Stathis Papaioannou wrote: > 2009/1/6 Abram Demski <abramdem...@gmail.com>: >> Thomas, >> >> If time is merely an additional space dimension, why do we experience >> "moving" in it always and only in one direction? Why do we remember >> the past and not the future? Could a being move in some spatial >> dimension in the same way we move through time, and in doing so treat >> time more like we treat space? Et cetera. > > You could model a block universe as a big stack of Life boards, where > the time dimension is represented by the spatial displacement between > the boards. There's no way the observers in such an arrangement can > step out of one board onto another, backwards or out of sequence. Some > would say that the stack of boards does not count as a computation, > and others that even if it counts as a computation it doesn't count as > a conscious computation; that to reach such states you need causality > and for causality you need fundamentally real time, not block > pseudo-time. I don't see any justification for such claims beyond a > desire to preserve the magic in the world.
If you don't require causality or something else that provides a continuum topology then the boards can be infinitesimally thin and without any intrinsic order. That would mean that a single "board", by itself (a "state" in machine terminology) would have to count as a computation. That's why Bruno insists on a digital structure, but even in his model there is the UD running in the background and providing an order. Brent --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-l...@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
