> My guess is that that physical theory (and that subset of computations > or computed states) would end up being proven to > be essentially equivalent to the physical theory of OUR universe. In > other words, I believe in parochialism, because > I believe everywhere else is a devilish, chaotic place
Perhaps, but hydro-thermal vents are rather devilish locales relative to our raher narrow comfort zones. > You can't just say "there could be life and sentience in this > (arbitrarily weird) set of constraints" and then not bother to > define what you mean by life and sentience. They aren't self-explanatory > concepts. Our definitions of them only apply > within universes that behave at least roughly as ours does. > Fair enough. How about, say, if a given universe can harbour phenomena that meet at least this criteria: "Life is the result of the non random replication of randomly varying replicators" (Dawkins) Then the possibility of emergent sentience can be entertained, IMHO. CMR
