Again, Mr Shermer is a short sighted fool.promethean75 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 01, 2022 10:30 pm "A brain-in-a-vat is a far more efficient way for a conscious mind to exist than lugging an actual mass of body material around with all its actual bodily requirements, including transport, heating, food, etc."
Hardly. Who runs the warehouse that has all the vats in it? Where are these vats, anyway? And how do you know the manufacture, distribution and use of seven billion vats is 'far more efficient'?
Mr. Shermer already had a talk with you about this kinda stuff, fish.
If your brain was interfaced to to let's say, a computer system (*the simulation system btw could be biological in its own right), ALL the energy required in getting food from the field to your plate, energy required for you to travel, keep warm, keep cold could be simulated by the system. I don't disagree that the simulation system would require energy, but to simply provide those qualia inputs to you conscious brain would be far reduced, than you living as the lard arse that you are!
Here is an excerpt from my novel Alpha Two - from one of the main characters Marlow, when he has drunk to much and waffling on about HIS theory:
“I got two words for you, evolution and reality. Darwin went to the final point of evolution, that is here and now. That’s not far enough! How old is the universe?” Marlow didn’t wait long enough for an answer. “Pretty damn old. So here’s how I see it—reality. Here we are lugging these colossal masses of matter around, when the neural-net has proved that we can exist in the same reality, but with minimal energy. The whole universe could be condensed from a conscious point of view and powered on a 12-volt battery. Now it seems pretty damn evident that conservation of energy is real fucking important—so I put it to you; the Sun burns out, the conscious planet condenses into a virtual world where the same laws of physics apply. Then, this mini planet containing all our souls—a seed, is propelled by the exploding Sun to another younger solar system.”
“Spaceship Earth,” says a large, bald man from the opposite side of the table, his face resembling a bulldog.
Marlow immediately slaps the table. “Yep! Spaceship Earth!”
Helix steps forward from the shadows and says, “And who’s running this spaceship?”
Marlow looks up at Helix, surprised to see him having realized Helix had been listening to one of his lectures. “The operating system. What is a man’s best friend?”
“A dog,” replies the man.
“Exactly—reversed God. God is the frickin operating system.”
“So we’re a reality within a reality?” asks Helix as he takes a seat between the two.
Novel free to download here:- https://www.androcies.com/alphatwo.php