simulation theory

<OJ> (and I promise it will eventually circle back around to Replay Value, but first let me get the premise out of the way:)
<OJ> How moral is it to simulate people and then kill them?
<ventricularPipefitter> Not?
<ventricularPipefitter> Well. Depends on how 'real' the simulation and the 'people' are.
<ventricularPipefitter> I don't think it's immortal to kill sims. I don't think consorts, however, are simulated people.
<ventricularPipefitter> I think they're people.
<OJ> So, what if there was a government which said that you can use simulated conscious people to do special experimentation that /cannot/ be done with lower-grained models?
<OJ> Assume a system of licensure, ethics boards, etc. analogous to the one we use for animal research today.
<OJ> For example, you can do /some/ research on higher primates, but only if it can't be done in pigs or mice or any other creature we use for the purpose.
<OJ> And when you're /done/ with them, you need to figure out how to properly dispose of them, where "dispose" means, say, something like sending them to a preserve to live out the rest of their natural lifespans - /not/ killing them.
<OJ> What if the "bargain Feferi struck with the Horrorterrors" is the in-universe explanation for "when you're done doing these horrible things to conscious ems, you need to make it up by providing them at least X amount of simulated Heaven"?
<OJ> This is, incidentally, /definitely/ mutually incompatible with my "pruned" idea.
<OJ> It does, however, depend on the theory that "The Replay Value multiverse runs inside a computer simulation".
<OJ> It also implies that someone working on the project is named Feferi, incidentally, and someone snuck this reference in as an easter egg.
<ventricularPipefitter> I was about to ask, how does 'replay value is a computer simulation' account for skaia and the terrors?
<OJ> Neither of them has an obvious corresponding explanation.
<OJ> It is /possible/ that one or both of them is the developers'/maintainers' avatars within the simulation, when they feel like they need to meddle.
<OJ> It is also possible that the 'terrors are uninitialized memory, which is the stance I took when I was writing Sburb Patch Notes.
<OJ> (However, 'terrors being uninitialized memory does not account for the presence of Bargains.)
<OJ> (Therefore, in this case, I think the 'avatar' explanation is /slightly/ more apt, although not enough for me to put my weight behind it.)
<OJ> I've unilaterally had a character go through experiences such that "X amount of simulated Heaven" is at least several thousand years, and I do not think any objections have been raised to that, or at least none within earshot.
<OJ> The thing this implies is that, by ethics-board-as-Horrorterror rules, it takes at least several thousand years to balance out a long Replayer's life full of hardship and heartbreak.
<OJ> Granted, Stan was Time, and that means that his life was probably subjectively longer than 99.9% of Replayers', /even/ considering the increased average session count we have here compared to what's implied in Glitch FAQ
<OJ> But that seems almost
<OJ> Well
<OJ> The other thing this implies is
<OJ> that splinter selves, /forks/ of oneself, are treated as full persons in their own right by this ethics-board-as-horrorterror, and thus entitled to their full share of dreambubble heaven.
<OJ> This is a controversial ethical position to take, currently!
<OJ> (I will probably not go into why, as that is a descent into another long and tortuous argument, and you can probably look it up.)
* Zu|Sleep nods.
<OJ> ...man I want to run this argument past Zero now