Hi Russell,
But does this only make the problem worse? The quantity of information that
would have to be specified in analogue recordings would be at least some power
greater than the information necessary to specify the finite bit digital
version! I would like to be wrong on this, but ISTM that the Newtonian picture
of the universe demands infinite computational resources to implement the
Laplace Demon. I am trying to make sense of the Bekenstein bound and an idea in
resent discussion by David Deutsch in his On Optimism speech – a speech that I
wish all persons would watch and comprehend.
I do overthink things. My lovely and brilliant wife often points this out
to me. Please allow me to ask another question. Is the notion of an “observer
moment” corresponding to “the smallest possible conscious experience” related
to Bruno’s concept of substitution level? ISTM that both act like the idea of a
coarse graining on an ensemble that is used to define the entropy of a system
in that all of the members of the ensemble that are indistinguishable from a
macroscopic point of view. Related to this see:
http://dare.uva.nl/document/134446 and http://arxiv.org/abs/1005.3972 . In our
search to define a generic non-anthropocentric notion of an observer, I think
that this notion of a lower bound on observable differences may help us see a
better outline of the idea that we are looking for.
Onward!
Stephen
From: Russell Standish
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2011 5:40 AM
To: everything-list@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Reading The Theory of Nothing
I can't help but think you are overanalysing things, but who
knows. ISTM that your concerns are about an unjustified digitisation
of reality.
In saying recording, I'm not assuming that the recording is digital,
nor that the "single predetermined worldline" is digital either. The
argument also works for continuous universes, and analog recordings of
those processes within that universe.
I should also comment that Bruno's "movie graph" is an analogue recording
too.
On Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 09:54:21PM -0400, Stephen Paul King wrote:
> Hi Russell and Bruno,
>
> I’ve been slowly reading “The Theory of Nothing” by Russell K. Standish
> and stumbled over the following sentence (that has Bruno’s discussion of the
> Movie Graph Argument and Maudlin’s Olympia and Klara in the context): “All
> physical processes occupying single predetermined world lines must be
> equivalent to a recording of the process.” pg. 144.
>
> 1) Does this statement not seem only consistent with a purely
> Newtonian definition of a process such that the “single predetermined
> world line”? How is the fact that our physical world is demonstrably
> only approximately Newtonian not require us to rethink this statement?
> I contend that there is a lot of rubbish ideas being taken seriously
> by serious thinkers in fundamental studies. One is that the Planck
> constant implies that Nature’s behaviors only exists in integer
> multiples of this constant. Such an assumption leads to nonsense such
> as the idea that space-time is granular at small size/high energy
> scales. This idea has observable consequences that have been observed
> to not be the case. Resent observations of ultra high energy gamma ray
> photons have shown that space-time is smooth even at those scales in
> direct violation of the nonsense’s predictions. Are we not using
> empirical evidence to guide our considerations?
>
--
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Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
Principal, High Performance Coders
Visiting Professor of Mathematics hpco...@hpcoders.com.au
University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au
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