Le 04-oct.-06, à 18:09, <jamikes.domain.name.hidden> a écrit :
> "That is how YOU formulate these concepts in YOUR mind (i.e.
> comprehension),"
Yes, but I make that comprehension sharable by being clear on the
hypotheses.
I would say that this is how science work. We make theories, which can
only just be hypothetical. Then we derive theorems, that is
consequences, and we compare them with the facts.
> "Puzzles me: are WE not ALL machines? Can we 'comprehend' the
> limitations of some "bigger" (=more comprehensive <G>) construct of
> which we are part of?"
That is all the point of the limitation phenomena in "digital machine
theory" (computer science). Once a machine complexity is higher than a
precise "logical" threshold, then the machine can prove its own
incompleteness theorem: "If I am consistent then I cannot prove that I
am consistent". Still, the machine can bet on such
So, machine which introspect themselves sufficiently closely can not
only guess the existence of something "bigger", but the machine can
study the mathematical structure of its ignorance border.
> I think most people understand the first seven steps of the eight
> [UDA] steps
> "(Do I envy them)"
(May be you are perhaps just ironical, but I will answer like you were
not).
You can ask question, even on the first step, or on the hypotheses. The
basic idea is simple. As David reminds us the game is to search the
consequence of comp which is the digital version of the very old
mechanist assumption: we are machine. It means there is no part of our
body which cannot be substituted at some level by functional artificial
(and digital) device. This is the "yes doctor" guess. Then the steps of
the UDA follows gently, except the last one which is harder (I talk
about the version in 8 steps).
My original motivation for the UDA was only to explain that the
"mind-body" problem is *far* from being solved, but that a simple and
natural hypothesis makes it translatable in mathematics; and of course
the math appearing there are NOT simple as we can expect. I got results
though, like the fact that although comp makes it possible to
comprehend the whole of the third person describable reality, it makes
impossible to comprehend the whole of any first person reality. I have
also results showing that the first person plural reality obeys
quantum-like rules. Those are tiny bits of confirmation of the comp
hypothesis (not a proof, obviously).
Only atheist have reason to dislike the consequence of comp. Not
because they would be wrong, but because their belief in "nature" is
shown to need an act of faith (and atheists hate the very notion of
faith).
Bruno
http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/
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Received on Thu Oct 05 2006 - 09:53:26 PDT