From: Stathis Papaioannou (stathisp@gmail.com)
Date: Thu Mar 01 2007 - 19:10:38 MST
There is the only-slightly-crazier question of whether a physical computer
is needed at all. It would neatly explain everything, dispensing with such
questions as why does anything exist, if we accept that physical reality and
mathematical reality, sometimes called the Plenitude or Platonia, are one
and the same.
BTW, an 8086 can simulate anything that is computable, given a long enough
time. An infinite physical computer could exist if time is infinite or if a
way could be found to fit infinite computations into finite time, as per
Tipler's Omega Point scenario. Then there is the elusive definition of what
counts as a computation, or equivalently what counts as a physical
implementation of a particular abstract machine. You could map any
computation to the null state; of course, all the "work" of the computation
would be in the mapping, but the mapping does not have to be made explicit.
This is effectively the same result as above: all computations are
necessarily implemented by virtue of their status as mathematical objects in
the Plenitude, and the anthropic principle explains why we find ourselves in
one of those computations which give rise to observers.
Stathis Papaioannou
On 3/2/07, Mohsen Ravanbakhsh <ravanbakhsh@gmail.com> wrote:
> The story was amazing.
>
> *"...This means that if an infinite computer exists anywhere, almost
> certainly we are being emulated on it now."
> *
> *Is there any proof that constructing such a computer is impossible?*
> *Because it seems impossible... it's a matter of decision with quantum
> computers, since the universe would be a more powerfull quantum computer.
> *
> *It's like trying to simulate a blue-gene on a 8086!*
> * *
> Mohsen
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Jul 17 2013 - 04:00:57 MDT