On 1/8/2014 5:20 PM, Stephen Paul King wrote:
Dear Brent,
I agree with you 100%! But that seems to imply that there is something "real" about
the physical. I think that we can obtain a form of realism that does not involve a
"god's eye view" by appealing to the possibility of coherent communication between
multiple observers. Observers being defined as intersections of an infinite number of
computations, ala Bruno's definition. We do not need an ontologically primitive physical
world, we only need a "level of substitution" so that the "Yes, Doctor" choice is possible.
Notice that you had to put "real" in scare quotes - because it isn't clear what it means.
I think the conclusion is that, in Bruno's MGA, the inert program needs to include a great
deal, essentially a whole universe. That doesn't make it wrong, but to me it makes it
less interesting. It would be surprising than an inert program could implement
consciousness in this world, since it couldn't interact with this world. But if it's
conscious within it's own world, then it's just like any other simulation (e.g. The Matrix).
Brent
On Wednesday, January 8, 2014 5:40:33 PM UTC-5, Brent wrote:
On 1/7/2014 10:36 PM, LizR wrote:
> Max's main lacuna is the nature of consciousness, which he describes as
"what data
feels
> like when it's being processed" - hardly a detailed theory. He starts his
Mathematical
> Universe Hypothesis from the opposite pole to Bruno, so to speak. I
wonder if it's
> possible for a particular mathemathical object to drop out of comp -
after all, we do
> appear to live in a universe with a specific set of laws of physics. Are
these the
only
> ones that could be generated by comp (or generated by the existence of
conscious
beings
> in Platonia) ? Maybe one needs to somehow intersect comp with the MUH to
get the
full story!
I think to be conscious you need memory and a sense of time passage
(although Bruno
disputes this when he comes back from a salvia trip). To escape solipism
there must be
objects your perceive, some of which act like you, and on which you can act
(c.f. Dr
Johnson). That implies that there must be a quasi-classical world in order
to support
consciousness (at least human-like consciousness).
Brent
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