Re: Why physical laws

From: Gilles HENRI <Gilles.Henri.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 13:36:29 +0200

>PS Gilles, resend your message to the everything-list if you want that
>others can read your entire message (!).

right, here is the mail that I posted to Bruno
*****

>
>>2) that our notion of identity is NOT based on the computational identity
>>but on the physical one (based on the apparent physical continuity of
>>classical worlds through a time ordering), the computational continuity
>>being just a secondary consequence of the physical one. In particular our
>>own computational properties are constantly changing with time due to our
>>increasing experience, although we consider that we are the same individual.
>
>With some physicalist hypothesis (known to be in contradiction with
>comp), sure!

This point didn't rely on any assumption on the nature of the world,
because as you pointed out yourself in your thesis, the definition of
identity is largely arbitrary and subjective. I just argued that in common
language, and common acceptation, the notion of identity wasn't defined by
the computational property but by the physical continuity. Somebody in a
deep coma is always considered as the same person, whereas a perfect
imitator of him is always considered as a perfect imitator.

>>
>>So you have in fact to POSTULATE that the physical reality is identical to
>>its computation, before arriving to this conclusion. This postulate is
>>acceptable, but it is really interesting only if it produces non trivial
>>results, for example demonstrating m(C)>>m(B)....
>
>I'm not sure I understand you here. If we succeed in demonstrating
>m(C)>>m(B), we don't need to postulate any physical realities at all.
>Remember that I postulate comp right from the start.

I think you always have to postulate the identity of the computation with
the physical reality if you are looking for an ontological theory. I know
that I can simulate perfectly a harmonic oscillator with a simple program.
When I write such a program, do I build a harmonic oscillator?

Gilles
Received on Mon Jun 14 1999 - 04:43:10 PDT