On Thu, Aug 22, 2013 Telmo Menezes <[email protected]> wrote: >> There are only 3 possibilities: >> 1) Our brains work by cause and effect processes; if so then the same >> thing >> can be done on a computer. >> 2) Our brains do NOT work by cause and effect processes; if so then they >> are random and the same thing can be done on a $20 hardware random number >> generator. >> 3) Sometimes our brains work by cause and effect processes and sometimes >> they don't; if so then they can be done on a computer and a a $20 >> hardware random number generator. > >
> There are many other conceivable options. Many? > > I'll try one. Not saying I believe in it, of course. My aim is to > demonstrate that you are not exhausting the possible scenarios: We live > inside a simulation created by ultra-intelligent beings in some external > universe. Then there are only 2 possibilities: 1) The ultra computer that simulates our world changes from one state to the other for a reason; if so then our simulated computers which change from one state to the other for a simulated reason can create a simulated simulated world that also looks real to its simulated simulated inhabitants. 2) The ultra computer that simulates our world changes from one state to the other for NO reason; if so then its random and there's nothing very ultra about the machine. > In this scenario, comp is false as far as we're concerned. > Cannot comment, I don't know what "comp" is. > I agree with Quentin, btw: causality has nothing to do with computation. > Nothing? Then I don't know what you mean by computation. What causal thing can we do but a computer can't? It's true that Turing proved there are some real numbers, most of them in fact, that a computer could never find even if it had an infinite clock speed, but we can't find those numbers either. John K Clark -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
