"Hal Finney" wrote:
> The first is that numbers are really far more complex than they seem.
> When we think of numbers, we tend to think of simple ones, like 2, or 7.
> But they are not really typical of numbers. Even restricting ourselves to
> the integers, the information content of the "average" number is enormous;
> by some reasoning, infinite. Most numbers are a lot bigger than 2 or 7!
> They are big enough to hold all of the information in our whole universe;
> indeed, all of the information in virtually every possible variant of our
> universe. A single number can (in some sense) hold this much information.
How ? Surely this claim needs justification!
> On the one hand, we know that the universe is dynamic and ever-changing.
> On the other, the four-dimensional block universe is a static object.
> The apparent dynamism is seen as something of an illusion. There is
> no actual passage of time, rather all moments coexist. The future and
> the past are merely relative directions like north or south, relative
> to some observer.
>
> The block universe (or spacetime) is not the only way to look at things,
> but it is one valid way,
I don't see why it should be *as* valid as views that account for
dynamisn, even as a subjective phenomenon. The more a theory
explains, the better it is.
> and it illustrates that even within a static
> object (the block universe) there may be the perception of dynamism from
> the inside.
How? No-one ever explains this.
> The point is, then, that conceivably a seemingly "static"
> number of sufficient complexity could have similar internal dynamism.
How ? Why should piling on more static structure lead to dynamism ?
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Received on Fri Mar 17 2006 - 10:44:22 PST