I hold the philosophical position that if two things are indistinguishable, their difference is irrelevant.
"What if we live in a simulation?" -- irrelevant
"What if you couldn't tell the difference between taking to a computer and a real person?" -- irrelevant
But more precisely, it's begging the question to say "imagine something was indistinguishable, now how would you treat it differently???"
@nomi What if you could devise a tool to distinguish these scenarios, or at least start a project to develop them?
Would their still be irrelevant in the current moment.
And if yes, then in what instances would you be sure that such a tool cannot be developed?
@hplisiecki if a tool exists to differentiate the indifferentiable, for example a microscope, I would treat the situations differently.
@nomi My toot related to the possibility of making such a tool. Its existence would have meant mean that it was differentiable already.
@hplisiecki hmm... I don't think it matters whether it is a possibility or not, only whether the tool has been built, calibrated, used, and understood. I'm tossing those extra words on after "built" because I think at the bottom, the nature of the difference is incredibly more important than the existence of a difference
@hplisiecki generally agree. Small quibble: it comes from the belief a difference can be identified. Sometimes the belief ends up being true (higgs boson exists), sometimes not (aether doesn't).