UDASSA as a theory of consciousness and the universe
post by Tristan H (Kythe) · 2022-12-17T15:24:19.893Z · ? · GW · 0 commentsContents
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On Tuesday December 20th I'll be running a meetup on the weirdest and perhaps coolest theory of how the universe and consciousness works that you've probably never heard of: UDASSA.
UDASSA is a simple-ish theory of what the universe is, which centers around the probability of a conscious observer finding themself experiencing a certain thing, which kinda elegantly combines the questions of "why this universe" and "why do we find ourselves experiencing it here and now". I don't want to over-hype it insofar as like all other theories of consciousness it has holes in it where you just hand-wave over confusion, but I like it because I think it does less of that than other theories and is able to give answers under it to various philosophical conundrums.
I'll introduce various interesting things about UDASSA and then we can discuss them:
- What is UDASSA? Why is it a reasonable candidate theory of the universe?
- How UDASSA can give answers to conundrums: Are simulated humans conscious? Why doesn't it clone the person if you split a two-atom-thick simulator computer into two one-atom-thick simulator computers?
- Weird things about UDASSA: Do earlier times matter more? Vast multiverses.
- Things UDASSA doesn't answer but provides a framework for thinking about: Are we a series of moments of consciousness or a continuous stream through time? If you're uploaded to a simulation is that the same you or a new one and the original died?
Note this is in Solarium rather than the office I sometimes host meetups in, since it isn't available.
=== WHEN+WHERE ===
7:00pm Tuesday, December 20th
The Solarium (Join the mailing list at https://groups.google.com/g/overcomingbiasnyc and say you came from LessWrong to access the post with the address)
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