Re: Numbers, Machine and Father Ted

From: Brent Meeker <meekerdb.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2006 20:21:37 -0700

Tom Caylor wrote:
> 1Z wrote:
>> Brent Meeker wrote:
>>
>>> Quentin Anciaux wrote:
>>>> Le Jeudi 26 Octobre 2006 18:02, 1Z a écrit :
>>>>> Quentin Anciaux wrote:
>>>>>>> But c breaks down into:
>>>>>>> c1) I experience something coherent that obeys the laws of
>>>>>>> physics
>>>>>>> and
>>>>>>> c2) I experience wild and crazy "harry Potter" stuff.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The memory-traces corresponding to c2 are a possible
>>>>>>> configuration of matter, and so must exist in Platonia. But
>>>>>>> I only experience c1.
>>>>>> That means nothing... if you had experienced c2 you would never write
>>>>>> this...
>>>>> I could have experienced periods of causal
>>>>> stability mixed with periods of HP. I could still communicate during
>>>>> one
>>>>> of the stable periods.
>>>> Well in typical Everett MWI you also could...
>>>>
>>>>>> and in physical MW, HP/WR are not ruled out but of very low measure which
>>>>>> means there is 100% chance that some instance (a tiny tiny number but at
>>>>>> least one) of you will experience it.
>>>>> Yes, yes, yes. I am objecting here to everythingism -- mathematical MW
>>>>> --. not physical MW.
>>>> But why ? consequences on HP/WR are exactly the same on both flavor ! In any
>>>> case you have to have a measure function, in both case probability is not
>>>> about what happens and what doesn't but the relative proportion of "what
>>>> happens" at the time a choice is made. Even an infinitesimal probability
>>>> is "instantiated" with 100% chance in MW. Since quantum mechanics does not
>>>> prevent very weird events from occuring, those events then occur and are as
>>>> real as this real. The chance to win the lottery is low, yet some wins...
>>> No they are not the same. QM rules out lots of things - anything that doesn't conserve 4-momentum for example.
>> That is true.
>>
>>> Even more to the point QM rules out any future that doesn't evolve from the present in accordance with the Hamiltonian of the universe. It also rules out any universe that doesn't conform to quantum mechanics, e.g. a Newtonian universe. The measure of QM universes relative to "mathematically consistent universes" is essentially zero. I put "mathematically consistent universes" in scare quotes because I understand what it means for statements and propositions to be consistent, but I'm not sure what it means for universes, simpliciter, to be consistent.
>> That is true to. Consistency is a property of (sets of) propositions,
>> not
>> of structures. But if you Platonise all of current mathematics, it will
>> divide into incompatible regions due to incompatible axioms.
>>
>>> Brent Meeker
>
> Bruno has tried to introduce us before to the concept of universes or
> worlds made from logic, bottom up (a la constructing elephants). These
> universes can be consistent or inconsistent.
>
> But approaching it from the empirical side (top down rather bottom up),
> here is an example of a consistent structure: I think you assume that
> you as a person are a structure, or that you can assume that
> temporarily for the purpose of argument. You as a person can be
> consistent in what you say, can you not? Given certain assumptions
> (axioms) and inference rules you can be consistent or inconsistent in
> what you say.

Depending on your definition of consistent and inconsistent, there need not be any axioms or inference rules at all. If I say "I'm married and I'm not married." then I've said something inconsistent - regardless of axioms or rules. But *I'm* not inconsistent - just what I've said is.

> I'm not saying the what you say is all there is to who
> you are. Actually this illustrates what I was saying before about the
> need for a "reference frame" to talk about consistency, e.g. "what you
> say, given your currently held axioms and rules".

If you have axioms and rules and you can infer "X and not-X" then the axioms+rules are inconsistent - but so what? Nothing of import about the universe follows.
 
> Another example would be an electric circuit: Given the structure of
> an electric circuit, and axioms and rules about electricity, we can
> predict what the output of the circuit will be. If we go through a
> different sequence of contortions/calculations with that same
> structure, axioms and rules, and get a different output value, then the
> axioms, rules *together with the structure* are inconsistent.

The structure can't be inconsistent - it's not a statement or proposition.

Brent Meeker


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Received on Thu Oct 26 2006 - 23:22:01 PDT

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