>From: Russell Standish <R.Standish.domain.name.hidden>
>Yes it is true that a suitable many-worlds implies Occam (as per my
>paper of that title, for example). However, it is also true that the
>best reason for accepting an all universes hypothesis is the zero
>information principle - ie basically Occam's razor again. Whilst one
>might suspect a vicious circle here, I believe it's not. At very
>least, the theory is self-consistent, something I expect not to be
>true of any variant of Occam's razor.
Why wouldn't it be self-consistent?
However, it is not automatic that just because you believe in Occam's
razor (that the best theory is the simplest one), you also believe that it
is of practical use (that anthropic selection does not mean that you not
should expect to see something simple). That's where the Turing machine
argument and the rabbits come in.
BTW, I'm done teaching for the term so hopefully I'll have some time for
things like attacking your Occam paper. But I do have a lot of other stuff
to do.
- - - - - - -
Jacques Mallah (jackmallah.domain.name.hidden)
Physicist / Many Worlder / Devil's Advocate
"I know what no one else knows" - 'Runaway Train', Soul Asylum
My URL:
http://hammer.prohosting.com/~mathmind/
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Received on Sun Dec 17 2000 - 15:02:54 PST