Tuesday, February 25, 2003, 12:46:12 PM, Brad Wyble wrote: BW> Consider the following thought experiment: a computer able to BW> simulate the earth down to an atomic level (let's put aside the BW> possibility that quantum phenomena influence events on the scale BW> of earth-life). This system has 1 source of input, a constant BW> stream of energy. The machine is simple, runs on a turing BW> machine.
BW> Do you doubt that this machine could recreate evolution in its BW> simulation? If you do not, then we're all done here, as this BW> machine is completely isolated and receives no "complexity input". No, I don't doubt it (although I do doubt our ability to build it). But, if we can build it, it *does* receive "complexity input" in the form of its input -- the way we set it up. And perhaps the energy needed to run it is another complexity input. Consider, for a moment, the acorn. An amazing thing. From one perspective, it "has all the information necessary to grow a tree". But that perspective is limited -- earthrotropic. Concretely, some of the information about "how to grow into a tree" is embedded in the composition of the soil, the cycle of day/night, etc. -- all the circumstances it "finds itself in". To put it another way, the algorithm that deciphers an acorn, or any other seed, is pretty complex (and energy-bearing) itself. We see complex systems, but we see thenm in a specific context. The context is "background" -- deemed unimportant. But what if, in a Kolmogorov sense, that background is the soil from which those complex systems grow? -- Cliff ------- To unsubscribe, change your address, or temporarily deactivate your subscription, please go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
