From: Cliff Stabbert (cps46@earthlink.net)
Date: Tue Jul 09 2002 - 07:06:39 MDT
Tuesday, July 9, 2002, 6:04:28 AM, Samantha Atkins wrote:
SA> Cliff Stabbert wrote:
>> Tuesday, July 9, 2002, 12:27:01 AM, Tomaz Kristan wrote:
>> Again...so you say. Do you have any argument for this? Isn't there
>> an infinity of states even one atom or molecule can be in, let alone
>> the number that make up a human body?
>>
SA> Certainly not. An atom can only be in a one basic state, the
SA> one that defines that atomic element, plus, for some, a few
SA> isotopes and such. Not an infinite number of states.
Sorry, I'm no physicist so I may be using the wrong terminology. I'm
including things such as position and velocity in "state", i.e.
all the information about each atom a physics based simulation would
need. The /amount of information/ isn't infinite, but AFAIK the
/number of possible states/ (in my sense) is.
SA> Now the set of all possible states of all matter in
SA> the universe is argumably a different order of infinity than,
SA> say, the integers. It is not countable. Does that mean the
SA> universe is not computable? No.
Computability is not the issue here, just whether the list of all
possible medical conditions and the list of all possible first aid
actions are finite or infinite. Tomaz claims they're finite, which is
necessary to be able to generate prioritized lists in finite time
(unless, perhaps, you've already reached the Singularity, but then
the whole question is moot).
-- Cliff
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