Re: Introduction (Digital Physics)

From: Joel Dobrzelewski <dobrzele.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 08:22:11 -0400

Russell and Brent:

I understand this is an extreme position, but I state it this way on
purpose: to bring the issue to the foreground and get to the heart of the
problem of science today.

As long as we insist that continuous objects really exist - we will always
be fooling ourselves and forever chasing an unobtainable ghost.

Descriptions of continuous structures are only that - descriptions. And
they will *always* remain finite and discrete.

The symbol "PI" is a finite description for an infinite *process*.

No sheet of paper or gigabyte of RAM can contain PI.

And thus, any theory we create or program we write MUST truncate PI at come
point... otherwise we will forever be waiting for the theory to produce its
first result.

const PI = 3.1415926535

These descriptions are entirely misleading - only approximations - never
reality.

It would be better to do this...

const PI = 11101010000100010001111111100000111

But even this is wrong. To truly illustrate the point, we must do the
following...

function PI () as string
  do
     'calculate PI
  loop
end function

Does the function PI() ever return a value?

No.

It is not within our reach.

This is not proof that there is no continuum.

Only evidence that there can be no continuum FOR US.

For us, there can only be one infinite process in the Universe - the
universe itself.

The one calculation that never ceases... but always remains FINITE in extent
and always DISCRETE. Always calculating PI to ever more decimal places...

Joel
Received on Mon Jun 18 2001 - 05:19:46 PDT