From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Tue May 21 2002 - 19:36:35 MDT
On Tue, 21 May 2002, Hal Finney wrote:
> It's not clear that you can "really" live without infinite memory.
> (To clarify, "memory" here does not mean memories of the past, but rather
> hardware that can take on various states, like computer memory chips.)
Hmmm.... The presumption seems that one can "occupy" all of the states
of the available memory (and do something useful from that state).
> Are you really alive if you are repeating the same thoughts over and over,
> unto infinity? What is the difference between living your life once and
> living it an infinite number of times? You can't tell any difference.
>From a local frame of reference, if I don't know I have previously
lived it, living it again isn't much of a problem (it might not
be extropic, but I wouldn't notice that fact).
Re: living lives over and over again:
> This would not be a source of comfort for me.
No argument (if you knew it were taking place). But if its just
something you suspect then the best approach may be "byegones".
> For life truly to exist forever, it must be possible to explore an
> infinite number of states. And unfortunately, that requires infinite
> memory.
I'd disagree. Life exists whether or not the states are different.
Argue your premise with the birds that are nesting in my roof for
the 5th year in a row.... Its impossible to explore an infinite
number of states. Its even pointless -- most of those states do
not produce anything that can be considered useful (at least from
an extropic perspective). Further, "life", at least as it currently
exists, is generally more comfortable exploring "previous states" because
they tend to have the best survival prospects. What is difficult is
getting individuals to explore unexplored states. Limited memory
might actually be quite useful because it would level the playing
field between explored and unexplored states and the lack of bias
between the two would tend to promote an equal exploration of both.
Robert
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