Russell, I agree with both you and Wheeler here. But the very act of comparing assumes time flows. A flash frozen brain with its exact neural state is dead. That neural state must continually refresh and be supported by electrochemical energy to be alive and perceive its information state.
Block universes are DEAD things. There must be active energy for anything to be real and actual. Thus there must be time. A block universe is a dead universe preserved in formaldehyde. Only a Frankenstein would claim that it lives or could be reanimated! Edgar On Wednesday, February 5, 2014 6:55:42 PM UTC-5, Russell Standish wrote: > > I rather like Wheeler's comment: "Time is what prevents everything > from happening at once". > > Another way of putting it is that in order to perceive something, > there needs to be a something with which to compare it. To get a bit > of information, one needs a difference. So time is necessary in order > to compare two things in one's mind. > > (Page 63 of my book, "Theory of Nothing"). > > Cheers > > On Wed, Feb 05, 2014 at 03:40:11PM -0800, Edgar L. Owen wrote: > > Russell, > > > > If it's not intractable, then what's the explanation? > > > > Edgar > > > > On Wednesday, February 5, 2014 6:17:59 PM UTC-5, Russell Standish wrote: > > > > > > On Wed, Feb 05, 2014 at 02:43:32PM -0800, Edgar L. Owen wrote: > > > > Russell, > > > > > > > > That's a block time interpretation, not as you imply anything > proven. > > > > Certainly the equations themselves don't necessitate that... > > > > > > > > If you accept that you are faced with the intractable problem of > > > explaining > > > > the source of that moving 1p viewpoint. > > > > > > > > > > It doesn't seem particularly intractable to me, although it is related > > > to the "hard question" of how qualia comes about, so perhaps you are > > > alluding to that. > > > > > > > And notice that strictly block time says NOTHING moves, not even a > 1p > > > > viewpoint, > > > > > > Block time doesn't mention 1p at all. The subjective is not part of > > > its explanatory reach. Perhaps you are trying to attribute too much > > > explanatory power to the notion of block time? If you hold that block > > > time is all that there is, then you are basically eliminatavist in > > > your approach. Julian Barbour is in that camp, but I think that most > > > denizens of this list are not, except perhaps John Clark who dismisses > > > it as pee-pee. > > > > > > > that it's all a mysterious illusion of perspective that makes it > > > > seem like something moves when nothing actually does, though of > course > > > no > > > > one can explain why or how.... > > > > > > > > Edgar > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > > > Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) > > > Principal, High Performance Coders > > > Visiting Professor of Mathematics > > > hpc...@hpcoders.com.au<javascript:> > > > > University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > 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 everything-li...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>. > > To post to this group, send email to > > everyth...@googlegroups.com<javascript:>. > > > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) > Principal, High Performance Coders > Visiting Professor of Mathematics hpc...@hpcoders.com.au<javascript:> > University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > -- 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 everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
