On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 10:14 AM, Brent Meeker <[email protected]>wrote:
> On 3/8/2011 3:14 AM, Andrew Soltau wrote: > >> What I am driving at here is the same question as in the email Comp. >> Granted that all possible states exist, what changes the point of the >> present moment from one to another. My referring to 'the thinker' was >> probably not a helpful metaphor. Given the universal numbers, what carries >> out the process whereby one is transformed into another? What makes the >> state of the thinker or the dreamer into the state of that entity at the >> next moment? >> >> Andrew >> > > I think the idea is analogous to the block universe. In Platonia all the > states of "the thinker" and his relation to the world are "computed" in a > timeless way. The impression of time for "the thinker" is recovered by > putting the states into a sequence which is implicitly defined by their > content. > > Brent > > > Bruno and others, Do you think that computations performed by a computer or brain within a block universe contribute to the computational histories of a person? I can see why in a movie they do not, as there is no mathematical relation between the frames. However, in a universe ruled by equations, it seems to me that a computer in a universe is leveraging relations in math to perform computations, albeit less directly than a platonic Turing machine running a program. To me it is like running a simulation of a brain on a virtual machine on physical hardware. The VM provides a level of abstraction, but ultimately its computations are still computations. In the same way a mathematical universe is a level of abstraction yet could still provide a platform for genuine computation (not descriptions of computation) to be performed. What do you think? Jason -- 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.
