On 15 Oct 2012, at 18:25, John Mikes wrote:
Thanks for a detailed inquisition upon my post.
It did not convince me.
#1: you postulate to ACCEPT your condition to begin with.
I don't. ("once you agree").
That contradicts what is meant usually by "a postulate". You put too
much in the term "accept". It is always "for the sake of the
argument". It does not mean you accept it as a truth.
#2: Sorry for 'the inside': I meant 'of the change', - while you
meant - of myself.
#3: Arithmetical reality is a figment, just like the physical. I
don't agree in adding and substracting as fundamental in nature's
doings: it may be fundamental in HUMAN thinking.
It means that you believe that the comp theory is false, as this is a
consequence of it.
But I don't know if comp is true or false. I don't do philosophy, as
it is not my job.
#4: Your arguments seem to be from the INSIDE of the box - just like
those for other religions - no addition form the outside which comes
only afterwards (once you agreed).
Which outside? It seems that you add a postulate, which might be
consistent or not with the theory, but you can't use it to invalidate
the reasoning *in * a theory.
#5: Agreeing - turning into 'disagreeing' once you change your
belief in a theory? I think a theory is not the BASIS ; it is the
upper mount sitting ON the basis.
It is the basis of the theory, at least. Of course it is not the basis
of the reality targeted by the theory.
#6: "I can always imagine other theories and that they may be
correct" - so you can ALWAYS disagree?
Of course. We just don't know the truth, and we can always abandon a
theory. But that is why we have to study them: to find the flaws.
#7: To progress in "ONE" theory is not the goal. To progress in the
least controversial one may be.
Sure. If there is one.
#8: Is Universal Machine COMPUTING, or COMPUTABLE?
I thought the first one.
What she does is computing, what she can do is computable, in the
large sense which includes the fact that she might not stop, so that
we cannot know what she is computing.
Bruno
John M
On Sun, Oct 14, 2012 at 5:03 AM, Bruno Marchal <marc...@ulb.ac.be>
wrote:
On 09 Aug 2012, at 23:48, John Mikes wrote:
Let me try to shorten the maze and copy only whatever I want to
reflect to. Sorry if it causes hardship - JM
-------------
On Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 8:30 AM, Bruno Marchal <marc...@ulb.ac.be>
wrote:
On 08 Aug 2012, at 23:00, John Mikes wrote:
On Wed, Aug 8, 2012 at 1:06 PM, Bruno Marchal <marc...@ulb.ac.be>
wrote:
On 08 Aug 2012, at 00:18, John Mikes wrote:
....how can a machine (Loebian?) be curious? or unsatisfied?
Universal machine are confronted with many problems....
The Löbian machine knows that she is universal, and so can grasp
the preceding paragraph, and get in that way even much more
questions, and she can discover even more sharply her abyssal
ignorance. Löbianity is the step where the universal machine knows
that whatever she could know more, that will only make her more
ignorant with respect to the unknown. Yet, the machine at that
stage can also intuit more and more the reason and necessity of
that ignorance, and with comp, study the approximate mathematical
description of parts of it.
JM: looks to me that Univ. Mach. is a fictional charater like
Alice in Wunderland, equipped with whatever you need to make it
work. Like (my) infinite complexity.
The difference is that once you agree on addition and
multiplication, you can prove the existence of universal machine,
and you can bet that you can implement them in the physical
reality, as our concrete physical personal computer, and cells,
brain etc, illustrate.
JM: don't you see the weak point in your
"once you agree"?
I don't know what to agree in (agnosticism) so NO PROOF
- What our 'cells, brain etc. illustrate' is (our?) figment.
OK. I use "agree" with a weaker sense than you. Agreeing with x,
does not mean that we believe x is true, but that we conjecture it
when lacking other explanation or axiom, or for any other motivation.
Agreeing only means, in science, that we are willing to share some
hypothesis, for some time.
In science we only make clear some local momentary *belief*. We
never pretend something being true (only pseudo-scientist, or pseudo-
religious people do that).
BM: I think that change is an experience from inside. It follows, I
think, from the hypothesis that we might survive through a computer
emulation (my working hypothesis).
JM: If I watch you to put on weight, I am not inside you.
OK, but I don't see the point.
And then there is nothing a universal machine can't be more in
love than ... another universal machine. And then the tendency to
reproduce and multiply, in many directions, that they inherit from
the numbers and which leads to even more complexity and life, I
would say.
The arithmetical reality is full of life, populated by many sorts
of universal numbers, with many possible sort of relations, and
this put a sort of mess in the antic Platonia, and leads to
transfinite unboundable complexity indeed.
Bruno
JM: I don't want to bore you by "where did that obscure "LIFE" come
from? What is it?" and how do you know what a universal (machine?
number?) thinks/feels/wants/kisses?
because you are ONE? OK, but not the only kind that may be, - I
suppose. Do you deny that there may be other kinds of universal
anythings? what do THEY love most?
I can always imagine other theories. And that they may be correct.
But we will not progress in one theory, if at each line of our
reasoning we propose a different theory.
Then, if we are machine, it can be explained why there is only one
kind of universal computable thing. Of course there will be many
universal non computable thing, like a universal machine + one
oracle. This is well known. Arithmetical truth is itself, in some
sense, a universal (and non computable) entity.
...But observable is an internal notion. Nobody can observe the
"Universe", by definition of "Universe". -- --??? -- ---
JM: You may argue that I am still within a larger 'inside'.
BM: Indeed. You see the point.
JM: but in such case I've changed the perspective and my
conclusions are not comparable. And about 'a' UNIVERSE?
In my narrative of a 'Bigbang' story I visualize unlimited number
and quality of universes. Some may be able to observe others. "We"
are too simplistic for that. And - our thinking is adjusted to such
simplicity, I am not proud to say so. Agnostic? Ignorant?
Science is agnostic and ignorant. With comp, it can lead only to
more agnosticism and ignorance. Science is only a lantern on the
infinite unknown, and the more we put light on it, the more we can
realize its bigness, and the amazingly shortness of our sight.
We do agree on this, and all universal machines looking inward, and
staying consistent in the process knows that.
Like I said, the comp theory assesses a lot of what you say, and
explains it also, in someway. This does *not* mean it is the correct
theory, as this we will never know.
Bruno
http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/
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