On 2 March 2014 21:33, Bruno Marchal <[email protected]> wrote: > > Because "1+1=2" is elementary math, learned in high school. > " "1+1=2" is a fact " is a non trivial philosophical statement, which > involved a non trivial notion like "fact". I have seen people discussing ad > nauseam on what is a fact, and some philosopher would not agree that > elementary arithmetical statement can be considered as fact. > (Bp is more "I believe in "1+1=2", or I can justify that 1+1=2). >
OK, I think I see that. > >> But if you accept the Doctor's offer then you are committing to a >> "capsule theory of identity" which implies most of what you have said about >> duplication experiments with delays, VR, and so on. >> >> OK. I would say "relative (to universal numbers) capsule theory of >> identity". >> > > I'm not sure I understand, what would be the alternative capsule theory > (i.e. one that isn't relative to universal numbers?) > > > Because the state that the doctor put on some disk has a sense only > relatively to the possible state of some other universal system. > In fact any number might defined your actual state relatively to *some* > universal system, itself making sense thanks to the local "physical laws", > for example. A number by itself does not refer to a computational state, > you need at least two numbers, or you need to fix the base system, or to > make precise the UD you work with. The notion of computational state is > relative. OK? > When everything is reduced to arithmetic, we have to take into account > this "relativity of relativity". > > I think I get this, in an intuitive sort of way. It has seemed to me from the start that numbers of themselves can't do anything - so they must need to do so relative to something. But I probably need to learn more to really understand this. -- 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.
