James Higgo wrote:
>> Over dinner in a small pub in Fotheringhay, a friend described to me the
>> plot of the Matrix, which I still have not seen. It reminded me of an idea
>> I had when I was about 12, after reading too much Asimov, no doubt:
>>
>> At some point in our evolution, we are bound to develop technology
>> sufficiently powerful to replicate the universe in a computer over which
>> we have full control (lets say it will take us a million years from now).
>> We are extremely unlikely to find ourselved in the first 4million years
>> during which this machine has not been invented. So it is highly likely
>> that we are inside a computer, or a nest of computers.
>>
>> This hypothesis violates Ockam. And it's not terribly interesting because
>> the same questions remain to be answered (I can't understand people who
>> look to space-aliens for the genesis of life on earth!) But where are the
>> flaws?
>>
>> James Higgo (not Higgo James, and my e-mail program insists on calling me)
Your plot is exactly (whith a city instead of a universe) the content of
a
nice novel by Daniel F. Galouye SIMULACRON III.
(I mention it before in the discussion list).
It is without doubt one of my favorite SC.FI. book, written by my one of
my
favorite novelist.
I read Galouye's books in french and I am desperately searching the
original
versions. Most books are out of print and amazon.com doesn't even mention
simulacron 3 despite it has been made into a movie recently in the US
(unlike
matrix I have no hope it will cross the ocean!). I hope I will see it at
some
Sc. Fi. festival.
The hypothesis doesn't not violate Ockham when you realise, as you
certainly
has done, that the 'ultimate'
computer is immaterial and lives in numberland :-)
I attend a conference given by the physicist Rossler (chaos, cf Rossler's
attractor) at the Goethe Institute at Brussels some years ago where he
gives
an enigmatic and inintelligible explanation why Galouye was not mentionned
in Mind's I. If someone knows more ...
More on Galouye at:
http://home.t-online.de/home/herbsev/galouye.htm
Bruno
Received on Tue Aug 31 1999 - 06:39:12 PDT