On Wed, Feb 07, 2007 at 06:10:34PM -0500, John M wrote: > > I can't wait for Bruno's (and others') versions. > > John M >
My take on physical and existence. Physical: that which "kicks back" in the Samuel Johnson sense. It doesn't rule out idealism, because the virtual reality in a VR simulation also kicks back. Existence: This is a word with many meanings. To use it, one should first say what type of existence you mean. For instance mathematical existence means a property of a number that is true - eg "47 is prime". Anthropic existence might mean something that "kicks back" to some observer somewhere in the plenitude of possibilities. There is another type of existence referring to that which "kicks back" to me here, right now. And so on. It is possible to say "physical existence = mathematical existence" as Tegmark does, but this is almost a definition, rather than a statement of metaphysics. Cheers -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A/Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Mathematics UNSW SYDNEY 2052 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Australia http://www.hpcoders.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
