2008/9/10 nichomachus <Steven.Payne.Long.domain.name.hidden>:
> But what I wonder about is the implication that the physics of the
> universe are themselves unfolding in a computation of some sort. I
> mean, I agree with this idea, with this model of thinking about
> physics. But I am afraid the analogy breaks down, because I am unsure
> how we can know anything about the direction in which this presumed
> computation is occurring relative to our experience of time. We all
> know that the fundamental laws of physics are time reversible. How can
> someone living in the universe tell which direction the underlying
> program is executing in relative to the evolution of the universe in
> the up entropy direction. Perhaps, for all we know, the direction of
> computation is counter to the direction in which we seem to experience
> time. Perhaps it is in some orthogonal direction. Is there any way to
> tell? Maybe not, until we can finally understand the most fundamental
> physical laws governing our existence.
We can't actually know what relationship subjective time has to
machine time: whether the machine implementing our consciousness is
running faster or slower, whether it stops completely for aeons then
restarts, whether the moments of our lives are run in reverse order or
all jumbled up, it will all seem the same to us, because there isn't a
little window in our peripheral vision showing what's going on in the
"real" world.
--
Stathis Papaioannou
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Received on Wed Sep 10 2008 - 01:43:31 PDT