At this point things get muddled ... :)
> It's quite an interesting idea, and I believe this is where we've been
> slipping up. I was saying that if we are in a real world, plugged into
> a virtual world, then existed in such a state from such a young age, and
> for such a lenght of time, then discovered it was false, the memespheres
> of most individuals would be damaged.
I'd say `changed.' You can't really `damage' a memesphere you can just
radically change its contents.
> I accept that if we *ourselves* are entirely virtual (what a waste :) then
> finding out that we were created by technology, then there would be very
> little difference to memespheres, because it is *our* world, and we must
> make the best of it. It would be little different to the idea of "God" as
> a creator anyhow, wouldn't it?
Clarke's Law.
The parallel between virtuality and religion is something I've been
pointing out all along.
> What is it? Can it be found on the net?
Tierra is an ALife environment in which strings of code reproduce, breed
and die within a simulated environment. The latest work on Tierra has
been in creating `virtual links' so that Tierrans from one machine can
migrate to others to compete and spread their genetic code. Tierra's
always been available on the Net; it should be easy to find scads of
references to it.
--
Alexander Williams {thantos@alf.dec.com / zander@photobooks.com}
Prefect of the 8,000,000th Terran Overlord Government Experimental
Strike Legion, Primary Transport TOG "Bellatores Inquieti"
======================================================================
You ride in 250 tons of molecularly aligned crystalline titanium
wedded to a ceramic ablative matrix. You carry a 200mm Gauss
cannon, two massive 10-gigawatt lasers, two SMLM fire-and-forget
missiles, a Vulcan IV point defense anti-missile system, and a
deadly assortment of other equally lethal weapons.
Your vehicle is the ultimate product of 4,000 years of armored
warfare.
Your life expectancy is less than two minutes.
-- RENEGADE LEGION:
CENTURION