Mark Peaty wrote:
Brent: 'Remember that Bruno is a logician.'
MP: :-) Yes, this much is easy to infer. The full scope of what this
might MEAN however, is little short of terrifying ... ;-)
MP: Infinity, infinite, infinitely big or small; these are challenging
concepts at the best of times and made very interesting to the point of
mind-boggling in the contexts of QM and relativity theory. In QM, there
is apparently NOT an infinitely small level of existence that could be
reached by any kind of measurement due to the shortest length and
shortest durations denoted by the Planck length and Planck time. I
personally wonder whether there is room to criticise this limitation.
The underlying concept of Process Physics [let me call that PP from now
on] directly challenges the idea.
MP: My point about measurement is to do with the fact that in seeking to
get as exact a copy as possible, not just a working model, it is
possible that the digital representations of salient features might need
more decimal places than the recording and/or transmission systems can
provide.
Lawrence Krauss wrote a book called "The Physics of Star Trek" in which he discusses the
"transporter" on the Enterprise. He calculates that to measure the location of the atoms
in a human body in order to recreate it (as in 'Bean me up Scotty') would take an enormous amount
of energy - something like converting the mass of the Earth to energy. However, all that is needed
for the arguments that appear on this list is to recreate a rough, functioning copy of the body
plus a detailed reproduction of memory and a brain that functioned approximately the same. That
much might not be too hard. After all, as Stathis points out, you're not the same atoms you were a
week ago - and I've already forgotten what I had for lunch day before yesterday.
Brent Meeker
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