From: empresstheodora@juno.com
Date: Thu Jun 20 2002 - 01:46:02 MDT
---------- Mike Lorrey <mlorrey@datamann.com> writes:
From: Mike Lorrey <mlorrey@datamann.com>
To: extropians@extropy.org
Subject: Re: Nothing
Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 22:04:06 -0400
Hal Finney wrote:
>
> Lee writes:
> > We all know the basic difference, apparent every day of our lives,
> > between static representations and dynamically changing ones over
> > time. We never suppose a frozen state, or even a sequence of frozen
> > states, to be conscious or to be experiencing anything.
snip...
>
> Actually I was not claiming this, and I don't think my argument depends
> on it. My claim was only that computer programs and even executions of
> programs exist in the same abstract sense that numbers and geometric
> shape exists. I am undecided on the issue of whether "passive" data
> could have the same properties.
"I'm generally not. While a passive structure may contain the pattern of
a sentient being (as a dead body in cryostasis purportedly does as a
passive structure), that being, as a record is not necessarily concious
or alive. The record would need to be executing on some kernel
executable to gain life."
That would be agreeable if the reccord were indeed acurate.
>
> However I can make two arguments in favor of that idea, even though I am
> not fully persuaded by them. The first is to think of the universe as a
> four-dimensional space-time continuum. One of the ideas from relativity
> theory is that time is a fourth dimension. It is a little different
> from the other dimensions in that the metric in that direction has a
> minus sign. But conceptually you can still think of the entire history of
> the universe as a four-dimensional object. This object is, in a sense,
> "static", in that time is one of its internal dimensions and the object
> (the universe's history) does not change in some other kind of dynamic
> way. This view is sometimes called the "block universe" because we think
> of the history of the universe as a sort of solid, four-dimensional block.
>
> So, here is a structure which is (in a sense) static and yet it does
> contain conscious entities. So this might give us some reason to think
> that static entities can contain consciousness if they have the right
> kind of internal structure.
"Yes, exactly so. The difficulty being able to navigate in four
dimensions.... an exercise left for the reader."
Which might be impossible according to some theories I have heard in physics.
"Furthermore, a four dimensional record is to be considered a simulation.
A three dimensional record that remains static in the fourth dimension
is a database and not an executable. Four dimensionality should be
considered a necessary component of a simulation (using our physical
laws)."
If you mean time should pass I would agree. However just a spatial structure seems unlikely.
*****************
"The death of one man is a tragedy the death of a million is a statistic.
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