Wei and Brent:
considering Wei's Q#1 and 2 the thought occurred to me
(being almost a virgin in thinking in mathematical
constructs) that this looks as an even harder problem
than Chalmers's famous neurological "hard problem".
For me, at least.
With the Q#3 I would ask "who is I?" Mathematically of
course. Otherwise we don't know. That would require a
mix of 1st and 3rd person notions which is confusing.
Same with Q#4.
A dilemma of a subset like: validity of a legal
position" is easier, because it is only 3rd person
related (except for an inclusion of "my opinion" into
it.
So I can't wait for a solution to Brent's addition:
"how to formulate such meanings in math constructs?"
Especially in self reference to the formulator "I".
Physical existence (for me) is no more plausible than
a mathematical existence: both are figments of the
mind upon (maybe poorly perceived) impacts we can use
only as interpreted for ourselves.
John M
--- Wei Dai <weidai.domain.name.hidden> wrote:
>
> Is there a difference between physical existence and
> mathematical existence?
> I suggest thinking about this problem from a
> different angle.
>
> Consider a mathematical substructure as a rational
> decision maker. It seems
> to me that making a decision ideally would consist
> of the following steps:
>
> 1. Identify the mathematical structure that
> corresponds to "me" (i.e., my
> current observer-moment)
> 2. Identify the mathematical structures that contain
> me as substructures.
> 3. Decide which of those I care about.
> 4. For each option I have, and each mathematical
> structure (containing me)
> that I care about, deduce the consequences on that
> structure of me taking
> that option.
> 5. Find the set of consequences that I prefer
> overall, and take the option
> that corresponds to it.
>
> Of course each of these steps may be dauntingly
> difficult, maybe even
> impossible for natural human beings, but does anyone
> disagree that this is
> the ideal of rationality that an AI, or perhaps a
> computationally augmented
> human being, should strive for?
>
> How would a difference between physical existence
> and mathematical
> existence, if there is one, affect this ideal of
> decision making? It's a
> rhetorical question because I don't think that it
> would. One possible answer
> may be that a rational decision maker in step 3
> would decide to only care
> about those structures that have physical existence.
> But among the
> structures that contain him as substructures, how
> would he know which ones
> have physical existence, and which one only have
> mathematical existence? And
> even if he could somehow find out, I don't see any
> reason why he must not
> care about those structures that only have
> mathematical existence.
>
>
>
>
>
>
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group.
To post to this group, send email to everything-list.domain.name.hidden
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list-unsubscribe.domain.name.hidden
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
Received on Wed Mar 29 2006 - 18:30:08 PST