No - I think in terms of ensembles of descriptions. Some of those
descriptions describe observers observing the descriptions. It then
becomes natural to ask what sort of description an observer might see,
given the description must describe the observer.
Turing machines don't have much to do with it, except that the
observers may or may not be Turing emulable. It doesn't actually make
much difference either way.
Cheers
On Mon, Nov 24, 2003 at 12:49:43PM +0800, David Barrett-Lennard wrote:
> Russell said...
>
> > In answer to the original question, I would conjecture that an
> > evolutionary process is the only process capable of generating
> > complexity. Since we need a certain amount of complexity to be
> > conscious, it follows that the simplest universes are ensembles of
> > possibilities, on which anthropic selection acts to generate the
> > needed complexity. Ensemble universes can only evolve by reversible
> > processes - otherwise possibilities are irretrievably lost over time.
>
> Do you think in terms of an ensemble of Turing machines, of which only a
> few emulate reversible processes?
>
> So do we have an irreversible computation on a Turing machine emulating
> a reversible computation for the universe emulating a brain doing an
> irreversible computation?
>
> - David
>
>
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A/Prof Russell Standish Director
High Performance Computing Support Unit, Phone 9385 6967, 8308 3119 (mobile)
UNSW SYDNEY 2052 Fax 9385 6965, 0425 253119 (")
Australia R.Standish.domain.name.hidden
Room 2075, Red Centre http://parallel.hpc.unsw.edu.au/rks
International prefix +612, Interstate prefix 02
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- application/pgp-signature attachment: stored
Received on Mon Nov 24 2003 - 00:16:59 PST