On Thu, Aug 22, 2013 Telmo Menezes <te...@telmomenezes.com> wrote: >> There are only 3 possibilities: >> 1) Our brains work by cause and effect processes; if so then the same >> thing >> can be done on a computer. >> 2) Our brains do NOT work by cause and effect processes; if so then they >> are random and the same thing can be done on a $20 hardware random number >> generator. >> 3) Sometimes our brains work by cause and effect processes and sometimes >> they don't; if so then they can be done on a computer and a a $20 >> hardware random number generator. > >
> There are many other conceivable options. Many? > > I'll try one. Not saying I believe in it, of course. My aim is to > demonstrate that you are not exhausting the possible scenarios: We live > inside a simulation created by ultra-intelligent beings in some external > universe. Then there are only 2 possibilities: 1) The ultra computer that simulates our world changes from one state to the other for a reason; if so then our simulated computers which change from one state to the other for a simulated reason can create a simulated simulated world that also looks real to its simulated simulated inhabitants. 2) The ultra computer that simulates our world changes from one state to the other for NO reason; if so then its random and there's nothing very ultra about the machine. > In this scenario, comp is false as far as we're concerned. > Cannot comment, I don't know what "comp" is. > I agree with Quentin, btw: causality has nothing to do with computation. > Nothing? Then I don't know what you mean by computation. What causal thing can we do but a computer can't? It's true that Turing proved there are some real numbers, most of them in fact, that a computer could never find even if it had an infinite clock speed, but we can't find those numbers either. John K Clark -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
