Eric Hawthorne writes: > One of the issues is the computational complexity of "running all the > possible i.e. definable programs" to > create an informational multiverse out of which consistent, metric, > regular, observable info-universes > emerge. If computation takes energy (as it undeniably does WITHIN our > universe), then an unfathomably > impossibly large amount of "extra-universal" energy would be required to > compute all info-universes.
This is an interesting posting, and I'll try to write more about it later. I do have one objection, which is that computation actually does not take energy within our universe. Reversible computing is a model for doing computation with arbitrarily small amounts of energy. Now, I'm not sure whether that actually makes a difference in the plausibility of an abstract computational engine grinding away on all programs simultaneously and creating all possible universes. I don't think anyone intends this to be taken literally enough that we should worry about where the energy, matter, time and space come from which such a computer might need. Whether computation inherently uses energy or not may doesn't seem that relevant. Hal Finney
