From: Thomas Buckner (tcbevolver@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Aug 12 2004 - 22:54:01 MDT
--- Eliezer Yudkowsky <sentience@pobox.com>
wrote:
> J. Andrew Rogers wrote:
> >
> > You can no more imagine a world where
> mathematics doesn't apply than you
> > can imagine the number pi.
>
> Why can I not imagine pi? Pi is a finite
> Turing machine, even if the
> decimal expansion is infinite. I'm an infinite
> set atheist, because no one
> has ever reliably reported the observation of
> an infinite set, despite
> occasional rumors. But I'm not a continuous
> space atheist or an irrational
> number atheist. I inhabit a continuous space,
> and irrational numbers such
> as pi play a role in physics. My infinite set
> atheism just implies that
> any physically real continuous distribution is
> finitely parameterizable,
> and the role of irrational numbers in physics
> doesn't change this.
>
> Now if you said that no one could imagine the
> sequence of digits in the
> decimal expansion of pi, I would agree.
Oddly, my browser crashes every time I try to
reply on this subject, so I am going to be very
brief. As I wrote at length, *before the dang
browser crashed!* I propose that
1. every discrete Tegmarkian universe can be
coded to an unique positive integer
2. every positive integer can be found somewhere
in the pi decimal
so 3. in principle, all possible universes could
be spit out from a running calculation of pi
4. note that the code for each person, and for
the mental processes of same, will form a
discrete chunk somewhere in the unique number of
a given universe, galaxy, planet, continent, etc.
also, screw Wolfram, he's ripping off others who
have had the same basic idea since 1967, but
yeah, it's all some sort of computer. All is
number, somehow.
It also follows that some sections of the decimal
code for universes where Singularity has
happened. Query: how would my code differ if I
were in such a universe? Answer: it would somehow
involve the ability to access more of the running
decimal, perhaps all... ?
Something very odd going on. It is as if I were
in a room with a hidden door, and if I were smart
enough to find it...
There's a lot more to it than that but I can't be
bothered at this moment to bang it all out again.
Tom Buckner
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