Re: Universes infinite in time

From: Bruno Marchal <marchal.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Thu, 9 Jan 2003 11:47:58 +0100

At 16:07 -0800 8/01/2003, Hal Finney wrote:

>The interesting aspect from this list's perspective is how to regard
>infinite-time cosmologies. Does it make sense to imagine a universe
>which has had an infinite past? How could we simulate that on a computer,
>if there were no starting point?

We certainly cannot simulate a 3-person infinite past history.
But imagine we simulate a society-world of researchers in a computer, and
that we would like those researchers never guess anything about
our own reality level. Now, the computer is locally finite (i.e.
at each time it is finite but it is capable to grow indefinitely)
so that those researchers, experimenting their reality, will
find little local inconsistencies. For example they will correctly
infer some standard model particle theory from they high level
experimentations, but as soon they will build particle accelerator
to verify their theories, discrepancies will appear (just because
we have not simulate the society-world at such a detailed level.
So now those researchers can infer that they are simulated at some
different reality level. But this is what we don't want. So let us
add a subroutine which observes the researchers, and each time
reserachers find (serious) discrepancies, the subroutine freezes
the researchers and refines their level of reality.
Now, it is quite logically possible that the refining need not only
to add sub-particles, but need to add past further "past-interactions".
So, although that past is generated, little by little, in the 3-future,
it will happen that from the 1-perspective of the simulated researchers
their stories will look as if they are infinite in their past.
Is not UD* like that? Open problem. But quite possible once we
distinguish the 1-time of the simulated people and the "3-time"
describing the definite steps of the UD in Platonia.


Bruno
Received on Thu Jan 09 2003 - 05:48:27 PST