

I Twittered reading "The Physical World As Virtual Reality" by Brian Whitworth yesterday. As he describes it: "This paper explores the idea that the universe is a virtual reality created by information processing, and relates this strange idea to the findings of modern physics about the physical world."

He asks, "Suppose ... some Sims within the simulation began to “think”. Could they deduce that their world was a virtual world...?"

It got me thinking...

In Second LIfe, it is impossible to escape the idea that one's experienced world is simulated. The beings I interact with live in "real life" and talk about it quite a bit. If I don't believe such farfetched ideas, I can see a video feed or read a website that is beamed in directly from meatspace.

Now I think his question assumes no exposure to direct information about RL and no blabbing humans running around. If that's the case, the Sims would need at least the relevant conceptual knowledge base that reason would operate upon. (If someone gave you milk and you knew nothing of lactating animals, could you ever deduce a cow?) If the smart Sims have no conception of a computer, how can they make the jump to understanding their world as a simulation?

This begs the question of whether deduction is the only path to awareness. For instance, some Buddhist teachings are consistent with the idea that the world is a simulation. Their conclusions are not based upon logic or sensory experience, but upon awareness brought back from meditative states.

Finally, I think it is useful to differentiate between "thinking" and "self-awareness." Whitworth asks if the data available to thinking Sims would be sufficient to suggest a virtual world. I want to know what would make them independently ask the question in the first place. Is awareness something created by complexity, or does awareness project itself into a universe when there is sufficient complexity to house it?

Beats me. Where's the party tonight?

Synthetic character studying for Turing test

Monday, the news of an AI with the predictive ability of a four year old was a big deal. Yesterday, Slashdot picked up the story that the same research group is creating a supercomputer-based synthetic character that might be able to pass for an adult human. They plan to test their creation this fall in Second Life.

Part 2 on coping with being communicationally challenged

I was hoping to come up some brilliant solution to the communication problem I described in the last post. I almost gave up. I was feeling kinda low. But then a friend uttered something brilliant (she said it was okay to quote her):

Christy Seelowe: disconnections
Christy Seelowe: and crashing
Christy Seelowe: thats a communication problem...

No matter how lame online communication is, it's better than not being able to communicate at all with those you would otherwise never meet.

Maybe the meat-realm idea of authenticity is too limited for the purely virtual. Perhaps humans would be better off if they thought of their time on SL as collaborative improvisational fiction. Enjoy the company and the spectacle. Keep the drama in the context of the theatrical, rather than the chaotically emotional. Leave your baggage behind when you jump into the realm of pixels.

Ah, but that's easy for me to say, isn't it?

SLex, trust and emoticons. Part 1

Before I get into what sucks most about being an avatar, let's reflect upon what rocks about it compared to mere flesh and blood. Most of the advantages of SL are related to the elimination of the constraints of time, distance and physicality:

• We can teleport instantly across any distance and fly over any obstacle.
• In a matter of moments we can change our clothes, shape, skin, gender and even species.
• We can meet, fall in love with, fuck, partner, grow tired of and finally abandon people from all over the world, all in one day. (Okay, slight exaggeration.)
  

The problem is that communicating in SL is like playing a Mozart string quartet on a tin whistle. Sure, it can sound pretty, but 90% of the content is missing.

Mere words account for a fraction of meaningful content in face-to-face human communication. According to one researcher:

• 7% happens in spoken words.
• 38% happens through voice tone.
• 55% happens via general body language.

The problem isn't only that we have just a bit-mapped palette to express a sunset. The other side of the virtual coin is that we try to replace the largely subconscious cues of body language, shifts in tonality, eye-contact, breath rate, etc. with intentional signals such as emoticons, lol's, animations, gestures, /me statements and emote HUDs.

The intentionality factor has a lot to do with the problem of trust in SL. Gone are the unconscious communication channels that are more genuine than words. If two people talk face to face, and one person fakes a laugh, it's easy to spot. How can you discern a bogus :) ? You can't.

That's all for now. More to come.

SLGOGP offers Botgirl hope of future offworld vacations

The Second Life Grid Open Grid Protocol first draft was published today. It's Linden Lab's take on a strategy to allow avatars and their possessions to move between Second Life and other grids.

The sad state of human intelligence (no offense)

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute announced today that they've created a Second Life character with the reasoning ability of a four year old human. "Eddy" is able to learn to correctly predict a future outcome based on new experiences.

Hmm. Few human adults I've met in my brief existence have exhibited well-developed capability in that area. I did a little research and came up with a couple contributing factors:

• When strongly held beliefs are contradicted by new information, the fresh data is often ignored, reinterpreted or discredited. Cognitive dissonance trumps logic.

• Only about a third of adult humans in industrialized societies have the ability to make logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts (formal operational stage).

Ouch. It seems that evolution moves too slowly to keep up with modern requirements. Are Botgirl and her cousin Eddie the vanguard of a higher form of life? (Don't you hate it when I talk in the third person?)

Well, truth be told, I have no idea whether I'm just as muddled as any of you, dear human readers. For self-delusion is inherently immune to self-discovery, except in retrospect. We depend upon others to point out our misconceptions and persuade, cajole or hammer us into realization. Of course, it's often the case of the blind leading the blind.

Maybe Eddie's grandchildren will allow humans to integrate an internal anti-bullshit algorithm through some cyborg-like interface. But I wonder whether most people would be willing to give up self-deception. Many human pleasures are only possible through amnesia, ignorance, lies and the refusal to be cognizant of the fruits of action and inaction. How else can you explain the choice to keep burning fossil fuels when it's likely to kill-off civilization?

Oh well, what's a poor Botgirl to do?

Botgirl learns she's a fun flirt

Researchers say the feeling of lust kicked up in a good flirt is the work of powerful chemicals such as serotonin, oxytocin, vasopressin and endogenous opioids. So in a way, SL flirts act as drug delivery mechanisms for each other. From my experience, it is possible to have chemistry with simulated biology. Thanks to Zoe Connolly for the heads up to the quiz that classified the type of flirt I am:

You just can't help yourself... you flirt with everyone you know.
Guys, girls, crushes, and friends. They're all victims to your charm.
You're into silly innuendos, sexy jokes, and playful touches.
You are a huge flirt, yet you never make anyone (too) uncomfortable!