Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-15 Thread Bruno Marchal


Le 13-juil.-07, à 20:03, Brent Meeker a écrit :


 Bruno Marchal wrote:

 Le 12-juil.-07, à 18:43, Brent Meeker a écrit :

 Bruno Marchal wrote:

 Le 09-juil.-07, à 17:41, Torgny Tholerus a écrit :
 ...
 Our universe is the result of some set of rules. The interesting
 thing is to discover the specific rules that span our universe.




 Assuming comp, I don't find plausible that our universe can be the
 result of some set of rules. Even without comp the arithmetical
 universe or arithmetical truth (the ONE attached to the little
 Peano
 Arithmetic Lobian machine) cannot be described by finite set of 
 rules.
 But it can be the result of a finite set of rules. Arithmetic
 results from Peano's axioms, but a complete description of arithmetic
 is impossible.


 I don't understand.

 Let us define ARITHMETIC (big case) by the set of true (first order
 logical) arithmetical sentences. (like prime number exist,
 Let us define arithmetic (lower case) by the set of provable (first
 order logical) arithmetical sentences, where provable means provable
 by some sound lobian machine.
 By incompleteness, whatever sound machine you consisder the
 corresponding arithmetic is always a proper subset of ARITHMETIC.

 So arithmetical truth (alias ARITHMETIC) cannot be described by any
 finite set of rules. Finite sets or rules can never generate the whole
 of arithmetical truth.

 OK?

 Bruno

 Yes, I understand.  But ARITHMETIC is generated by or results from 
 Peano's axioms - right?



Only a tiny part of ARITHMETIC (the set of all true arithmetical 
sentenses, or the set of their godel-number) is generated by the Peano 
Axioms.
Even ZF genererate a little tiny part (but bigger than PA) of 
ARITHMETIC.






 existence is a very very tricky notion. In the theory I am proposing
 (actually I derived it from the comp principle) the most basic notion
 of exists is remarkably well formalize by first order arithmetical
 logic, like in Ex(prime(x)):   it exists a prime number.

 But isn't this just an elaboration that obscures the prior assumption 
 that numbers exist?


I don't think so. This was clearly assumed at the start. Natural 
numbers are really something you cannot get from less. Actually in 
Peano you can prove the existence of each individual number by proving 
each formula like Ex(x=0), Ex(x = s(0)), Ex(x = s(s(0))) 


  If numbers don't exist then Ex(prime(x)) is false, or requires a 
 different interpretation of E.


Sure. (I am not sure where is your problem)



Bruno






http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/


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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-14 Thread Torgny Tholerus

Brent Meeker skrev:

 Torgny Tholerus wrote:

 That is exactly what I wanted to say.  You don't need to have a complete
 description of arithmetic.  Our universe can be described by doing a
 number of computations from a finite set of rules.  (To get to the
 current view of our universe you have to do about 10**60 computations
 for every point of space...)

 How did you arrive at that number?

It is the number of Planck times since the birth of Universe.  The age of
Universe is 13,7 billion years, number of seconds in a year is 31 million,
and the Planck time is 5,4 * 10**-44 seconds.  That gives 13,7*10**9 *
31*10**6 / (5,4*10**-44) = 8*10**60.

-- 
Torgny


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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-13 Thread Torgny Tholerus





Brent Meeker skrev:

  Bruno Marchal wrote:
  
  

Le 09-juil.-07,  17:41, Torgny Tholerus a crit :

  
  ...
  
  
Our universe is the result of some set of rules. The interesting
thing is to discover the specific rules that span our universe.




Assuming comp, I don't find plausible that "our universe" can be the 
result of some set of rules. Even without comp the "arithmetical 
universe" or arithmetical truth (the "ONE" attached to the little Peano 
Arithmetic Lobian machine) cannot be described by finite set of rules.

  
  
But it can be "the result of" a finite set of rules. Arithmetic results from Peano's axioms, but a complete description of arithmetic is impossible.
  

That is exactly what I wanted to say. You don't need to have a
complete description of arithmetic. Our universe can be described by
doing a number of computations from a finite set of rules. (To get to
the current view of our universe you have to do about 10**60
computations for every point of space...)

-- 
Torgny

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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-13 Thread Bruno Marchal


Le 12-juil.-07, à 18:43, Brent Meeker a écrit :


 Bruno Marchal wrote:


 Le 09-juil.-07, à 17:41, Torgny Tholerus a écrit :
 ...
 Our universe is the result of some set of rules. The interesting
 thing is to discover the specific rules that span our universe.




 Assuming comp, I don't find plausible that our universe can be the
 result of some set of rules. Even without comp the arithmetical
 universe or arithmetical truth (the ONE attached to the little 
 Peano
 Arithmetic Lobian machine) cannot be described by finite set of rules.

 But it can be the result of a finite set of rules. Arithmetic 
 results from Peano's axioms, but a complete description of arithmetic 
 is impossible.


I don't understand.

Let us define ARITHMETIC (big case) by the set of true (first order 
logical) arithmetical sentences. (like prime number exist,
Let us define arithmetic (lower case) by the set of provable (first 
order logical) arithmetical sentences, where provable means provable 
by some sound lobian machine.
By incompleteness, whatever sound machine you consisder the 
corresponding arithmetic is always a proper subset of ARITHMETIC.

So arithmetical truth (alias ARITHMETIC) cannot be described by any 
finite set of rules. Finite sets or rules can never generate the whole 
of arithmetical truth.

OK?

Bruno




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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-13 Thread Brent Meeker

Torgny Tholerus wrote:
 Brent Meeker skrev:
 Bruno Marchal wrote:
   
 Le 09-juil.-07, à 17:41, Torgny Tholerus a écrit :
 
 ...
   
 Our universe is the result of some set of rules. The interesting
 thing is to discover the specific rules that span our universe.




 Assuming comp, I don't find plausible that our universe can be the 
 result of some set of rules. Even without comp the arithmetical 
 universe or arithmetical truth (the ONE attached to the little Peano 
 Arithmetic Lobian machine) cannot be described by finite set of rules.
 

 But it can be the result of a finite set of rules. Arithmetic results from 
 Peano's axioms, but a complete description of arithmetic is impossible.
   
 That is exactly what I wanted to say.  You don't need to have a complete 
 description of arithmetic.  Our universe can be described by doing a 
 number of computations from a finite set of rules.  (To get to the 
 current view of our universe you have to do about 10**60 computations 
 for every point of space...)

How did you arrive at that number?

Brent Meeker

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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-13 Thread Brent Meeker

Bruno Marchal wrote:
 
 Le 12-juil.-07, à 18:43, Brent Meeker a écrit :
 
 Bruno Marchal wrote:

 Le 09-juil.-07, à 17:41, Torgny Tholerus a écrit :
 ...
 Our universe is the result of some set of rules. The interesting
 thing is to discover the specific rules that span our universe.




 Assuming comp, I don't find plausible that our universe can be the
 result of some set of rules. Even without comp the arithmetical
 universe or arithmetical truth (the ONE attached to the little 
 Peano
 Arithmetic Lobian machine) cannot be described by finite set of rules.
 But it can be the result of a finite set of rules. Arithmetic 
 results from Peano's axioms, but a complete description of arithmetic 
 is impossible.
 
 
 I don't understand.
 
 Let us define ARITHMETIC (big case) by the set of true (first order 
 logical) arithmetical sentences. (like prime number exist,
 Let us define arithmetic (lower case) by the set of provable (first 
 order logical) arithmetical sentences, where provable means provable 
 by some sound lobian machine.
 By incompleteness, whatever sound machine you consisder the 
 corresponding arithmetic is always a proper subset of ARITHMETIC.
 
 So arithmetical truth (alias ARITHMETIC) cannot be described by any 
 finite set of rules. Finite sets or rules can never generate the whole 
 of arithmetical truth.
 
 OK?
 
 Bruno

Yes, I understand.  But ARITHMETIC is generated by or results from Peano's 
axioms - right?

Brent Meeker  

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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-12 Thread Bruno Marchal

Le 09-juil.-07, à 17:41, Torgny Tholerus a écrit :



  Bruno Marchal skrev:Le 05-juil.-07, à 14:19, Torgny Tholerus wrote:

 David Nyman skrev:

 You have however drawn our attention to something very interesting 
 and
 important IMO.  This concerns the necessary entailment of 
 'existence'.

 1.  The relation 1+1=2 is always true.  It is true in all universes.
 Even if a universe does not contain any humans or any observers.  The
 truth of 1+1=2 is independent of all observers.

 I agree with you (despite a notion as universe is not primitive in 
 my
 opinion, unless you mean it a bit like the logician's notion of model
 perhaps). As David said, this is arithmetical realism.


  Yes, you can see a universe as the same thing as a model.

  When you have a (finite) set of rules, you will always get a universe 
 from that set of rules, by just applying those rules an unlimited 
 number of times.  And the result of these rules is existing, in the 
 same way as our universe is existing.





The problem here is that an effective syntactical description of a 
intended model (universe) admits automatically an infinity of non 
isomorphic models  (cf Lowenheim-Skolem theorems, Godel, ...).






  Our universe is the result of some set of rules.  The interesting 
 thing is to discover the specific rules that span our universe.



Assuming comp, I don't find plausible that our universe can be the 
result of some set of rules. Even without comp the arithmetical 
universe or arithmetical truth (the ONE attached to the little Peano 
Arithmetic Lobian machine) cannot be described by finite set of rules.
The Universal Dovetailer Argument (UDA) shows that even a cup of coffee 
is eventually described by the probabilistic interferences of an 
infinity of computations occurring in the Universal deployment (UD*), 
which by the way explains why we cannot really duplicate exactly any 
piece of apparent matter (comp-no cloning).
It is an open question if those theoretical interferences correspond to 
the quantum one. Studying the difference between the comp interference 
and the quantum interferences gives a way to measure experimentally the 
degree of plausibility of comp.


Bruno





http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/

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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-12 Thread Torgny Tholerus





Bruno Marchal skrev:

Le 09-juil.-07,  17:41, Torgny Tholerus a crit :
  
  
  
   Bruno Marchal skrev:
 


  I agree with you (despite a notion as "universe" is
not primitive in my 
opinion, unless you mean it a bit like the logician's notion of model 
perhaps). As David said, this is arithmetical realism.
  
  


Yes, you can see a universe as the same thing as a model.


When you have a (finite) set of rules, you will always get a universe
from that set of rules, by just applying those rules an unlimited
number of times. And the result of these rules is existing, in the
same way as our universe is existing.

  
  
The problem here is that an effective syntactical description of a
intended model ("universe") admits automatically an infinity of non
isomorphic models (cf Lowenheim-Skolem theorems, Godel, ...).
  

Yes, you are right, the word "model" is not quite appropriate here.
The universe is not a model that satisfies a set of axioms.

The kind of rules I am thinking of, is rather that kind of rules you
have in Game of Life. When you have a situation at one moment of time
and at one place in space, you can compute the situation the next
moment of time at the same place by using the situations near this
place. The important thing is that the rules uniquely describes the
whole universe by applying the rules over and over again.

(But I want something more general than GoL-like rules, because the
GoL-rules presupposes that you have a space-time from the beginning. I
want a set of rules that are such that the space-time is a result of
the rules. But I don't know how to get there...)

  
  
Our universe is the result of some set of rules. The interesting
thing is to discover the specific rules that span our universe.

  
  
  
Assuming comp, I don't find plausible that "our universe" can be the
result of some set of rules. Even without comp the "arithmetical
universe" or arithmetical truth (the "ONE" attached to the little
Peano Arithmetic Lobian machine) cannot be described by finite set of
rules.
  
The Universal Dovetailer Argument (UDA) shows that even a cup of
coffee is eventually described by the probabilistic interferences of
an infinity of computations occurring in the Universal deployment
(UD*), which by the way explains why we cannot really duplicate
exactly any piece of apparent matter (comp-no cloning).
  
It is an open question if those theoretical interferences correspond
to the quantum one. Studying the difference between the comp
interference and the quantum interferences gives a way to measure
experimentally the degree of plausibility of comp.
  

I claim that "our universe" is the result of a finite set of rules.
Just as a GoL-universe is the result of a finite set of rules, so is
our universe the result of a set of rules. But these rules are more
complicated than the GoL-rules...

-- 
Torgny Tholerus

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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-12 Thread Quentin Anciaux

  I claim that our universe is the result of a finite set of rules.  Just
 as a GoL-universe is the result of a finite set of rules, so is our universe
 the result of a set of rules.  But these rules are more complicated than the
 GoL-rules...

  --
  Torgny Tholerus

What are your proofs or set of evidences that our universe as it is
is 1) resulting from a finite set of rules 2) by 1) computable.

If 2) is true what difference do you make between functionnaly
equivalent model of your set of rules ? is it the same universe ?

Quentin

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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-12 Thread Torgny Tholerus

Quentin Anciaux skrev:
  I claim that our universe is the result of a finite set of rules.  Just
 as a GoL-universe is the result of a finite set of rules, so is our universe
 the result of a set of rules.  But these rules are more complicated than the
 GoL-rules...
 
 What are your proofs or set of evidences that our universe as it is
 is 1) resulting from a finite set of rules 2) by 1) computable.
   
There are two proofs:

A)  Everything is finite.  So our universe must be the result from a 
finite set of rules.
B)  Occams razor.  Because we can explain everything in our universe 
from this finite set of rules, we don't need anything more complicated.
 If 2) is true what difference do you make between functionnaly
 equivalent model of your set of rules ? is it the same universe ?
   
Our universe has nothing to do with different models of our universe.  A 
model is more like a picture of our universe.  You can make a model of a 
GoL-universe with red balls, or you can make a model with black dots, 
but still there will hold the same relations in both these models.  It 
is the relations that are the important things.

-- 
Torgny Tholerus


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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-12 Thread Brent Meeker

Bruno Marchal wrote:
 
 
 Le 09-juil.-07, à 17:41, Torgny Tholerus a écrit :
...
 Our universe is the result of some set of rules. The interesting
 thing is to discover the specific rules that span our universe.
 
 
 
 
 Assuming comp, I don't find plausible that our universe can be the 
 result of some set of rules. Even without comp the arithmetical 
 universe or arithmetical truth (the ONE attached to the little Peano 
 Arithmetic Lobian machine) cannot be described by finite set of rules.

But it can be the result of a finite set of rules. Arithmetic results from 
Peano's axioms, but a complete description of arithmetic is impossible.


 The Universal Dovetailer Argument (UDA) shows that even a cup of coffee 
 is eventually described by the probabilistic interferences of an 
 infinity of computations occurring in the Universal deployment (UD*), 
 which by the way explains why we cannot really duplicate exactly any 
 piece of apparent matter (comp-no cloning).
 It is an open question if those theoretical interferences correspond to 
 the quantum one. Studying the difference between the comp interference 
 and the quantum interferences gives a way to measure experimentally the 
 degree of plausibility of comp.
 
 
 Bruno

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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-10 Thread Torgny Tholerus





David Nyman skrev:

  On 09/07/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

  
  
There can be no dynamic time.  In the space-time, time is always
static.

  
  
Then you must get very bored ;)

David
  

But I am not bored, because I don't know what will happen tomorrow. If
I look at our universe from the outside, I see that I will do something
tomorrow, and I see what will happen in one million years. There will
never be any changes in the situations that will happen in the future.

But it is impossible to know today what will happen in the future,
because we can not have total knowledge about how the universe looks
like just now. If we try to find the exact position and the exact
speed of an electron, then that electron will be disturbed by me
looking at it. So it is impossible for me to compute how our universe
will look like tomorrow. But the rules of our universe decide what our
universe will look like tomorrow.
-- 
Torgny Tholerus

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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-10 Thread David Nyman

On 10/07/07, Torgny Tholerus [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

  But I am not bored

I'm glad to hear you're not a zombie after all :)

 If I look at our universe from the outside

I'd like to know how you perform this feat.

 I see that I will do something
 tomorrow

I don't doubt it.  But this is my point: your ability to 'see' this
depends on your being able to discriminate differences dynamically.
You may nevertheless believe that, from a gods' eye perspective, the
context which instantiates this is nonetheless 'static'. But this
should surely be a sharp reminder that we aren't gods. We can't look
at our universe from the outside. We can only pose it questions 'from
within', and both the manner of our enquiring, and the content of the
answers we receive, are consequently constrained in highly specific
ways.  This, I think, is the point of Bruno's methodology.  It's also
the point of my insistence  on 'reflexivity'.  The gods' eye view is
a just manner of speaking, not a manner of 'existing'.

David


  David Nyman skrev:
  On 09/07/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:



  There can be no dynamic time. In the space-time, time is always
 static.

  Then you must get very bored ;)

 David

  But I am not bored, because I don't know what will happen tomorrow.  If I
 look at our universe from the outside, I see that I will do something
 tomorrow, and I see what will happen in one million years.  There will never
 be any changes in the situations that will happen in the future.

  But it is impossible to know today what will happen in the future, because
 we can not have total knowledge about how the universe looks like just now.
 If we try to find the exact position and the exact speed of an electron,
 then that electron will be disturbed by me looking at it.  So it is
 impossible for me to compute how our universe will look like tomorrow.  But
 the rules of our universe decide what our universe will look like tomorrow.
  --
  Torgny Tholerus

  


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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-09 Thread Torgny Tholerus

David Nyman skrev:
 Consequently we can't 'interview' B-Universe objects.
   
It is true that we can not interview objects in B-Universe.  One object 
in one universe can not affect any object in some other universe.

But we can look at the objects in an other universe.  Just in the same 
way that we can look at a GoL-universe.  So we in the A-Universe can 
look at the objects in B-Universe, and see what they are doing.

One way to interview the objects in B-Universe is to do interviewing in 
the A-Universe.  If A-Torgny is interviewing A-David in the A-Universe, 
then B-Torgny will be interviewing B-David in the B-Universe.  Because 
everything that happens in A-Universe will also happen in B-Universe.  
All objects in A-Universe obey the laws of physics, and all objects in 
B-Universe obey the same laws, so the same things will happen in both 
universes.

-- 
Torgny Tholerus


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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-09 Thread Torgny Tholerus





Bruno Marchal skrev:

  
Le 05-juil.-07,  14:19, Torgny Tholerus wrote:
  
  
David Nyman skrev:


  You have however drawn our attention to something very interesting and
important IMO.  This concerns the necessary entailment of 'existence'.
  

1.  The relation 1+1=2 is always true.  It is true in all universes.
Even if a universe does not contain any humans or any observers.  The
truth of 1+1=2 is independent of all observers.

  
  
I agree with you (despite a notion as "universe" is not primitive in my 
opinion, unless you mean it a bit like the logician's notion of model 
perhaps). As David said, this is arithmetical realism.
  


Yes, you can see a universe as the same thing as a model.

When you have a (finite) set of rules, you will always get a universe
from that set of rules, by just applying those rules an unlimited
number of times. And the result of these rules is existing, in the
same way as our universe is existing.

Our universe is the result of some set of rules. The interesting thing
is to discover the specific rules that span our universe.

-- 
Torgny Tholerus

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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-09 Thread David Nyman

On 09/07/07, Torgny Tholerus [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 One object in one universe can not affect any object in some other universe.
 But we can look at the objects in an other universe.

I would say that the conjunction of the above two sentences is a contradiction.

 Because
 everything that happens in A-Universe will also happen in B-Universe.
 All objects in A-Universe obey the laws of physics, and all objects in
 B-Universe obey the same laws, so the same things will happen in both
 universes.

We're disagreeing because you just don't accept my basic point about
reflexive existence, which IMO is a pity, because ISTM to clarify what
the stuff might be, and makes it much more difficult to take the
'zombie world' seriously.  In fact, as I've said, I think you would
have to postulate the absence of dynamic time in the B-Universe in
order to make your claims plausible, but then the B-Universe could
hardly be claimed to be exactly the same.  However, Bruno doesn't
necessarily agree with me on this, so from a comp perspective, if you
say you're a zombie, I can only sympathise ;)

David


 David Nyman skrev:
  Consequently we can't 'interview' B-Universe objects.
 
 It is true that we can not interview objects in B-Universe.  One object
 in one universe can not affect any object in some other universe.

 But we can look at the objects in an other universe.  Just in the same
 way that we can look at a GoL-universe.  So we in the A-Universe can
 look at the objects in B-Universe, and see what they are doing.

 One way to interview the objects in B-Universe is to do interviewing in
 the A-Universe.  If A-Torgny is interviewing A-David in the A-Universe,
 then B-Torgny will be interviewing B-David in the B-Universe.  Because
 everything that happens in A-Universe will also happen in B-Universe.
 All objects in A-Universe obey the laws of physics, and all objects in
 B-Universe obey the same laws, so the same things will happen in both
 universes.

 --
 Torgny Tholerus


 


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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-09 Thread torgny



On Jul 9, 7:47 pm, David Nyman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 On 09/07/07, Torgny Tholerus [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

  Because
  everything that happens in A-Universe will also happen in B-Universe.
  All objects in A-Universe obey the laws of physics, and all objects in
  B-Universe obey the same laws, so the same things will happen in both
  universes.

 We're disagreeing because you just don't accept my basic point about
 reflexive existence, which IMO is a pity, because ISTM to clarify what
 the stuff might be, and makes it much more difficult to take the
 'zombie world' seriously.  In fact, as I've said, I think you would
 have to postulate the absence of dynamic time in the B-Universe in
 order to make your claims plausible, but then the B-Universe could
 hardly be claimed to be exactly the same.

There can be no dynamic time.  In the space-time, time is always
static.

--
Torgny Tholerus


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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-09 Thread torgny

(Reposted because of some techical problems...)

On Jul 7, 2:00 pm, Bruno Marchal [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 Le 05-juil.-07, à 14:19, Torgny Tholerus wrote:



  David Nyman skrev:
  You have however drawn our attention to something very interesting and
  important IMO.  This concerns the necessary entailment of 'existence'.
  1.  The relation 1+1=2 is always true.  It is true in all universes.
  Even if a universe does not contain any humans or any observers.  The
  truth of 1+1=2 is independent of all observers.

 I agree with you (despite a notion as universe is not primitive in my
 opinion, unless you mean it a bit like the logician's notion of model
 perhaps). As David said, this is arithmetical realism.

Yes, you can see a universe as the same thing as a model.

When you have a (finite) set of rules, you will always get a universe
from that set of rules, by just applying those rules an unlimited
number of times.  And the result of these rules is existing, in the
same way as our universe is existing.

Our universe is the result of some set of rules.  The interesting
thing is to discover the specific rules that span our universe.

--
Torgny Tholerus


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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-09 Thread David Nyman

On 09/07/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 There can be no dynamic time.  In the space-time, time is always
 static.

Then you must get very bored ;)

David




 On Jul 9, 7:47 pm, David Nyman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
  On 09/07/07, Torgny Tholerus [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 
   Because
   everything that happens in A-Universe will also happen in B-Universe.
   All objects in A-Universe obey the laws of physics, and all objects in
   B-Universe obey the same laws, so the same things will happen in both
   universes.
 
  We're disagreeing because you just don't accept my basic point about
  reflexive existence, which IMO is a pity, because ISTM to clarify what
  the stuff might be, and makes it much more difficult to take the
  'zombie world' seriously.  In fact, as I've said, I think you would
  have to postulate the absence of dynamic time in the B-Universe in
  order to make your claims plausible, but then the B-Universe could
  hardly be claimed to be exactly the same.

 There can be no dynamic time.  In the space-time, time is always
 static.

 --
 Torgny Tholerus


 


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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-07 Thread Bruno Marchal


Le 05-juil.-07, à 14:19, Torgny Tholerus wrote:


 David Nyman skrev:
 You have however drawn our attention to something very interesting and
 important IMO.  This concerns the necessary entailment of 'existence'.
 1.  The relation 1+1=2 is always true.  It is true in all universes.
 Even if a universe does not contain any humans or any observers.  The
 truth of 1+1=2 is independent of all observers.


I agree with you (despite a notion as universe is not primitive in my 
opinion, unless you mean it a bit like the logician's notion of model 
perhaps). As David said, this is arithmetical realism.



 2.  If you have a set of rules and an initial condition, then there
 exist a universe with this set of rules and this initial condition.
 Because it is possible to compute a new situation from a situation, and
 from this new situation it is possible to compute another new 
 situation,
 and this can be done for ever.  This unlimited set of situations will 
 be
 a universe that exists independent of all humans and all observers.
 Noone needs to make these computations, the results of the computations
 will exist anyhow.

OK, but I would mention bifurcating computations (with respect to 
Oracle or just Universal machine ...)



 3.  All mathmatically possible universes exists, and they all exist in
 the same way.  Our universe is one of those possible universes.  Our
 universe exists independant of any humans or any observers.


I can agree or disagree with the first sentence. It is too fuzzy. I 
disagree with the second sentence. I have argued that the comp 
assumption you should say our universes (note the s), and strictly 
speaking all (accessible) universes are ours. Of course universes, or 
better (imo) computational histories (up to some equivalence) exists 
independent of observers, like the fact that machine A on argument B 
stops or does not stops independently of me.




 4.  For us humans are the universes that contain observers more
 interesting.

Oh! Surely the discovery of a baby tiny universe would be interesting, 
even without observers  (like the moon is not so bad ...)


 But there is no qualitaive difference between universes
 with observers and universes without observers.  They all exist in the
 same way.

It really depends what you mean by universe. This cannot be an 
obvious notion in the comp setting. Have you read the UDA up to step 7 
(at least) ?


 The GoL-universes (every initial condition will span a
 separate universe) exist in the same way as our universe.  But because
 we are humans, we are more intrested in universes with observers, and 
 we
 are specially interested in our own universe.

Again what do you mean by our own universe? Are you meaning Deutsch 
Multiverse or the comp-many computations seen from inside ?
I think that apparent universes emerge from personal gluing of 
histories.


 But otherwise there is
 noting special with our universe.


There is nothing special about our historical geographies I would say.


Bruno


http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/


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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-07 Thread David Nyman

On 05/07/07, Torgny Tholerus [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 For us humans are the universes that contain observers more
 interesting.  But there is no qualitaive difference between universes
 with observers and universes without observers.  They all exist in the
 same way.

I still disagree, but I have a slightly different formulation of my
previous replies which might be more consistent with my remarks to
Bruno re the 1-personal discrimination of self-relation as 'action' or
'behaviour'.  Essentially, if we conceive of the plenitude of all
possible universes as existing 'statically', then the recovery of
'dynamic' or temporal existence must be seen as characteristic of
1-personal self-relation: that is, 1-persons are active participants,
not merely 'observers'.  What I said to Bruno was that my
justification was simply that such a brute claim seems to be required
if dynamism is to be recovered at all from stasis.  I'm less sure
however that such a claim is strictly 'necessary' in the logical
sense.

Given this, I suppose it is possible to conceive of a B-Universe in
which this brute claim is not granted.  IOW no aspect of the
self-relation of the B-Universe is characteristically dynamic or
1-personal.  Such a universe would be static in all aspects - 'inside'
and 'outside' - and consequently it would contain no active
participants and consequently none of the stuff characteristic of
such participative behaviour.  However, such a static universe could
not, by the same token, be claimed to be exactly the same as the
A-Universe, precisely because nothing whatsoever could be said to
'happen' to any object it instantiates.  The points I made earlier
about the mutual inaccessibility of A and B-Universes still stand.
Consequently we can't 'interview' B-Universe objects.

In some sense 'interviews' between B-Universe structures could be said
to exist, but not to 'occur'.  The content of the statements of
B-Universe objects about their internal states would be similarly
'justified' in terms of static self-relation as those in the
A-Universe, but it wouldn't indeed be 'like anything to be' a
B-Universe object.  What is really interesting about this is it
suggests that the notion of consciousness as equating to 'what it's
like to be' something is incoherent.  Rather, consciousness seems more
'what it's like to enact' something.  Consequently, the 'absolute'
quality of consciousness is just what its like for the One (per
Plotinus) to enact particular kinds of self-relation.  And such
quality indeed seems 'absolute' as opposed to 'relative', because it
doesn't seem logically necessary for such enaction to emerge
1-personally from static self-relation.  It's just that our own case
demonstrates its 'absolute' contingency in the A-Universe.  So zombies
may be possible, but not in the A-Universe, and consequently we
needn't fear ever being fooled by one in any accessible encounter.

What this amounts to is understanding 'consciousness' essentially as
the recovery of dynamism from stasis, or active participation from
instantiation, or time from eternity, or the A-series from the
B-series.  It's also treating 'dynamism' as 'experientiaI' rather than
'physical', which of course is moot.  But I've never seen any really
satisfactory direct treatment of dynamism with respect to static
formulations of existence except as a brute assertion, or mere
implication, of its being characteristic of 1-personal self-relation
to appropriate structure.  Perhaps Bruno could comment whether this
way of looking at things is consistent with comp?  For example, it
might seem that 'dovetailing' carries some implication of dynamism, or
at least sequentiality, with it from the outset.

Alternatively, if a static background is not granted, then in such a
view dynamism is already at the heart of self-relation, and with it,
the necessary return of 1-personal participation.  However, a
fundamentally 'tensed' view of reality presents its own (particularly
structural) problems, which are kettle of fish for a different
discussion.

David


 David Nyman skrev:
  You have however drawn our attention to something very interesting and
  important IMO.  This concerns the necessary entailment of 'existence'.
 1.  The relation 1+1=2 is always true.  It is true in all universes.
 Even if a universe does not contain any humans or any observers.  The
 truth of 1+1=2 is independent of all observers.

 2.  If you have a set of rules and an initial condition, then there
 exist a universe with this set of rules and this initial condition.
 Because it is possible to compute a new situation from a situation, and
 from this new situation it is possible to compute another new situation,
 and this can be done for ever.  This unlimited set of situations will be
 a universe that exists independent of all humans and all observers.
 Noone needs to make these computations, the results of the computations
 will exist anyhow.

 3.  All mathmatically possible universes exists, and 

Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-05 Thread Torgny Tholerus

David Nyman skrev:
 You have however drawn our attention to something very interesting and 
 important IMO.  This concerns the necessary entailment of 'existence'.
1.  The relation 1+1=2 is always true.  It is true in all universes.  
Even if a universe does not contain any humans or any observers.  The 
truth of 1+1=2 is independent of all observers.

2.  If you have a set of rules and an initial condition, then there 
exist a universe with this set of rules and this initial condition.  
Because it is possible to compute a new situation from a situation, and 
from this new situation it is possible to compute another new situation, 
and this can be done for ever.  This unlimited set of situations will be 
a universe that exists independent of all humans and all observers.  
Noone needs to make these computations, the results of the computations 
will exist anyhow.

3.  All mathmatically possible universes exists, and they all exist in 
the same way.  Our universe is one of those possible universes.  Our 
universe exists independant of any humans or any observers.

4.  For us humans are the universes that contain observers more 
interesting.  But there is no qualitaive difference between universes 
with observers and universes without observers.  They all exist in the 
same way.  The GoL-universes (every initial condition will span a 
separate universe) exist in the same way as our universe.  But because 
we are humans, we are more intrested in universes with observers, and we 
are specially interested in our own universe.  But otherwise there is 
noting special with our universe.

-- 
Torgny Tholerus


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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-05 Thread David Nyman
On 05/07/07, Torgny Tholerus [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

TT:  All mathmatically possible universes exists, and they all exist in
the same way.  Our universe is one of those possible universes.  Our
universe exists independant of any humans or any observers.

DN: But here at the heart of your argument is the confusion again over
language.  If we grant that a mathematically possible universe exists
'independently' (i.e. other than as a sub-structure of the A-Universe) it -
and all consequences flowing from it - must exist self-relatively.  This is
the crucial entailment of 'independent' existence, as we discussed before.
And it exposes the confusion of the two distinct senses of 'independent'.
The first sense is of course that an independent universe does not 'depend'
on any observers it instantiates to grant it existence (i.e. they don't
'cause' it to exist).  It's in just this sense that it's 'independent' or
self-relative, and this is the sense you rely on.

But the second and crucial sense flows directly out of this 'self-relative
independence': which is that any self-relative universe capable of
generating the necessary structure simply *entails* the existence of
'observers' (i.e. self-relative sub-structures).  IOW, self-relation is what
observation *is*.   It's in precisely this crucial sense that an
'independently existing universe' is not 'independent of observation'. On
the contrary: it *entails* observation.  And of course our existence as
observers in self-relation to the A-Universe demonstrates this 'dependency'
in precisely this critical sense.

David


 David Nyman skrev:
  You have however drawn our attention to something very interesting and
  important IMO.  This concerns the necessary entailment of 'existence'.
 1.  The relation 1+1=2 is always true.  It is true in all universes.
 Even if a universe does not contain any humans or any observers.  The
 truth of 1+1=2 is independent of all observers.

 2.  If you have a set of rules and an initial condition, then there
 exist a universe with this set of rules and this initial condition.
 Because it is possible to compute a new situation from a situation, and
 from this new situation it is possible to compute another new situation,
 and this can be done for ever.  This unlimited set of situations will be
 a universe that exists independent of all humans and all observers.
 Noone needs to make these computations, the results of the computations
 will exist anyhow.

 3.  All mathmatically possible universes exists, and they all exist in
 the same way.  Our universe is one of those possible universes.  Our
 universe exists independant of any humans or any observers.

 4.  For us humans are the universes that contain observers more
 interesting.  But there is no qualitaive difference between universes
 with observers and universes without observers.  They all exist in the
 same way.  The GoL-universes (every initial condition will span a
 separate universe) exist in the same way as our universe.  But because
 we are humans, we are more intrested in universes with observers, and we
 are specially interested in our own universe.  But otherwise there is
 noting special with our universe.

 --
 Torgny Tholerus


 


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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-04 Thread Torgny Tholerus

Jason skrev:
 Note that you did not say thought was non-existent in B-universe, I
 think one can construct complex conscious awareness to the collection
 of a large number of simultaneous thoughts.
I had the intention to include thoughts, but I was unsure about how to 
spell that word (where to put all those h:s...), so I included the 
thoughts in all that kind of stuff.  The B-Universe should not include 
any thouths(!).  The B-Universe should be a strictly materialistic Universe.

-- 
Torgny Tholerus



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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-04 Thread Quentin Anciaux

Your example suppose many things which are not granted to be possible:
1- The one who compare them is in neither of them... What is comparing
these universes ? a conscious being ?
2- The fact that they are identical implies that both have
consciousness. If one really lacked it then they would be no one to
ask what it feels as they're would be no person in it and that would
be a huge difference.

I don't remember having read participants of this list arguing for a
dualism of consciousness. Consciousness must be a process created by
properties of this universe, it is not a component that can be thrown
out, it is part of it.

If behavior is the same as a conscious being (please mind that for
this comparison you acknowledge the existence of at least one to
compare) then the being is conscious too. You can't say they're the
same but are different, it is not consistant.

Regards,
Quentin

2007/7/4, Torgny Tholerus [EMAIL PROTECTED]:

 Jason skrev:
  Note that you did not say thought was non-existent in B-universe, I
  think one can construct complex conscious awareness to the collection
  of a large number of simultaneous thoughts.
 I had the intention to include thoughts, but I was unsure about how to
 spell that word (where to put all those h:s...), so I included the
 thoughts in all that kind of stuff.  The B-Universe should not include
 any thouths(!).  The B-Universe should be a strictly materialistic Universe.

 --
 Torgny Tholerus



 


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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-04 Thread Torgny Tholerus





David Nyman skrev:
On 04/07/07, Stathis
Papaioannou [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
  
SP: We can imagine an external observer looking at two model universes
A
  
and B side by side, interviewing their occupants.
  
DN: Yes, and my point precisely is that this is an illegitimate
sleight of imagination where the thought experiment goes amiss. When
one imagines the 'external' observer 'looking' at two universes, one
constructs precisely the false relationship that is the source of the
confusion with respect to consciousness. Any possible observer must in
fact be integral to their own universe.
  

You can look at the Game-of-Life-Universe, where you can see how the
"gliders" move. If you look at "Conway's game of Life" in Wikipedia,
you can look at how the Glider Gun is working in the top right corner.
This is possible although there is no observer integral to that
Universe.

The same is true about the B-Universe. You can look at it as an
outside observer.

-- 
Torgny Tholerus

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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-04 Thread Quentin Anciaux

You're doing a giant step for considering current GoL as an
universe... but anyway you can, but it's not because you see one
glider in your tiny framed GoL that the interaction of billions of
cells does not generate a consciousness inside the GoL universe and
you as an external observer couldn't see/recognize it as it is.

Quentin

2007/7/4, Torgny Tholerus [EMAIL PROTECTED]:

  David Nyman skrev:
 On 04/07/07, Stathis Papaioannou [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

  SP:  We can imagine an external observer looking at two model universes A
  and B side by side, interviewing their occupants.

  DN:  Yes, and my point precisely is that this is an illegitimate sleight of
 imagination where the thought experiment goes amiss.  When one imagines the
 'external' observer 'looking' at two universes, one constructs precisely the
 false relationship that is the source of the confusion with respect to
 consciousness.  Any possible observer must in fact be integral to their own
 universe.
  You can look at the Game-of-Life-Universe, where you can see how the
 gliders move.  If you look at Conway's game of Life in Wikipedia, you
 can look at how the Glider Gun is working in the top right corner.  This is
 possible although there is no observer integral to that Universe.

  The same is true about the B-Universe.  You can look at it as an outside
 observer.

  --
  Torgny Tholerus

  


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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-04 Thread David Nyman
On 04/07/07, Torgny Tholerus [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

TT:  You can look at the Game-of-Life-Universe, where you can see how the
gliders move.  If you look at Conway's game of Life in Wikipedia, you
can look at how the Glider Gun is working in the top right corner.  This is
possible although there is no observer integral to that Universe.

DN:  Please, if we are to make progress, may we have more precision?  You
clearly specified a hypothetical B-Universe which you invited us to consider
might be different in some fundamental way to ours.  GoL is clearly in no
way a different 'universe' in this sense - you're making a loose,
conversational use of the term which has an entirely different entailment.
GoL is a part of the A-Universe just as we are, so as integral observers of
course we can observe it.

You have however drawn our attention to something very interesting and
important IMO.  This concerns the necessary entailment of 'existence'.  When
we perform the thought experiment, we cause a B-Universe to 'exist'.  What
kind of existence is this?  Well, it's a thought pattern, so you may wish to
consider it as an aspect of brain, or mind, or both.  Either way, its part
of us, and as such, its 'existence' consists of participation in the
A-Universe. Simply put, the entailment of 'existence' is participation.

So we may grant real existence to the *idea* of the B-Universe whilst
recognising that its putative reference is non-existent in the A-Universe.
Nevertheless, we may still 'flesh-out' the metaphor of the B-Universe, but
crucially, if we are to do so without misleading ourselves, we must grant
events within it the equivalent category of actual - not metaphorical -
existence as that possessed by events within the A-Universe: that of
participation, or self-relation.

David


 David Nyman skrev:

 On 04/07/07, Stathis Papaioannou [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 SP:  We can imagine an external observer looking at two model universes A
 and B side by side, interviewing their occupants.

 DN:  Yes, and my point precisely is that this is an illegitimate sleight
 of imagination where the thought experiment goes amiss.  When one imagines
 the 'external' observer 'looking' at two universes, one constructs precisely
 the false relationship that is the source of the confusion with respect to
 consciousness.  Any possible observer must in fact be integral to their own
 universe.

 You can look at the Game-of-Life-Universe, where you can see how the
 gliders move.  If you look at Conway's game of Life in Wikipedia, you
 can look at how the Glider Gun is working in the top right corner.  This is
 possible although there is no observer integral to that Universe.

 The same is true about the B-Universe.  You can look at it as an outside
 observer.

 --
 Torgny Tholerus

 


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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-03 Thread meekerdb

Torgny Tholerus wrote:
 Imagine that we have a second Universe, that looks exactly the same as 
 the materialistic parts of our Universe.  We may call this second 
 Universe B-Universe.  (Our Universe is A-Universe.)

 This B-Universe looks exactly the same as A-Universe.  Where there is a 
 hydrogen atom in A-Universe, there will also be a hydrogen atom in 
 B-Universe, and everywhere that there is an oxygen atom in A-Universe, 
 there will be an oxygen atom i B-universe.  The only difference between 
 A-Universe and B-Universe is that B-Universe is totally free from 
 consciousness, feelings, minds, souls, and all that kind of stuff.  The 
 only things that exist in B-Universe are atoms reacting with eachother.  
 All objects in B-Universe behave in exactly the same way as the objects 
 in A-Universe.

 The objects in B-Universe produces the same kind of sounds as we produce 
 in A-Universe, and the objects in B-Universe pushes the same buttons on 
 their computers as we do in our A-Universe.

 Questions:

 Is B-Universe possible?
 If we interview an object in B-Universe, what will that object answer, 
 if we ask it: Are you conscious??

   
So far as I know, consciousness is some processes in (at least some) 
human brains.  Since B-universe would have brains with the same 
processes, I'd say those objects would answer, Yes. with the same 
likelihood as in this universe - in other words I don't think there's 
any difference between the A-universe and the B-universe.

Brent Meeker

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Re: Asifism revisited.

2007-07-03 Thread Stathis Papaioannou

On 04/07/07, David Nyman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 TT:  This B-Universe looks exactly the same as A-Universe.

 DN:  IMO your thought experiment might as well stop right here.  No universe
 can look like anything to anyone except a participant in it - i.e. an
 'observer' who is an embedded sub-structure of that universe. The looking
 that you refer to here is an illusory artefact of syntax - i.e. the relation
 is to an imaginative construct which in fact is part of A-Universe.  IOW
 this sort of 'existence' is a metaphor which is relative to *us*, not the
 self-relation of any realisable B-Universe.  What you describe as B-Universe
 looking exactly the same is really an implicit relation to an observer in
 *that* universe, and consequently that observer is already accepted as
 conscious.  Alternatively, it doesn't look like anything to anyone, and
 hence is by no stretch of the imagination exactly the same.

We can imagine an external observer looking at two model universes A
and B side by side, interviewing their occupants.



-- 
Stathis Papaioannou

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