On 14 May 2015, at 07:13, meekerdb wrote:
On 5/13/2015 5:32 PM, Russell Standish wrote:
On Thu, May 14, 2015 at 11:26:17AM +1200, LizR wrote:
On 13 May 2015 at 18:20, Russell Standish <[email protected]>
wrote:
For a robust ontology, counterfactuals are physically instantiated,
therefore the MGA is invalid.
Can you elaborate on this? ISTM that counterfactuals aren't, and
indeed
can't, be physically instantiated. (Isn't that what being
counterfactual
means?!)
No - counterfactual just means not in this universe. If its not in
any
universe, then its not just counterfactual, but actually illogical,
or
impossible, or something.
If "not in any universe" is meant in the Kripke sense, then
something not in any universe is something that is logically
impossible. But if "not in any universe" is meant in the MWI sense,
then counterfactuals are only those outcomes consistent with QM but
which don't happen.
OK.
I think it is only the latter kind of counterfactual that need be
considered in computations.
Not OK. You beg the question of justifying why the physical
computation wins. You then miss the comp promise of explaining the
physical form from something simpler like the combinatorial, or the
arithmetical, or the sigma_1 complete set, etc.
Unless you talk like if UDA is understood, and suggest a way to
explain physical counterfactualness in term of the physics extracted
from comp, which you assume is QM. In that case, I can make sense of
your sentence.
Are you defending physicalism? Or are you trying to justify the
appearance of physicalism in comp?
Sometimes, out of context, those two things can't avoid to look
similar. At some point peole should perhaps make clear all what they
assume.
Bruno
Brent
As I mentioned, a simple example is my decision between tea and
coffee. In
the MWI (or an infinite universe) there are separate branches (or
locations) in which I have both - but in the branch where I had
tea, I
didn't have coffee, and vice versa. And because those branches can't
communicate, the road not taken remains counterfactual and non-
physical
within each branch. Isn't that enough for the MGA to not need to
worry
about counterfactuals, even in the MWI/Level whatever multiverse?
Why is communication needed?
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