Re: Introduction (Digital Physics)

From: Joel Dobrzelewski <dobrzele.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2001 08:24:24 -0400

Fred:
> Perhaps you are saying all worlds have some commonality eventually?
> Such as the program you mention below?

Yes, I suppose so.

If you'd like something to visualize... Imagine a huuuge "Game of Life"
grid. Some regions of space will contain worlds that are relatively
self-contained for long periods of time - being located very far from other
goings-on in other parts of the grid. But eventually, maybe after such a
region has mostly died out, some of the gliders and such that were generated
in the localized region will travel and reach other regions of space where
other local worlds exist. That's where they interact. But like I said,
this might be totally out of view of any observers in the first world.

> Sounds like you are going after some magic program that generates
> all possible programs.

Yes. And, perhaps surprisingly, it might not be that hard to do.

Others here have mentioned various Turing Machines that will do the same
thing, and (if I understand it correctly) the Universal Dovetailer qualifies
as well. And while these are perfectly acceptable programs, we (my friend
Plamen and I) try to make some arguments for the slight preference of
cellular automata over the others. (See my arguments in my next reply to
Bruno.)

> Would this program be a logical necessity in and of itself? That is,
> must it necessarily exist? Or would it just happen to exist?

I can't think of any reason to justify the existence of the program itself.
This is the classic question: "Why does anything exit at all?" To that
question, I can imagine no reasonable answer.

But since we are here to discuss things, we can only conclude: something
exists.

And let me say this...

No matter what you experience, no matter what you see -- this program can
account for it.

Joel
Received on Fri Jun 29 2001 - 05:25:04 PDT