From: Smigrodzki, Rafal (SmigrodzkiR@msx.upmc.edu)
Date: Wed Jun 19 2002 - 08:48:54 MDT
Lee Corbin [mailto:lcorbin@tsoft.com]
For me, since no information flows
between dead and passive structures, they're not alive. But apparently
for you, Rafal, and perhaps Mike, they are. (To be fair to Greg Egan,
he stated in an interview that he doesn't necessarily buy the ideas in
Permutation City.)
### Just to clarify - as I wrote before, in my fuzzy imagination only the
mathematical structures on the "edge" of mathematics are capable of
conscious experience. I agree with you that static structures are not alive.
Imagine the following continuum:
Nothing=the empty set= the Beginning --> simple sets(by a Shannon procedure
from the empty set) --> more complex math --> math too complex to fit into
your mind --> math too complex to fit into the best computer you could build
here --> lots and lots of steps, branching into the craziest math you can't
even imagine --> the structure describing the initial condition of the
multiverse = the beginning of physics = the Word (as a theist would
interject here) --> evolution of the math-that-is-physics --> some
structures achieve consciousness as an unavoidable attribute of certain
mathematical transformations --> simplest math recreated in conscious
structures (we are here) --> lots of steps --> the initial condition of the
universe can be examined and a simulation is run (but the simulation is
always much simpler than the math-that-is-physics supporting the simulation)
--> on and on, forever bigger and more complex
The alternative is that we are in the simulation run but at any case we are
at today's edge of math=physics.
It starts with nothing, encompasses mathematics, smoothly continues, morphs
into physics, and provides the ultimate answer to ontology, as well as the
elucidation of the mystery of consciousness. Come listen to the Master!
OK, I admit it, I have a little bit of a mystic in me, but I am not serious
about it.
Rafal
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:14:54 MST