A universe where the laws of physics are constant across space and time is simpler than one where it is not, and therefore more likely by Occam's Razor.
On Sun, Feb 9, 2020, 10:18 PM TimTyler <t...@tt1.org> wrote: > On 2020-02-07 19:30:PM, Matt Mahoney wrote: > > On Fri, Feb 7, 2020, 7:22 AM TimTyler <t...@tt1.org> wrote: > >> We don't know that "Occam's Razor drives physics". That's a hypothesis, >> and >> >> while we can't get out of our local region and escape from what appear to >> be >> >> our physical laws, it is an untestable one, and so is of little interest. >> > If Occam's Razor were false, then by the no free lunch theorem we could > not know anything at all. > > That assumes that Occam's razor represents the only possible > > deviation from pure ignorance we know about. However, > > that is fairly evidently not the case. In addition to a preference > > for simplicty, the universe we observe is regular in space > > and time - there appears to be a "uniformity of nature" where > > there are a bunch of space/time invariants which we call: > > physical laws. What has happened in the past is a guide to > > the future, and what happens in one place is a guide to > > what happens in other places. These regularities are > > largely independent of Occam's razor. They permit > > inductive inference to work. > > > Occam's razor represents one of many possible priors > > that can be used with an inductive inference framework. > > However, the uniformity of nature is why we can use > > inductive inference at all. > > -- > __________ > |im |yler http://timtyler.org/ > > > *Artificial General Intelligence List <https://agi.topicbox.com/latest>* > / AGI / see discussions <https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi> + > participants <https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/members> + delivery > options <https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/subscription> Permalink > <https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/T9709eebb88dd292b-M019019811696f13ede1fd9e4> > ------------------------------------------ Artificial General Intelligence List: AGI Permalink: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/T9709eebb88dd292b-Mbb74305c2ad3b64c61ee3b2e Delivery options: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/subscription
