On 2/24/07, Mark Peaty <mpeaty.domain.name.hidden> wrote:
Jason: "Quantum mechanics makes the universe seem random and uncomputable to
>
> those inside it, but according to the many-worlds interpretation the
> universe evolves deterministically. It is only the observers within
> the quantum mechanical universe that perceive the randomness and
> unpredictability, but this unpredictability doesn't exist at the higher
> level where the universe is being simulated (assuming many-worlds). "
>
> MP: I don't think I can accept this. Maybe I sound arrogant in saying
> this, but I think the idea of simulation is used a bit too loosely. I know
> there are those lurking on the Mind & Brain list and JCS-online who would
> say I am 'the pot calling the kettle black', because I am always asserting
> what I call UMSITW [pronounced um-see-two for English speakers] - updating
> the model of self in the world - is the basis of consciousness. But they
> misunderstand me, because I do not say there is anyone else doing
> simulation, merely that we experience being here because the universe has
> evolved self sustaining regions within itself which maintain their structure
> by means of dynamically modelling themselves and their local region so as to
> avoid fatal dangers while obtaining everything they need from their
> environments. My point here is simply that the universe is its own best
> simulation and that any ideas of something greater, such as a Matrix type
> operation, are science fiction only. Why? Because for a feasible universe
> like the one we seem to inhabit to be deterministic does not require that it
> is predictable nor that it can be repeatable. Nobody knows to what extent
> quantum level events are intrinsically random as opposed to being _pushed
> from 'behind' or 'below'_ so to speak.
>
Whether the world can be simulated and whether the world is being simulated
are two different questions. Can you point to any aspect of the world which
can't be simulated no matter how powerful the computer?
Stathis Papaioannou
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group.
To post to this group, send email to everything-list.domain.name.hidden
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list-unsubscribe.domain.name.hidden
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
Received on Sat Feb 24 2007 - 04:59:27 PST