Re: Identity, copies, and survival [Was: Re: Immortality]

From: scerir (scerir@libero.it)
Date: Sat Dec 16 2000 - 06:57:26 MST


Ross A. Finlayson wrote:
"A symbolic expression that can be evaluated might represent
symbolically the end result of infinite iterations. For example,
a way to measure the area under a curve is to split it into infinite
subsections and measure each and sum the area of them,
another way is to integrate the function, a finite computation.
I guess this is to say that just because a process might be infinite,
our brains can still get a handle to it."

Your guess is interesting.
L.M. Krauss and G.D. Starkman wrote that:
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9902189
"We have shown that it is impossible to collect more than
a finite amount of any quantity that scales as the (scale-factor)^3 .
However, the entropy density of the universe scales in this fashion.
Thus, independent of issues of whether there is infinite information
in an infinite universe, it is impossible to collect more than a finite
amount. Effectively even an infinite universe allows only a finite
computational system. The picture we have painted here is not
optimistic. If, as the current evidence suggests, we live in a cosmological
constant dominated universe, the boundaries of empirical knowledge
will continue to decrease with time. The universe will become noticeably
less observable on a time-scale which is fathomable.
Moreover, in such a universe, the days - either literal or metaphorical -
are numbered for every civilization. More generally, perhaps surprisingly,
we find that eternal sentient material life is implausible in any universe.
The eternal expansion which Dyson found so appealing is a chimera."
Is it possible to collect the full amount of information? I hope so.
We can get deep informations, at least mathematically.
-scerir



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