I don`t know the computation, but for sure that will you have the option of
running it on Linux or Windows

2015-08-26 9:21 GMT+02:00 Peter Sas <peterjacco...@gmail.com>:

> Hi guys and girls,
>
> I'm sure this question has already come up many times before, but it's an
> important one, so I guess it can't do any harm to go over it again.
>
> If the universe is thoroughly computational, what are the computations
> 'running' on? What I especially like to know is what options are discussed
> in digital physics. So far I have encountered only the following
> possibilities:
>
> (1) Mathematical platonism: all natural numbers, and all mappings between
> them (i.e. all algorithms), simply exist in 'Plato's heaven', including
> those algorithms that compute our universe. The simple non-spatiotemporal
> existence of those algorithms is enough to 'instantiate' a spatiotemporal
> world. This type of solution can be found in Tipler, Tegmark and our own
> Bruno Marchal. Major problem: the hard problem of consciousness.
>
> (2) Simulation by an advanced civilization: Our universe is simulated on a
> physical computer build by a superior intelligence. Nick Bolstrom has
> explored this option and found it quite probable. I don't know about that,
> but as a general approach to digital physics it fails. If we want to
> understand the physical universe in terms of computation then it is
> circular to postulate a physical hardware on which the computations are
> running.
>
> (3) Or perhaps it is not circular? This third option sees the physical
> universe itself as a (quantum) computer (or cellular automaton) computing
> its own future. Thus its present state is the input and the temporally next
> state is the output. Isn't this how David Deutsch approaches it? I am not
> very clear on this option. The major problem seems to be that you have to
> presuppose an initial state of the universe that itself is not the result
> of computation, just to avoid an infinite regress. Or you accept the
> regress and say the universe exists eternally (but this is problematic in
> light of the big bang). But then you still have to explain why the universe
> exists eternally. And then the explanation must still fall outside the
> computations going on in the universe...
>
> (4) The computations that yield our universe run on a platform that exists
> somewhere else, in another dimension that is principally inaccessible to
> us. Ed Fredkin has embraced this 'solution' and calls this other dimension
> simply "the Other" which has a theological ring to it. I don't like this
> option, but it seems to be the most straightforward one.
>
> Any thoughts or corrections? Are there some options I haven't discussed.
>
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-- 
Alberto.

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