we should expect humanlike sims to greatly outnumber humanlike nonsims. (Here humanlike beings are those with experiences broadly like ours.) Still, the argument has an underlying assumption: that it will be cheaper and easier for nonsims to create humanlike sims than to create humanlike nonsims. If it turns out to be easier to create nonsims for the relevant purposes—perhaps using nanotechnology, exploiting infinite space, or creating baby universes—then we’d expect nonsims to proliferate instead.
