Re: Infinite computing

From: Stephen Paul King <stephenk1.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 15:21:30 -0500

Dear Jean-Michel and Hal,

    All good humor aside, Hal makes a good point! The conditions that would
exist as one approaches the event horizon seem to be such that any signal
would be randomized such that the end result would be that Nature prevents
infinite information (or conclusions requiring infinite computational power)
from reaching any finite part of itself.
    Interestingly this seems to be the same situation as what forms an event
horizon (around a space-time singularity) in the first place. Could it be
that this is an active example of the so-called anthropic principle? It also
reminds me of a solution to the Quantum Suicide problem!

Kindest regards,

Stephen

----- Original Message -----
From: "Hal Finney" <hal.domain.name.hidden>
To: <everything-list.domain.name.hidden>; <veuillen.domain.name.hidden.fr>
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 12:19 PM
Subject: Re: Infinite computing: A paper


> Jean-Michel Veuillen writes:
> > There are other possibilities to obtain hypercomputers or Infinite Time
> > Turing Machines:
> >
> > For instance, from general relativity: put a computer in orbit around a
> > black hole,
> > start an infinite computation on it, arrange that the results are sent
to
> > you by radio,
> > and jump into the black hole:
> > when you reach the horizon, you get the result of the infinite
computation
> > (and witness the end of the rest of the universe).
> >
> > For a survey: arxiv.org/pdf/math.LO/0209332
>
> ...and burn to death as infinite amounts of radiation fall on you in a
> finite time?
>
> Maybe the universe is like a character from a spy novel: it could tell
> us what it knows (solving the halting problem, etc.), but then it has
> to kill us.
>
> Hal F.
>
>
Received on Mon Feb 10 2003 - 15:24:23 PST