Even though I understood what you meant and think you mean well, I have to say that I hate this word. Terrorism refer to "mass killing innocent civilians" to terrorise everyone. Those referred to by that word are not killing anyone, they are merely destroying inanimate objects or blocking roads... Nobody is terrorised by them, nobody fear for their life after their actions. We should call them "ecoactivists", or something like that.
I find it hilarious that most people in this thread are complaining about being called a "something vegan", like I can understand not being happy with the current AI trend, but it seems like the word "vegan" is what makes everyone ticks, it's NOT an insult, the "normal" vegan are very happy to be called like that, because what it refers too is something that they agree and identify with. If you agree and identify yourself with what those journalist are calling "AI vegans", the name doesn't matter, embrace it, call yourself that to easily express what you believe about AI.
Don't worry, it's confusing for everyone (including me), this is a very fascinating, yet forever (I think) out of human reach, question.
What I was trying to say is that our entire universe/reality could be like a "conway game of life" : In this "game", every step is fully determined by the previous one, in order to know what the next step is going to be, we human run a simulation, on a computer, or on paper or whatever.. But is it to say that all the future steps don't exist before we "simulate", we could consider that, since they are all predetermined, the steps exist even if we don't know what they are, they could simply be. Just like the number "1" could be a fundamental truth, that could exist outside of any universe.
If mathematics is discovered rather than invented, then that would imply that it exists without anyone or anything, an undiscovered theorem would still be true. The universe could be a big mathematical game of life that exists because it cannot be any other way, and that is fully determined. Then again this could also not be. Who knows !
Stephen Wolfram is a very controversial physicist, who explored those abstract and unprovable concepts, even though his statements should be taken with a grain of salt, it is nonetheless very interesting philosophically: he came up with the concept of the ruliad and the idea of computable irreducibility, if you want to explore these philosophical questions you can look it up, he has a few ted talks and YouTube videos where he details his thought. I cannot stress enough that he should be listened to with extreme skepticism, this is not science "yet", and it might never be.
We don't need to "live in a simulation" for "our reality to be made of math". Math could very well exist outside of anything, as a formal concept. This is the old debate asking whether math is invented or discovered. If it is discovered, then it can exist without any reality, as a pure abstract concept.
My employer, employing 90 people, a lot of which are in their 20s and 30s, has decided to organise the yearly seminar event in a place where most of the company needs to board a plane to go.
I immediately said I wouldn't go if I needed to take a plane, I was not the only one to say it. The company offered to reimburse any alternative journey (train+boat) which is a bit more expensive, but way way longer (14h transport vs 3h on plane, not taking into account the time in between train and ferry: I'll be traveling for more than 24h in total between start and end, and same for the return journey). I said I'd do it, the others that spoke out: not so much, they are either not coming or taking the plane... In the end I think I will be the only one, we'll see.
I understand your feeling regarding our small action being useless, I feel the same.
What I try to tell myself to keep doing it is: If most of everyone would do it, that fart in the wind would be loud enough to make politician realise they have to take it into account and pass legislation aligned with that.
Deep down though, I know we'll never be enough to do it for it to have an impact
It already was the metal concert of the decade, now with his passing just weeks after, this will be remembered as a once in a century event in the metal world, how I wish I could have been there !
Even though I understood what you meant and think you mean well, I have to say that I hate this word. Terrorism refer to "mass killing innocent civilians" to terrorise everyone. Those referred to by that word are not killing anyone, they are merely destroying inanimate objects or blocking roads... Nobody is terrorised by them, nobody fear for their life after their actions. We should call them "ecoactivists", or something like that.