Game of Life is an example 2D system capable of universal
computation. I'm not sure this implies consciousness is possible in
2D, but it needs to be considered.
I think Turing machines are impossible in 1D, however...
Cheers
On Fri, Nov 04, 2005 at 10:52:39PM -0500, Stephen Paul King wrote:
> Hi George,
>
> It seems to me that the notion of "storing" and communication 1 bit explicitly requires some form of stable structure over multiple queries. Does this not lead to the requirement of some form of physicality, a physicality that is epiphenomena at best in the ideal monism (everything is Numb3rs) theory?
>
> As to the question of the smallest dimension that can support life and consciousness; this has been considered by many people. My own ideas consider the smallest dimension that allows for the greatest diversity of forms, forms available to instantiate and represent ideal Forms. We find that in 3 dimensions there exists at least a countable infinity of topologically distinct objects that require non-trivial computational resources to sort and categorize.
>
> Onward!
>
> Stephen
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: George Levy
> To: Everything List
> Sent: Friday, November 04, 2005 6:17 PM
> Subject: Re: Let There Be Something
>
>
> I conjecture that if one can design physical laws for a universe capable of 1) supporting the NAND function 2) storing (locally) 1 bit, 3) transmitting 1 bit from one point to another point, then one could also generate a Turing machine in this universe which would then be capable of supporting machine duplication (life) and AI (consciousness.) The basic physical laws (TOE) in such a universe would be very simple. One would need 1) a logical law: NAND; 2) a state law to allow the existence of "states"; and a concept of extension or space such that different states can exist at different locations and be transmitted from one location to another location.
>
> A related question is what is the smallest number of dimension for such a universe, that can support life and consciousness.
>
> George
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Received on Sat Nov 05 2005 - 04:20:33 PST