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Thursday, March 13, 2014

"A New Theory of Free Will" and the Peer-to-Peer Simulation Hypothesis

By Marcus Arvan
Flickers of Freedom Blog
Originally posted February 24, 2014

Here is an excerpt:

Nick Bostrom is of course well-known for arguing, on probabilistic grounds, that we are probably living in a simulation. Somewhat similarly, David Chalmers has argued that we should consider the “simulation hypothesis” not as a skeptical hypothesis that threatens our having knowledge of the external world, but rather as a metaphysical hypothesis regarding what our world is made of. Finally, the simulation hypothesis is gaining some traction in physics.

My 2013 article and subsequent unpublished work go several steps further, arguing that a new form of the simulation hypothesis -- what I call the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Simulation Hypothesis -- is not only implied by several serious hypotheses in philosophy and physics, but that it also provides a unified explanation of (A) the mind-body problem, (B) the problem of free will, and (C) several fundamental features of quantum mechanics, while (D) providing a new solution to the problem of free will that I call "Libertarian Compatibilism."

The entire article is here.

Editor's note: I am not sure if I really understand the entire concept.  I am considering a podcast to help understand his theory.