On 17 Jan 2009, at 04:10, fragamus (Michael Gough) wrote:
>
> I would like to ask the board:
>
> Are ALL possible quantum histories realized in the multiverse?
I would say yes. Even as the superposition states of the vacuum.
Note that all computational histories are in Arithmetic, or are
observed from inside Arithmetic.
>
>
> Is the number of possible histories infinite, or merely a
> fantastically large and growing number?
Assuming mechanism, I could argue for the cardinal of the continuum.
From observation, we can say nothing today, because the "number"
depends on the way we will combine General Relativity and Quantum
Mechanics. With superstring theories, (from what I understand of
course) I would say again the power of the continuum. But with the
competitor "loop gravity" a case can be made for finite (but rather
big) numbers (loop gravity quantized the whole space time, so
"physical reality" is discrete indeed).
>
>
> I don't like infinity so I'm hoping you say no.
Finite things are confronted to the infinity of possible finite
things, and when trying to grasp them, grasp also some infinite things
in the process, and it is hard for finite entities to separate finite
and infinite.
With Mechanism, we assume our finiteness, but this really makes the
infinities unavoidable, like in mathematics. At least the infinities
are "pure mind construct": ontologically, by assuming mechanism, we
don't need more than the finite numberS (note the "s"), and addition
and multiplication (which are already not entirely finitely
describable, except relatively to a universal machine).
Bruno
http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/
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Received on Sun Jan 18 2009 - 12:17:35 PST