Re: Predictions & duplications

From: Juho Pennanen <juho.pennanen.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 14:30:47 +0300 (EEST)

Juergen writes
> But there is no uniform prior over all programs!
> Just like there is no uniform prior over the integers.
> To see this, just try to write one down.

This is of course true (if uniform measure is a
measure that gives the same, non-zero, probability
for each program. I got no idea what's the official
definition).

OTOH, There's of course the natural product measure over
the set of all infinite strings. In my last post I
tried to show that this is enough. I admit now I was
cutting much too many corners. It is not even obvious
that the set of all programs that produce a specific
conscious experience is measurable. And even if it
was, it now seems obvious to me that random
programs produce random worlds.

So some kind of 'resource limitation' must exist.
One option would be to accept only programs that
are shorter than some maximum length. This corresponds
to only accepting worlds that have complexity lower
than some maximum. But this is one type of
'resource limitation' and in fact a very unelegant
one.

Juho
Received on Mon Oct 15 2001 - 04:34:30 PDT