On Friday, 5 August 2016, Bruno Marchal <marc...@ulb.ac.be> wrote: > > On 05 Aug 2016, at 06:27, Brent Meeker wrote: > > > > On 8/4/2016 7:40 PM, Stathis Papaioannou wrote: > > > > On 5 August 2016 at 04:01, Brent Meeker <meeke...@verizon.net > <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','meeke...@verizon.net');>> wrote: > >> >> >> On 8/4/2016 2:57 AM, Stathis Papaioannou wrote: >> >> The problem with (3) is a general problem with multiverses. A single, >> infinite universe is an example of a multiverse theory, since there will be >> infinite copies of everything and every possible variation of everything, >> including your brain and your mind. >> >> >> That implicitly assumes a digital universe, yet the theory that suggests >> it, quantum mechanics, is based on continua; which is why I don't take "the >> multiverse" too seriously. >> > > It appears that our brains are finite state machines. Each neuron can > either be "on" or "off", there are a finite number of neurons, so a finite > number of possible brain states, and a finite number of possible mental > states. This is analogous to a digital computer: > > > Not necessarily. A digital computer also requires that time be digitized > so that its registers run synchronously. Otherwise "the state" is ill > defined. The finite speed of light means that spacially separated regions > cannot be synchronous. Even if neurons were only ON or OFF, which they > aren't, they have frequency modulation, they are not synchronous. > > > Synchronous digital machine can emulate asynchronous digital machine, and > that is all what is needed for the reasoning. > > Bruno > > > > > even if you postulate that electric circuit variables are continuous, > transistors can only be on or off. If the number of possible mental states > is finite, then in an infinite universe, whether continuous or discrete, > mental states will repeat. > >> We live in an orderly world with consistent physical laws. It seems to me >> that you are suggesting that if everything possible existed then we would >> not live in such an orderly world, >> >> >> Unless the worlds were separated in some way, which current physical >> theories provide - but which is not explicable if you divorce conscious >> thoughts from physics. >> > > The worlds are physically separated - there can be no communication > between separate worlds in the multiverse and none between sufficiently > widely separated copies of subsets of the world in an infinite single > universe. But the separate copies are connected insofar as they share > memories and sense of identity, even if there is no causal connection > between them. > > > Of course "copy" implies a shared past in which there was an "original", > they have a cause in common. > > Brent > > A copy can be prepared using the original as template but it can also be prepared by exhaustively enumerating every possible variant of an entity, in which case there is no causal link.
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