From: Ben Goertzel (ben@goertzel.org)
Date: Sun Apr 27 2003 - 07:24:22 MDT
> > If we literally can *never* affect or be affected by them, as a
> consequence
> > of physical law, then the aliens don't exist in the sense of "Peircean
> > pragmatist existence from our situated perspective", though
> they do exist in
> > Simon's sense of "logical possibility implies existence."
>
> Well, in the sense of producing tests that might falsify the "other
> universe" hypothesis, being able to mutually impact each other isn't
> needed. I'm not sure what "Peircean pragmatism" is so I can't say
> whether testable hypotheses are sufficient for its perspective...
>
> --
> Perry E. Metzger perry@piermont.com
Testable hypotheses are sufficient. Do you have in mind specific testable
hypotheses that could verify the existence of other universes, even if these
other universes can never affect nor by affected by events in our universe?
I don't understand how this is possible. It seems to me that it's a
contradiction in terms. If the existence of universe U is a testable
hypothesis, then testing the hypothesis will yield a result that will have
an effect in our universe (e.g. if the result is Yes it will cause you to
e-mail me and say "I told you so!"). So it seems to me that the existence
of such a testable hypothesis regarding universe U, implies that universe U
can have some effect on our universe.... But of course there is a different
between the fact of the existence of U having an effect, and specific events
within U having an effect on our universe. I guess you're saying it's
possible for us to verify the existence of U without being able to verify
the occurence of any particular events within U? I would love to hear
details, this sounds very weird, but weird doesn't equate to impossible of
course ;)
ben g
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