Re: Tegmark's New Book

I plan to buy his book, but I always have my meta goal of making life better or less despairing for people. If the book, even, unintentionally, contributes to this, its all good, if its just number mumbling, I will always appreciate the creativity of the abstract mind/brain at work. Enviously,

Re: What are wavefunctions?

On 07 Jan 2014, at 22:54, meekerdb wrote: On 1/7/2014 1:35 PM, LizR wrote: On 8 January 2014 08:59, Jesse Mazer wrote: Well, most physicists already agrees physics is time-symmetric (well, CPT-symmetric, but the implications are the same for Bell's inequality and thermodynamics), Yes, t

Re: The One

Hi John, On 07 Jan 2014, at 23:20, John Mikes wrote: Bruno, you made my day. Reminds me of a Hungarian humorous author (P. Howard) who wrote about a blind philosopher (The Sleepy Elephant) and his assistant living in the deep Sahara - showing the Elephant's Life Oeuvre in a BIG book, th

Re: Tegmark's New Book

That is not physicalism IMHO that is mathemathicalism 2014/1/8 Kim Jones > Maximus writes: > > > The Higgs Boson was predicted with the same tool as the planet Neptune and > the radio wave: with mathematics. Why does our universe seem so > mathematical, and what does it mean? In my new book, Ou

Re: What are wavefunctions?

On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 11:37 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote: > >>> Bell derived his inequality assuming QM with collapse >> > > >> No he did not, Bell makes no such assumption or interpretation, in fact > not one word about Quantum Mechanics is needed in his entire derivation. > None zero zilch goose eg

Re: Tegmark's New Book

On 08 Jan 2014, at 16:22, spudboy...@aol.com wrote: I plan to buy his book, but I always have my meta goal of making life better or less despairing for people. If the book, even, unintentionally, contributes to this, its all good, if its just number mumbling, I will always appreciate the c

Re: The One

Hi John! > (I suppose a 'freer mind than several nat.-scientist listers) Thanks! I'm not sure my mind is so free, but that's a goal I value at least. > allow me some > musings (not that I want to hide them from the rest of the List). > Thinking of Bruno's integer-restricted arithmetics with add

Re: The One

On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 9:08 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote: > > On 06 Jan 2014, at 20:05, Telmo Menezes wrote: > >> On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 6:31 PM, Bruno Marchal wrote: >>> >>> Dear Stephen, >>> >>> >>> On 03 Jan 2014, at 20:21, Stephen Paul King wrote: >>> >>> Dear Bruno, >>> >>> I do not understand s

Consciousness as a State of Matter

In case you haven't seen it... http://arxiv.org/abs/1401.1219 Seems like an attempt to recover materialism, which strikes me as somewhat unexpected from Tegmark. Am I missing something? Cheers, Telmo. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything Lis

Re: What are wavefunctions?

On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 1:50 PM, LizR wrote: >> I don't understand your point, are you arguing that time is asymmetric >> or that it is not? The existence of neutral kaon decay strengthens the >> already very strong argument that time is asymmetric, but only very >> slightly. Yes a movie of neutra

Re: Tegmark's New Book

On 08 Jan 2014, at 18:33, Alberto G. Corona wrote: That is not physicalism IMHO that is mathemathicalism It might be mathematicalism which keeps the physicalist identity thesis of the Aristotelian, and physicalize mathematical object. It still ignore the FPI, the reversal with arithmetic,

Understanding Entropy

All, As I explain in my book on Reality, entropy states are not fundamental, as often assumed, because they depend on the spatial mix of prevailing forces. For example the maximum entropy state will be completely different in a positive gravitation universe than it would be in a negative gravi

Re: What are wavefunctions?

On 08 Jan 2014, at 18:47, John Clark wrote: On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 11:37 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote: >>> Bell derived his inequality assuming QM with collapse >> No he did not, Bell makes no such assumption or interpretation, in fact not one word about Quantum Mechanics is needed in his en

Re: Consciousness as a State of Matter

Telmo, Thanks for the link but see my new topic "A theory of consciousness" of a few days ago which no one has even commented on and which is much more reasonable and explanatory. Edgar On Wednesday, January 8, 2014 12:57:37 PM UTC-5, telmo_menezes wrote: > > In case you haven't seen it...

Re: What are wavefunctions?

On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 1:24 PM, Jesse Mazer wrote: > you could have laws where a large number of initial states can all lead > to the same final state (many cellular automata work this way, specifically > all the ones whose rules are not "reversible"--for example, in the "Game of > Life" > Yes t

Re: What are wavefunctions?

On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 2:59 PM, Jesse Mazer wrote: > Well, most physicists already agrees physics is time-symmetric > I think you would have enormous difficulty finding one single physicist on the face of the earth who says time is symmetrical well OK,... maybe a physicist who just hag a str

Re: What are wavefunctions?

On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 1:58 PM, John Clark wrote: > > > > On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 2:59 PM, Jesse Mazer wrote: > > > Well, most physicists already agrees physics is time-symmetric >> > > I think you would have enormous difficulty finding one single physicist on > the face of the earth who says tim

Re: What are wavefunctions?

On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 1:47 PM, John Clark wrote: > > On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 1:24 PM, Jesse Mazer wrote: > > > you could have laws where a large number of initial states can all lead >> to the same final state (many cellular automata work this way, specifically >> all the ones whose rules are no

Re: Consciousness as a State of Matter

On the contrary, I replied with a question that went unanswered. It was a question about whether a human baby, fed a stream of virtual sense data as in the movie The Matrix, could be considered conscious in your theory, as you seemed to suggest that consciousness was a property of reality, as a fu

Re: Consciousness as a State of Matter

Terren, All human babies are automatically consciousness. They are conscious of whatever input data they have. I don't see the point of your question which is why I didn't answer before... Edgar On Wednesday, January 8, 2014 2:42:24 PM UTC-5, Terren Suydam wrote: > > On the contrary, I repli

Re: Posting problems

Edgar, to your oldie question: sometimes my replies appear WITHIN the origianl post headings, not as a separate mail-in. I use the "arrow" at the top of the post to be answered, when a box opens for my reply. I dislike the "reply" at the end of the post. Why? who knows, I am agnosstic (ha ha) John

Re: Consciousness as a State of Matter

Edgar wrote: *Terren,* *All human babies are automatically consciousness. They are conscious of whatever input data they have. I don't see the point of your question which is why I didn't answer before...* *Edgar* I would risk the typo: *consciousless* instead of *your* (grammatical) typo . Do yo

Re: Consciousness as a State of Matter

Eh, just looks like more information-theoretic functionalism. Explanatory Gap? Hard Problem? States of matter make sense...solid, liquid, gas, plasma - hungry doesn't fit in. On Wednesday, January 8, 2014 12:57:37 PM UTC-5, telmo_menezes wrote: > > In case you haven't seen it... > > http://arxi

Re: Consciousness as a State of Matter

John, All organisms, including babies, are conscious. Of course baby's minds do not compute the details of reality that well initially. But the results of those poor computations are nevertheless conscious... The necessary distinction (elucidated by Chalmers and others as well as me) is betwee

Playing Cards With Qualia

Here is an example to help illustrate what I think is the relationship between information and qualia that makes the most sense. Here I am using the delta (Δ) to denote "difference", n to mean "numbers" or information, kappa for aesthetic "kind" or qualia, and delta n degree (Δn°) for "differ

Re: Consciousness as a State of Matter

John, PS: BTW your statement *I "know" for sure that we don't know anything for sure." is of course an illogical and meaningless self-contradiction. It has no relevance to reality* *Edgar* On Wednesday, January 8, 2014 4:45:20 PM UTC-5, JohnM wrote: > > Edgar wrote: > > *Terren,* > *All

Re: Is this question a question?

"Can fact exist beyond the dimensions of perception?" No. Existence and perception are the same thing, although your or my perception can't include all that can be perceived. "Does ${this} question make sense or does it not?" Everything makes sense to some extent. "To cut it short, I am questi

Re: The Nature of Truth

Bruno and Brent: did you agree whether *"TRUE BELIEF*" means in your sentences 1. one's belief that is TRUE, (not likely), or 2. the TRUTH that one believes in it (a maybe)? (none of the two may be 'true'). JM On Wed, Jan 1, 2014 at 5:50 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote: > > On 31 Dec 2013, at 21:09

Re: Understanding Entropy

Entropy is generally considered to be an *emergent* property of matter - if you look closely enough at matter, it becomes impossible to see it (e.g. in single atom interactions). The source of the "entropy gradient" appears to be boundary conditions on the universe (e.g. the existence of the big b

Physics as the Production of Realistic Fantasy and Fantastic Reality

When working with private physics, the operators used are metaphorical and implicit, not explicit. Qualia is LIKE the “mass” of privacy. The will to will is like the “Energy” of privacy, and realism is like the “c²”. In my understanding, the notion that c is the speed of light is really a leg

Re: Tegmark's New Book

On 1/7/2014 10:36 PM, LizR wrote: Max's main lacuna is the nature of consciousness, which he describes as "what data feels like when it's being processed" - hardly a detailed theory. He starts his Mathematical Universe Hypothesis from the opposite pole to Bruno, so to speak. I wonder if it's po

Re: Consciousness as a State of Matter

It seems to me Max Tegmark is assuming that consciousness is a state of matter, and looking at what properties that matter must have. Hence he doesn't have an explanatory theory, just an assumption. It is a materialist assumtpion, I guess similar to Hugh Everett III's viewpoint when he considers ob

Re: Consciousness as a State of Matter

Edgar, Thanks for clarifying. Your theory sounds like a spinoff of panpsychism... would you say a rock is capable of experiencing? If not, what is the theoretical difference between a rock and a baby that demarcates what is capable of experiencing, and what isn't? Terren On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 a

Re: Tegmark's New Book

On 9 January 2014 11:40, meekerdb wrote: > On 1/7/2014 10:36 PM, LizR wrote: > >> Max's main lacuna is the nature of consciousness, which he describes as >> "what data feels like when it's being processed" - hardly a detailed >> theory. He starts his Mathematical Universe Hypothesis from the oppo

Re: What are wavefunctions?

On 9 January 2014 07:01, John Clark wrote: > On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 1:50 PM, LizR wrote: > > >> I don't understand your point, are you arguing that time is >>> asymmetric or that it is not? The existence of neutral kaon decay >>> strengthens the already very strong argument that time is asymmet

Re: What are wavefunctions?

On 9 January 2014 07:58, John Clark wrote: > On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 2:59 PM, Jesse Mazer wrote: > > > Well, most physicists already agrees physics is time-symmetric >> > > I think you would have enormous difficulty finding one single physicist on > the face of the earth who says time is symmetri

Re: The One

On 1/8/2014 9:29 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote: Hi John, On 07 Jan 2014, at 23:20, John Mikes wrote: Bruno, you made my day. Reminds me of a Hungarian humorous author (P. Howard) who wrote about a blind philosopher (The Sleepy Elephant) and his assistant living in the deep Sahara - showing the E

Re: What are wavefunctions?

On 1/8/2014 10:47 AM, John Clark wrote: if there are more ways to be disorganized than organized (and there are) then any change those laws of physics make will almost certainly lead to a increase in entropy. This ignores the fact that entropy, and "organization" are relative to some coarse g

Re: What are wavefunctions?

On 1/8/2014 10:58 AM, John Clark wrote: On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 2:59 PM, Jesse Mazer > wrote: > Well, most physicists already agrees physics is time-symmetric I think you would have enormous difficulty finding one single physicist on the face of the earth w

Re: Tegmark's New Book

Dear LizR, Tegmark's "What data feels like when it is processes" seems to require some ability to "tell the difference" whether it is being processed or it merely exists as Platonic strings of numbers, No? Did my hypothesis using Wheeler's Surprise 20 questions idea make any sense? My clai

Re: Tegmark's New Book

Dear Brent, I agree with you 100%! But that seems to imply that there is something "real" about the physical. I think that we can obtain a form of realism that does not involve a "god's eye view" by appealing to the possibility of coherent communication between multiple observers. Observers b

Re: Tegmark's New Book

On 9 January 2014 14:16, Stephen Paul King wrote: > Dear LizR, > >Tegmark's "What data feels like when it is processes" seems to require > some ability to "tell the difference" whether it is being processed or it > merely exists as Platonic strings of numbers, No? > Hm. I'm not sure! He requ

Re: Tegmark's New Book

Dear LizR, Creating time indexically (or otherwise) out maps to the natural ordering of integers will not work! We use some equivalent to a Godel numbering to code algorithms and distinguish them from each other, no? This break the natural order and thus making it unavailable as an absolute quot

Re: The Nature of Truth

Bruno writes Bp & p, where "Bp" ambiguously means "Proves p" (Beweisbar?) and "Believes p". "Believes p and P" is then a belief that is "true". I put scare quotes around "true" because I think it just means "is a consequence of some (Peano's) axioms", which is not necessarily the same as "expre

Re: Universe from Pixels? (The Jury is still out, apparently)

An article in the 4/1/14 issue of "New Scientist" indicates that photons from the most energetic GRB to date (GRB130427A, seen on 27/4/13) have a lag of 100s of seconds between the low and high energy rays. This is at a redshift of 0.34 or 4.68GLyr, so plenty of scope for interacting with any quan

Re: What are wavefunctions?

On 1/8/2014 4:11 PM, LizR wrote: On 9 January 2014 07:58, John Clark mailto:johnkcl...@gmail.com>> wrote: On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 2:59 PM, Jesse Mazer mailto:laserma...@gmail.com>> wrote: > Well, most physicists already agrees physics is time-symmetric I think you would have e

Re: What are wavefunctions?

On 9 January 2014 13:52, meekerdb wrote: > The equations of evolution are CPT invariant (with possible exceptions > from GR). Vic Stenger has written a book "Timeless Reality" in which he > shows that the counter-intuitive aspects of QM, like violation of Bell's > inequality, can be explained b

Re: Tegmark's New Book

On 1/8/2014 5:20 PM, Stephen Paul King wrote: Dear Brent, I agree with you 100%! But that seems to imply that there is something "real" about the physical. I think that we can obtain a form of realism that does not involve a "god's eye view" by appealing to the possibility of coherent commun

Re: Tegmark's New Book

On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 12:11 AM, meekerdb wrote: > On 1/8/2014 5:20 PM, Stephen Paul King wrote: > > Dear Brent, > >I agree with you 100%! But that seems to imply that there is something > "real" about the physical. I think that we can obtain a form of realism > that does not involve a "god'

Re: Tegmark's New Book

Dear Brent, I have given my definition of reality previously, but here it is again. For some collection of observers that can communicate, a reality is that which is incontrovertible. In other words, a reality is that which all observers agree. I do not like the idea of an a priori "reality" as