Re: Observer-Moment Measure from Universe Measure

From: Saibal Mitra <smitra.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2005 15:32:31 +0200

----- Original Message -----
From: ""Hal Finney"" <hal.domain.name.hidden>
To: <everything-list.domain.name.hidden>
Sent: Friday, June 03, 2005 08:10 PM
Subject: Observer-Moment Measure from Universe Measure


> To apply Wei's method, first we need to get serious about what is an OM.
> We need a formal model and description of a particular OM. Consider, for
> example, someone's brain when he is having a particular experience. He is
> eating chocolate ice cream while listening to Beethoven's 5th symphony,
> on his 30th birthday. Imagine that we could scan his brain with advanced
> technology and record his neural activity. Imagine further that with the
> aid of an advanced brain model we are able to prune out the unnecessary
> information and distill this to the essence of the experience. We come
> up with a pattern that represents that observer moment. Any system which
> instantiates that pattern genuinely creates an experience of that observer
> moment. This pattern is something that can be specified, recorded and
> written down in some form. It probably involves a huge volume of data.
>
> So, now that we have a handle on what a particular OM is, we can more
> reasonably ask whether a universe instantiates it.


Wouldn't it be better to think of OMs as programs just like we think of
universes? If you only look at patterns then you get the problem which you
later mention like crystals that can represent an OM of a person etc. The
patterns one is looking for should be capable of doing computations....


If I define OMs as a programs (in a particular computational state), then
that is the same as saying that OMs are universes in particular states. One
can then argue that these universes are very complex and have high measures
and are thus likely to be found embedded in simple, low measure, universes.
Then one can also address the problem of what qualia actually are. They are
'events' that occur in an OM's universe.


In case of persons one can think of the neural network formed by the brain.
The events that take place in the universe defined by the neural network are
the qualia we experience. So, I think that Wei's interpretation program has
to do more than just spot certain patterns localized in time.



Similarly if I simulate the solar system on a pc, then this defines a
universe in which an event could be that jupiter is at a certain position at
a certain time. To 'see' this in terms of the electrons moving through the
transistors one has to first 'see' the program. Seeing the program requires
one to study the way the object interacts with its environment which means
that you have to take it out of the universe and study how it behaves when
you expose it to alternative inputs.



Saibal
Received on Sun Jun 05 2005 - 09:44:36 PDT