Hi Russel,
Are you assuming non-well founded sets?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-well-founded_set_theory
Onward!
Stephen
----- Original Message -----
From: "Russell Standish" <lists.domain.name.hidden>
To: <everything-list.domain.name.hidden>
Sent: Saturday, November 18, 2006 3:12 AM
Subject: Re: UDA revisited
>
> On Sun, Nov 19, 2006 at 02:36:04PM +1100, Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
>>
>> But if a physical universe is needed to run the UD, without a physical
>> universe
>> there is no UD. It's a circular argument unless you have some other
>> argument
>> showing a computation can run without physical hardware.
>>
>> Stathis Papaioannou
>
> The argument is that its "turtles all the way down", or in other words
> that there is no first cause.
>
> It seems that there are three possibilities:
>
> 1. Causal chains are infinite and unbounded
> 2. Causal chains are infinite but bounded (the causal chain is
> circular).
> 3. Casual chains are finite and bounded (first cause is needed)
>
> Only in case 3 is a physical universe needed to run the UD. My
> personal taste is for case 2, but I doubt there is any way of
> empirically settling the matter, and many people find all 3 options
> distasteful.
>
> Cheers
>
> PS - I'll need to think a bit about Colin's post... :)
>
> --
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> A/Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
> Mathematics
> UNSW SYDNEY 2052 hpcoder.domain.name.hidden
> Australia http://www.hpcoders.com.au
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> >
>
>
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Received on Sat Nov 18 2006 - 23:19:33 PST