Reverse Simulation Hypothesis: The world becomes like that which we can simulate
RichardMCNgo · x · 2026-08-15
Core Idea
RichardMcNgo discusses the "reverse simulation hypothesis": the world is becoming more like that which we can simulate.
Reasoning
- Contrapositive of the Good Regulator Theorem: A sufficiently powerful agent acting as a regulator will unknowingly simplify its environment to be as simple as itself, generalizing Goodhart's law and "Seeing like a State" legibility problems.
- Historical Evidence: Atomic and hydrogen bombs, along with innovative buildings, crawled out of our simulations. The "personal AI assistant" emerged from Anthropic's simulated environment for alignment research.
- Conclusion: If you want a better world, you first have to simulate it.
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