Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!oliveb!pyramid!prls!philabs!linus!mbunix!bwk From: bwk@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Barry W. Kort) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Self Simulation Summary: Only in my wildest dreams... Keywords: philosophy, causality, free will, self modeling, unconsciousness. Message-ID: <33245@linus.UUCP> Date: 31 May 88 14:10:08 GMT References: <30472@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> Sender: news@linus.UUCP Reply-To: bwk@mbunix (Barry Kort) Organization: IdeaSync, Inc., Chronos, VT Lines: 15 Drew McDermott's lengthy posting included a curious nugget. Drew paints a scenario in which a robot engages in a simulation which includes the robot itself as a causal agent in the simulation. Drew asks, "What on earth could it mean for a system to figure out what it's doing by simulating itself?" I was captured by the notion of self-simulation, and started day-dreaming, imagining myself as an actor inside a simulation. I found that, as the director of the day-dream, I had to delegate free will to my simulated self. The movie free-runs, sans script. It was just like being asleep. So, perhaps a robot who engages in self-simulation is merely dreaming about itself. That's not so hard. I do it all the time. --Barry Kort