Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-28 Thread Bruno Marchal


On 28 May 2012, at 04:00, Russell Standish wrote:


On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 06:20:29PM +0200, Bruno Marchal wrote:


On 27 May 2012, at 12:15, Russell Standish wrote:

I still don't follow. If I have proved a is true in some world, why
should I infer that it is true in all worlds? What am I missing?


I realize my previous answer might be too long and miss your
question. Apology if it is the case.

Here is a shorter answer. The idea of proving, is that what is
proved in true in all possible world. If not, a world would exist as
a counter-example, invalidating the argument.


I certainly missed that. Is that given as an axiom?


That would be a meta-axiom in a theory defining what is logic. But  
that does not exist. It is just part of what logic intuitively  
consists in.
Logicians are not interested of truth or interpretation of statements.  
They are interested in validity. What sentences follow from what  
sentences, independently of interpretations, and thus true in all  
possible worlds.





It seems like that
would be written p - []p.


This means that if p then p is provable. p - Bp, if B = provable,  
is completeness (with the meaning of completeness = its meaning in  
incompleteness). This is false in non rich theory (by the fact that  
their are non rich) and false in rich theory, by the fact that rich  
theory obeys to the incompleteness theorem. So, it is true for rare  
exception (like the first order theory of real numbers) which is not  
rich (not sigma_1 complete).


Take the proposition (a v b) in propositional logic. Take the world  
{(a t), (b, f)}, i.e. the world with a true, and b false. Let p = (a v  
b). This provides a counter-example to p - Bp. p is true in that  
world (because a v b is true if a is true), yet it is not provable,  
because it is false in some other world, like the world with both a  
and b false.


Or take p = Dt.  Dt - BDt contradicts immediately the second  
incompleteness theorem which says that Dt - ~BDt.








When I say p is true in a world, I can only prove that p is true in
that world.


I don't think so. If p is true, that does not mean you can prove it,  
neither in your world, nor in some other world.




I am mute on the subject of whether p is true in any other
world (unless I can use an axiom like the above).


By the logicians notion of proof, if you prove a proposition, it is  
true in all worlds/model/interpretation.





In what class of logics would such an axiom be taken to be true.


All.




(Of
course it is true in classical logic, but there is only one world  
there).


In classical propositional logic, a world is just anything to which we  
attach a valuation t, or f, to the atomic proposition, p, q r, ...  
This makes 2^aleph_zero worlds. A world can be identified with a  
function from {p, q, r, ...} to {t, f}.
In first order logic, worlds can be identified with interpretations,  
or models. All first order theories have many models. In fact for any  
cardinal, there is a model having that cardinal. The number of worlds  
exceeds the cardinals nameable in set theory.


Bruno






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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-28 Thread Bruno Marchal


On 28 May 2012, at 10:37, Bruno Marchal wrote:



On 28 May 2012, at 04:00, Russell Standish wrote:


On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 06:20:29PM +0200, Bruno Marchal wrote:


On 27 May 2012, at 12:15, Russell Standish wrote:

I still don't follow. If I have proved a is true in some world, why
should I infer that it is true in all worlds? What am I missing?


I realize my previous answer might be too long and miss your
question. Apology if it is the case.

Here is a shorter answer. The idea of proving, is that what is
proved in true in all possible world. If not, a world would exist as
a counter-example, invalidating the argument.


I certainly missed that. Is that given as an axiom?


That would be a meta-axiom in a theory defining what is logic. But  
that does not exist. It is just part of what logic intuitively  
consists in.
Logicians are not interested of truth or interpretation of  
statements. They are interested in validity. What sentences follow  
from what sentences, independently of interpretations, and thus true  
in all possible worlds.





It seems like that
would be written p - []p.


This means that if p then p is provable. p - Bp, if B = provable,  
is completeness (with the meaning of completeness = its meaning in  
incompleteness). This is false in non rich theory (by the fact that  
their are non rich) and false in rich theory, by the fact that rich  
theory obeys to the incompleteness theorem. So, it is true for rare  
exception (like the first order theory of real numbers) which is not  
rich (not sigma_1 complete).


Take the proposition (a v b) in propositional logic. Take the world  
{(a t), (b, f)}, i.e. the world with a true, and b false. Let p = (a  
v b). This provides a counter-example to p - Bp. p is true in that  
world (because a v b is true if a is true), yet it is not provable,  
because it is false in some other world, like the world with both a  
and b false.


Or take p = Dt.  Dt - BDt contradicts immediately the second  
incompleteness theorem which says that Dt - ~BDt.








When I say p is true in a world, I can only prove that p is true in
that world.


I don't think so. If p is true, that does not mean you can prove it,  
neither in your world, nor in some other world.




I am mute on the subject of whether p is true in any other
world (unless I can use an axiom like the above).


By the logicians notion of proof, if you prove a proposition, it is  
true in all worlds/model/interpretation.





In what class of logics would such an axiom be taken to be true.


All.


Oops. I realize that you were perhaps alluding to p-Bp. In that  
case, I should have answered almost none.


In modal logic p-Bp is called TRIV, for trivial. The reason is  
that before Löb, most modal logic have Bp - p as an axiom, and with  
both p-Bp and Bp-p, we have p - Bp, and so the modal logic can  
collapse into classical propositional logic.


But this actually not true for the provability logics, which are very  
subtle.


Indeed, with B = Gödel's provability (the talk of the Löbian machine),  
although p - Bp is usually false (cf p = Dt and incompleteness) we  
still have that p - Bp is true for all p = sigma_1 arithmetical  
sentence.
You can intuit this easily. If p = ExP(x) with P decidable, the the  
truth of p makes it provable, because if a number has a verifiable  
property, you can find it by testing 0, 1, 2, 3, ... That is exactly  
what all universal machine can do. Sigma_1 completeness (= p-Bp  
with p sigma_1) is a provability characterization of Turing  
universality.


So by adding p-Bp we characterize the logic of provability of the  
sigma_1 sentences, and that is how I model the UD in arithmetic.


The miracle is that this does not make the modal logic collapsing. I  
can come back on this issue some later day. Perhaps in the FOAR list,  
or here, depending of the comments.


But this is very exceptional, and illustrates that G and G*, and  
S4Grz, etc. are very special logics, quite counter-intuitive.
p- Bp, added to G adds the quantum p-BDp to the intensional  
variants, and makes the intelligible and sensible matter obeying  
arithmetical quantum logics, leading to the beginning of the  
extraction of physics from arithmetic.


Bruno








(Of
course it is true in classical logic, but there is only one world  
there).


In classical propositional logic, a world is just anything to which  
we attach a valuation t, or f, to the atomic proposition, p, q  
r, ... This makes 2^aleph_zero worlds. A world can be identified  
with a function from {p, q, r, ...} to {t, f}.
In first order logic, worlds can be identified with interpretations,  
or models. All first order theories have many models. In fact for  
any cardinal, there is a model having that cardinal. The number of  
worlds exceeds the cardinals nameable in set theory.


Bruno






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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-28 Thread Bruno Marchal


On 28 May 2012, at 11:35, Russell Standish wrote:


On Mon, May 28, 2012 at 10:37:53AM +0200, Bruno Marchal wrote:


On 28 May 2012, at 04:00, Russell Standish wrote:


On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 06:20:29PM +0200, Bruno Marchal wrote:


On 27 May 2012, at 12:15, Russell Standish wrote:
I still don't follow. If I have proved a is true in some world,  
why

should I infer that it is true in all worlds? What am I missing?


I realize my previous answer might be too long and miss your
question. Apology if it is the case.

Here is a shorter answer. The idea of proving, is that what is
proved in true in all possible world. If not, a world would exist  
as

a counter-example, invalidating the argument.


I certainly missed that. Is that given as an axiom?


That would be a meta-axiom in a theory defining what is logic. But
that does not exist. It is just part of what logic intuitively
consists in.


Well, I can tell you, it is not intuitive! Perhaps there is some
background understanding that is missing.


Yes. Logic, I am afraid. Logic the field, not logic as we use it  
everyday. Don't worry, virtually all non professional logicians miss  
it.  And logicians miss that non logician miss it. It is a very  
technical field.


But the idea that proof, or Bp, entails truth in all world/model is  
given by the completeness theorem of Gödel, or by Kripke semantics  
(with all worlds becoming all accessible worlds). See my previous  
post.







Logicians are not interested of truth or interpretation of
statements. They are interested in validity. What sentences follow
from what sentences, independently of interpretations, and thus true
in all possible worlds.




It seems like that
would be written p - []p.


This means that if p then p is provable. p - Bp, if B = provable,


[]p means (primarily) true in all worlds. In Kripke semantics, it is
relativised to mean true in all accessible worlds.


Yes.



The meaning of provability is a different interpretation.


Yes. But then there are relations linking them. See my previous post  
on Solovay theorem which makes such a relation, and which can be sum  
up by:  G is the modal logic of provability.












When I say p is true in a world, I can only prove that p is true in
that world.


I don't think so. If p is true, that does not mean you can prove it,
neither in your world, nor in some other world.


p may be true, but if I don't know it (or can't prove it), I  
shouldn't be

asserting it :).


OK. But the fact is that p might be true in your world, and you can  
know or not that fact, independently of the fact that you can prove it  
or not.
We have to distinguish p is true with p is proved, p is known,  
p is observed, etc. All those modalities obeys different logics.
Besides, if you can prove p, this does not make it true in your world,  
as Bp - p, might be non provable, or even false. In that cse your  
world is not accessible from your world: the accessibility relation is  
not reflexive (that is the case for G).
In a cul-de-sac world, Bf - f is false for example. Typically, a cul- 
de-sac world does not access to itself, indeed it accesses to no world  
at all.









I am mute on the subject of whether p is true in any other
world (unless I can use an axiom like the above).


By the logicians notion of proof, if you prove a proposition, it is
true in all worlds/model/interpretation.



Even if the proof relied upon some facet that may or may not be true
in all worlds?


Yes, because that facets will need to be 'conditionalized upon' in  
your world ... to have a proof.
A world is a semantic notion, and you cannot refer to it in a proof  
(an error well illustrated by Craig, with all my respect).


Bruno








In what class of logics would such an axiom be taken to be true.


All.




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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-28 Thread meekerdb

On 5/28/2012 1:37 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:

I am mute on the subject of whether p is true in any other
world (unless I can use an axiom like the above).


By the logicians notion of proof, if you prove a proposition, it is true in all 
worlds/model/interpretation. 


But the 'worlds' are defined by the axioms and rules of inference.  So you could change or 
add axioms and get different 'worlds'.  In this logicians idea of 'world' it is not the 
case that you only prove things in the one world you're in.


Brent

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-27 Thread Evgenii Rudnyi

On 26.05.2012 21:06 Bruno Marchal said the following:


On 26 May 2012, at 16:48, Evgenii Rudnyi wrote:


On 26.05.2012 11:30 Bruno Marchal said the following:


On 26 May 2012, at 08:47, Evgenii Rudnyi wrote:


...


In my view, it would be nicer to treat such a question
historically. Your position based on your theorem, after all,
is one of possible positions.


What do you mean by my position? I don't think I defend a
position. I do study the consequence of comp, if only to give a
chance to a real non-comp theory.


A position that the natural numbers are the foundation of the
world.


I don't defend that position. I show it to be a consequence of the
comp hypothesis + occam razor.


I do appreciate the clearness of your position. From this viewpoint, the 
language of mathematics allows us to remove ambiguities indeed.


...



When we talk with each other and make proofs we use a human
language. Hence to make sure that we can make universal proofs by
means of a human language, it might be good to reach an agreement
on what it is.


This is an impossible task. That is why I use the semi-axiomatic
method (in UDA), and math in AUDA. If you disagree with a method of
reasoning, you have to explain why. In english, no problem.


I also agree that human language in a way is a mess. Yet, somehow it 
seems to work and this puzzles my, how it could happen when even 
mathematicians failed to analyze it.


...


I am not against non-comp, but I am against any gap-theory, where
we introduce something in the ontology to make a problem
unsolvable leading to don't ask policy.


We are back to a human language. It seems that you mean that some
constructions expressed by it do not make sense. It well might be
but again we have to discuss the language then.


I don't see why we have to discuss language, apart from the machines
and their languages.


It seems that there is a gap between the language of mathematics and a 
human language. It might be interesting to understand it. It might give 
us a hint on how the Universe is made. You see, we must use a human 
language to communicate, with the language of mathematics this would not 
work. I do not know why.




As for comp, I have written once

Simulation Hypothesis and Simulation Technology
http://blog.rudnyi.ru/2011/09/simulation-hypothesis-and-simulation-technology.html



that practically speaking it just does not work. I understand that
you talk in principle but how could we know if comp in principle is
true if we cannot check it in practice?


The whole point is that we can check it, at least if you accept the
classical theory of knowledge. Physics arise from number
self-reference in a precise constrained way, and the logic of
observable already give rise to quantum-like logic. If mechanism is
false, we can know it. If it is true we can only bet on it, and the
bet or not on some level of substitution. The facts (Everett QM)
gives evidence that our first person plural is given by the
electronic orbital, our stories does not depend on the precise
position of electron in those orbitals.




I personally find an extrapolation of a working model outside of
its scope that has been researched pretty dangerous.


I am just showing that computationalism (widespread) and materialism
 (widespread) are incompatible. I reason only, and I extrapolate less
 than Aristotelians.


I am afraid that reason only is not enough to understand Nature. I am 
browsing now The Soul of Science: Christian Faith and Natural 
Philosophy. Let me give a quote that in an enjoyable way expresses my 
thought above.


p. 19 In 1277 Etienne Tempier, Bishop of Paris, issued a condemnation 
of several theses derived from Aristotelianism - that God could not 
allow any form of planetary motion other than circular, that He could 
not make a vacuum, and many more. The condemnation of 1277 helped 
inspire a form of theology known as voluntarism, which admitted no 
limitations on God’s power. It regarded natural law not as Forms 
inherent within nature but as divine commands imposed from outside 
nature. Voluntarism insisted that the structure of the universe - 
indeed, its very existence - is not rationally necessary but is 
contingent upon the free and transcendent will of God.


One of the most important consequences of voluntarist theology for 
science is that it helped to inspire and justify an experimental 
methodology. For if God created freely rather than by logical necessity, 
then we cannot gain knowledge of it by logical deduction (which traces 
necessary connections). Instead, we have to go out and look, to observe 
and experiment. As Barbour puts it:


'The world is orderly and dependable because God is trustworthy and not 
capricious; but the details of the world must be found by observation 
rather than rational deduction because God is free and did not have to 
create any particular kind of universe.'


Evgenii

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-27 Thread Russell Standish
On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 03:42:15PM +0200, Bruno Marchal wrote:
 
 But a = Ba is a valid rule for all logic having a Kripke
 semantics. Why? Because it means that a is supposed to be valid (for
 example you have already prove it), so a, like any theorem,  will be
 true in all worlds, so a will be in particular true in all worlds
 accessible from anywhere in the model, so Ba will be true in all
 worlds of the model, so Ba is also a theorem.

I still don't follow. If I have proved a is true in some world, why
should I infer that it is true in all worlds? What am I missing?


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Visiting Professor of Mathematics  hpco...@hpcoders.com.au
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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-27 Thread Bruno Marchal


On 27 May 2012, at 12:15, Russell Standish wrote:


On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 03:42:15PM +0200, Bruno Marchal wrote:


But a = Ba is a valid rule for all logic having a Kripke
semantics. Why? Because it means that a is supposed to be valid (for
example you have already prove it), so a, like any theorem,  will be
true in all worlds, so a will be in particular true in all worlds
accessible from anywhere in the model, so Ba will be true in all
worlds of the model, so Ba is also a theorem.


I still don't follow. If I have proved a is true in some world, why
should I infer that it is true in all worlds? What am I missing?


1) You might be missing the soundness theorem, perhaps.

I give an example with classical propositional logic. Suppose that you  
prove some formula, like (p  q)-q, then automatically the formula is  
true in all propositional worlds (which are given by the valuation of  
the atomic propositions).
Indeed you can verify that (p  q)-q is true in the four type of  
possible worlds (those with p true and q true, p true and q false, p  
false and q true, and p false and q false).


That is related to the idea that a valid proof does not depend on the  
world, or interpretations, or contexts, etc. So if you prove something  
it has to be true in all world, and that is why logicians favor  
theories having a semantics such that they can prove a soundness  
theorem. Of course they are even more happy when they have a theory  
with a completeness theorem, which provides the opposite: all  
proposition true in all interpretations (model, worlds, ...) can be  
proved in the theory. This is the case for all first order theory. So  
RA, PA, ZF are complete in that sense. M proves p iff p is true in all  
models (interpretation, worlds) of p. Of course they are incomplete in  
the incompleteness sense. Gödel proved the completeness theory PA,  
and actually of all first order theories (in his PhD thesis, 1930),  
and the incompleteness of PA (actually of PM, 1931).
So completeness in completeness theorem and incompleteness theorem,  
is used in different sense:


Keep in mind that the completeness theorem asserts that if M proves p,  
then p is true in all models of M.


OK?

2) You might perhaps also be missing, or not taking into account  
consciously enough, Kripke semantics. In that case we have the same  
language as propositional calculus, + the unary connector or operator B.


Unlike ~p, whose truth value depends only of the value of p, Bp value  
is not functionally dependent of the truth value of p.


Now, a modal logic theory which has the formula K (for Kripke) B(p-q)- 
(Bp-Bp), and whose set of theorems is closed for the modus ponens  
rule (a, a-b) / b, but also the necessitation rule (p / Bp), can be  
given a so called Kripke semantics (due indeed to Kripke, around 1968,  
I think). [I write (p/BP) instead of p = Bp, to avoid confusion with  
-].


In that semantics, you have a referential (any set with a binary  
relation). The elements of the set are called world and designate by  
greek letters, and the relation is called accessibility relation,  
often designated by R, and if (alpha, beta) belongs to R, we write as  
usual alpha R beta.


That referential becomes a model when, on each world, you give a  
valuation on the atomic sentences p, q, r, ... and you extend, as in  
propositional logic the value of the compound formula. All worlds  
obeys classical propositional logic, so to speak. If a is true in  
alpha, and if b is true in alpha, we will have (a  b) is true in alpha.


But this will not provide a valuation for Bp, as Bp does not truth- 
functionally depend on the value of p.


Kripke defined the truth of Bp in the world alpha, by the truth of p  
in all the worlds accessible from alpha.


Bp is true is everywhere I will find myself, p is true. It is natural  
with most known modalities (where Bp/Dp ([ ]/), with Dp = ~B~p,  
corresponds to Necessity/Possibility, Obligation/Permission,  
Everywhere/Somewhere, Always/Once, For-all/It-exists, etc.).


If Bp means that p is true in all worlds accessible from the world I  
am in, Dp meaning ~B~p, will mean that it is false that ~p is true in  
all worlds accessible, and thus that there is a world where p is true.
So, Dp is true in alpha if it exists a world beta with p true in beta  
and (alpha R beta).


So here, like provability above, Bp is related to true in all  
(accessible) worlds.


Then you have the completeness theorem for many modal logic.

K4 proves A iff A is true in all models with R transitive   (4 = Bp -  
BBp)

KTproves A iff A is true in all models with R réflexive  (T = Bp - p)
KTB proves A iff A is true in all models with R réflexive and  
symmetrical

and
G proves A iff A is true in all finite models with R irreflexive and  
realist (realist means that all transitory world accesses to cul-de- 
sac, and a world is transitory if it is a not a cul-de-sac, and of  
course a cul-de-sac world is a world alpha such 

Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-27 Thread Bruno Marchal


On 27 May 2012, at 12:15, Russell Standish wrote:


On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 03:42:15PM +0200, Bruno Marchal wrote:


But a = Ba is a valid rule for all logic having a Kripke
semantics. Why? Because it means that a is supposed to be valid (for
example you have already prove it), so a, like any theorem,  will be
true in all worlds, so a will be in particular true in all worlds
accessible from anywhere in the model, so Ba will be true in all
worlds of the model, so Ba is also a theorem.


I still don't follow. If I have proved a is true in some world, why
should I infer that it is true in all worlds? What am I missing?


I realize my previous answer might be too long and miss your question.  
Apology if it is the case.


Here is a shorter answer. The idea of proving, is that what is proved  
in true in all possible world. If not, a world would exist as a  
counter-example, invalidating the argument.


You might want to prove something about your actual world, but this  
can only have the form of a conditional like if my world satisfy such  
a such propositions then it has to satisfy that or this proposition,  
and that conditional has better to be true in all worlds, for we never  
really know which world we are in, we can only make theories.


Now, the modal Bp, and proof in math, can be study mathematically, and  
that is what I described in the preceding post, and constitutes a bit  
of the Arithmetical UDA.


Bruno



http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/



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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-27 Thread Bruno Marchal


On 27 May 2012, at 09:46, Evgenii Rudnyi wrote:


On 26.05.2012 21:06 Bruno Marchal said the following:


On 26 May 2012, at 16:48, Evgenii Rudnyi wrote:


On 26.05.2012 11:30 Bruno Marchal said the following:


On 26 May 2012, at 08:47, Evgenii Rudnyi wrote:


...


In my view, it would be nicer to treat such a question
historically. Your position based on your theorem, after all,
is one of possible positions.


What do you mean by my position? I don't think I defend a
position. I do study the consequence of comp, if only to give a
chance to a real non-comp theory.


A position that the natural numbers are the foundation of the
world.


I don't defend that position. I show it to be a consequence of the
comp hypothesis + occam razor.


I do appreciate the clearness of your position. From this viewpoint,  
the language of mathematics allows us to remove ambiguities indeed.


Yes, and that is not an argument for the truth of comp, but it is an  
argument for the interest of comp. It like looking for your key under  
the lamp, because out the light you can't find them.


But another reason, is that comp is more polite, with respect to the  
machine, and so if they can be conscious, there is less risk to hurt  
them, by betting on that.







...



When we talk with each other and make proofs we use a human
language. Hence to make sure that we can make universal proofs by
means of a human language, it might be good to reach an agreement
on what it is.


This is an impossible task. That is why I use the semi-axiomatic
method (in UDA), and math in AUDA. If you disagree with a method of
reasoning, you have to explain why. In english, no problem.


I also agree that human language in a way is a mess. Yet, somehow it  
seems to work and this puzzles my, how it could happen when even  
mathematicians failed to analyze it.



No machine at all can develop of semantics for its living language.  
Language are living phenomenon, containing probably universal memes.  
It can be more clever than us. The brain is the most complex known  
object in the universe. And brains (and machine) are already limited  
in their self-study for logical reason.


A clever machine is a machine which understands that she know nothing,  
really. But beliefs are possible and needed to survive.






...


I am not against non-comp, but I am against any gap-theory, where
we introduce something in the ontology to make a problem
unsolvable leading to don't ask policy.


We are back to a human language. It seems that you mean that some
constructions expressed by it do not make sense. It well might be
but again we have to discuss the language then.


I don't see why we have to discuss language, apart from the machines
and their languages.


It seems that there is a gap between the language of mathematics and  
a human language.


Don't confuse the formal languages, OBJECT of study of logicians, and  
the language of the mathematicians, and logicians, to prove things  
about what they are interested in. That language is human language.


Formalism just means that we ask the opinion of some machine. We ask  
ZF about the continuum hypothesis, and she answered that she does not  
know (somehow).




It might be interesting to understand it. It might give us a hint on  
how the Universe is made.


What do you mean by Universe? I am a bit skeptical about Universe.



You see, we must use a human language to communicate, with the  
language of mathematics this would not work.

I do not know why.


?
There is no language of mathematics. It is the human languages, with  
abbreviations. Don't confuse this with the formal languages of  
logicians and computer scientist. They are very easy to communicate  
with, as they are simpler (and sort of subset) of human language. In  
english you will say to the secretary could you print this document,  
but you can ask formally the machine, by print files of CONTROL-  
Command, or something.









As for comp, I have written once

Simulation Hypothesis and Simulation Technology
http://blog.rudnyi.ru/2011/09/simulation-hypothesis-and-simulation-technology.html



that practically speaking it just does not work. I understand that
you talk in principle but how could we know if comp in principle is
true if we cannot check it in practice?


The whole point is that we can check it, at least if you accept the
classical theory of knowledge. Physics arise from number
self-reference in a precise constrained way, and the logic of
observable already give rise to quantum-like logic. If mechanism is
false, we can know it. If it is true we can only bet on it, and the
bet or not on some level of substitution. The facts (Everett QM)
gives evidence that our first person plural is given by the
electronic orbital, our stories does not depend on the precise
position of electron in those orbitals.




I personally find an extrapolation of a working model outside of
its scope that has been researched pretty dangerous.


I am just 

Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-27 Thread Russell Standish
On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 06:20:29PM +0200, Bruno Marchal wrote:
 
 On 27 May 2012, at 12:15, Russell Standish wrote:
 I still don't follow. If I have proved a is true in some world, why
 should I infer that it is true in all worlds? What am I missing?
 
 I realize my previous answer might be too long and miss your
 question. Apology if it is the case.
 
 Here is a shorter answer. The idea of proving, is that what is
 proved in true in all possible world. If not, a world would exist as
 a counter-example, invalidating the argument.

I certainly missed that. Is that given as an axiom? It seems like that
would be written p - []p.

When I say p is true in a world, I can only prove that p is true in
that world. I am mute on the subject of whether p is true in any other
world (unless I can use an axiom like the above).

In what class of logics would such an axiom be taken to be true. (Of
course it is true in classical logic, but there is only one world there).


-- 


Prof Russell Standish  Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
Principal, High Performance Coders
Visiting Professor of Mathematics  hpco...@hpcoders.com.au
University of New South Wales  http://www.hpcoders.com.au


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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-26 Thread Evgenii Rudnyi

On 24.05.2012 09:52 Bruno Marchal said the following:


On 23 May 2012, at 20:19, Evgenii Rudnyi wrote:


...


nominalism that they are just notation and do not exist as such
independently from the mind.


But that distinction is usually made in the aristotelian context,
where some concrete physical universe is postulated. With comp we
know this is not possible. You can restate it by saying that the
natural numbers are concrete, but that a property like 'being prime
is abstract. Then mathematicians are mostly realist, because they
believe that being prime is an independent property of natural
numbers. for a mechanical generable set, like the set of prime
numbers, you can come back to nominalism through Gödel numbering, and
through the identification of the concept of primes with the number
(machine) which generates all and only the prime numbers. But this
leads to difficulties for the non mechanically generable sets of
numbers, which *do* play a role in the machine/numbers points of
view.




To me this difference realism vs. nominalism seems to be related
to the question whether mathematical objects are mental or not.


But with comp, mental is a number's attributes. And eventually
physical is a collection of number attribute. If you make
mathematical object mental, and *only* mental, you have to tell me
what you assume at the start in the theory. If you chose something
physical, then you have to abandon comp, and you have to tell how you
relate mental and physical, by using provably non Turing emulable
components. You will lose also the explanation of why something
physical exist, and why it hurts.



In my view, it would be nicer to treat such a question historically. 
Your position based on your theorem, after all, is one of possible 
positions. In your paper to express your position you employ a normal 
human language. Hence I believe that that the question about general 
terms in the human language is the same as about the natural numbers.


Again, the ideal world of Plato was not designed for natural numbers only.

Evgenii

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-26 Thread Bruno Marchal


On 26 May 2012, at 08:47, Evgenii Rudnyi wrote:


On 24.05.2012 09:52 Bruno Marchal said the following:


On 23 May 2012, at 20:19, Evgenii Rudnyi wrote:


...


nominalism that they are just notation and do not exist as such
independently from the mind.


But that distinction is usually made in the aristotelian context,
where some concrete physical universe is postulated. With comp we
know this is not possible. You can restate it by saying that the
natural numbers are concrete, but that a property like 'being prime
is abstract. Then mathematicians are mostly realist, because they
believe that being prime is an independent property of natural
numbers. for a mechanical generable set, like the set of prime
numbers, you can come back to nominalism through Gödel numbering, and
through the identification of the concept of primes with the number
(machine) which generates all and only the prime numbers. But this
leads to difficulties for the non mechanically generable sets of
numbers, which *do* play a role in the machine/numbers points of
view.




To me this difference realism vs. nominalism seems to be related
to the question whether mathematical objects are mental or not.


But with comp, mental is a number's attributes. And eventually
physical is a collection of number attribute. If you make
mathematical object mental, and *only* mental, you have to tell me
what you assume at the start in the theory. If you chose something
physical, then you have to abandon comp, and you have to tell how you
relate mental and physical, by using provably non Turing emulable
components. You will lose also the explanation of why something
physical exist, and why it hurts.



In my view, it would be nicer to treat such a question historically.  
Your position based on your theorem, after all, is one of possible  
positions.


What do you mean by my position? I don't think I defend a position.  
I do study the consequence of comp, if only to give a chance to a real  
non-comp theory.



In your paper to express your position you employ a normal human  
language. Hence I believe that that the question about general terms  
in the human language is the same as about the natural numbers.


? (I can agree and disagree, it is too vague)



Again, the ideal world of Plato was not designed for natural numbers  
only.


Sure. Although it begins with natural numbers only, and it ended on  
this, somehow, because the neoplatonists were aware of the importance  
of numbers and were coming back to Pythagorean form of platonism.


Now, with comp, or just with Church thesis, there is a sort of  
rehabilitation of the Pythagorean view, for the non natural numbers  
reappears in the natural number realm as unavoidable epistemic tools  
for the natural numbers to understand themselves, and anymore than  
numbers (and their basic laws) is not just unnecessary, it is that it  
cannot work without adding some explicit non-comp magic.


I am not against non-comp, but I am against any gap-theory, where we  
introduce something in the ontology to make a problem unsolvable  
leading to don't ask policy.


Bruno


http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/



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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-26 Thread Evgenii Rudnyi

On 26.05.2012 11:30 Bruno Marchal said the following:


On 26 May 2012, at 08:47, Evgenii Rudnyi wrote:


...


In my view, it would be nicer to treat such a question
historically. Your position based on your theorem, after all, is
one of possible positions.


What do you mean by my position? I don't think I defend a position.
I do study the consequence of comp, if only to give a chance to a
real non-comp theory.


A position that the natural numbers are the foundation of the world. I 
agree that you often repeat the assumption for your theorem but I 
believe that your answers to my question have been answered exactly from 
such a position.





In your paper to express your position you employ a normal human
language. Hence I believe that that the question about general
terms in the human language is the same as about the natural
numbers.


? (I can agree and disagree, it is too vague)


When we talk with each other and make proofs we use a human language. 
Hence to make sure that we can make universal proofs by means of a human 
language, it might be good to reach an agreement on what it is.




Again, the ideal world of Plato was not designed for natural
numbers only.


Sure. Although it begins with natural numbers only, and it ended on
 this, somehow, because the neoplatonists were aware of the
importance of numbers and were coming back to Pythagorean form of
platonism.

Now, with comp, or just with Church thesis, there is a sort of
rehabilitation of the Pythagorean view, for the non natural numbers
 reappears in the natural number realm as unavoidable epistemic tools
for the natural numbers to understand themselves, and anymore than
numbers (and their basic laws) is not just unnecessary, it is that it
cannot work without adding some explicit non-comp magic.

I am not against non-comp, but I am against any gap-theory, where we
 introduce something in the ontology to make a problem unsolvable
leading to don't ask policy.


We are back to a human language. It seems that you mean that some 
constructions expressed by it do not make sense. It well might be but 
again we have to discuss the language then.


As for comp, I have written once

Simulation Hypothesis and Simulation Technology
http://blog.rudnyi.ru/2011/09/simulation-hypothesis-and-simulation-technology.html

that practically speaking it just does not work. I understand that you 
talk in principle but how could we know if comp in principle is true if 
we cannot check it in practice?


I personally find an extrapolation of a working model outside of its 
scope that has been researched pretty dangerous.


Evgenii

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-26 Thread Pzomby

On Saturday, May 26, 2012 7:48:41 AM UTC-7, Evgenii Rudnyi wrote:

 On 26.05.2012 11:30 Bruno Marchal said the following: 
  
  On 26 May 2012, at 08:47, Evgenii Rudnyi wrote: 

 ... 

  In my view, it would be nicer to treat such a question 
  historically. Your position based on your theorem, after all, is 
  one of possible positions. 
  
  What do you mean by my position? I don't think I defend a position. 
  I do study the consequence of comp, if only to give a chance to a 
  real non-comp theory. 

 A position that the natural numbers are the foundation of the world. I 
 agree that you often repeat the assumption for your theorem but I 
 believe that your answers to my question have been answered exactly from 
 such a position. 

  
  In your paper to express your position you employ a normal human 
  language. Hence I believe that that the question about general 
  terms in the human language is the same as about the natural 
  numbers. 
  
  ? (I can agree and disagree, it is too vague) 

 When we talk with each other and make proofs we use a human language. 
 Hence to make sure that we can make universal proofs by means of a human 
 language, it might be good to reach an agreement on what it is. 

  
  Again, the ideal world of Plato was not designed for natural 
  numbers only. 
  
  Sure. Although it begins with natural numbers only, and it ended on 
   this, somehow, because the neoplatonists were aware of the 
  importance of numbers and were coming back to Pythagorean form of 
  platonism. 
  
  Now, with comp, or just with Church thesis, there is a sort of 
  rehabilitation of the Pythagorean view, for the non natural numbers 
   reappears in the natural number realm as unavoidable epistemic tools 
  for the natural numbers to understand themselves, and anymore than 
  numbers (and their basic laws) is not just unnecessary, it is that it 
  cannot work without adding some explicit non-comp magic. 
  
  I am not against non-comp, but I am against any gap-theory, where we 
   introduce something in the ontology to make a problem unsolvable 
  leading to don't ask policy. 

 We are back to a human language. It seems that you mean that some 
 constructions expressed by it do not make sense. It well might be but 
 again we have to discuss the language then. 

 Hi Evgenii

  

 Here is another opinion on the need for language:  

  

 Simulations, models, emulations, replications, depictions, 
 representations, symbols, are different then existent instantiations, 
 exemplifications of the observable universe that are described by 
 mathematics combined with the human language constructs of units of 
 measurement.  

  
 It seems that the existent observable physical universe *encodes* 
 mathematics that human observers combine it with *necessary* language 
 created conventions of units of measurement that can be computed and it 
 (mathematics  language) then describes its appearance.  

 


 As for comp, I have written once 

 Simulation Hypothesis and Simulation Technology 

 http://blog.rudnyi.ru/2011/09/simulation-hypothesis-and-simulation-technology.html
  

 that practically speaking it just does not work. I understand that you 
 talk in principle but how could we know if comp in principle is true if 
 we cannot check it in practice? 

 I personally find an extrapolation of a working model outside of its 
 scope that has been researched pretty dangerous. 

 Evgenii 


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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-26 Thread Bruno Marchal


On 26 May 2012, at 16:48, Evgenii Rudnyi wrote:


On 26.05.2012 11:30 Bruno Marchal said the following:


On 26 May 2012, at 08:47, Evgenii Rudnyi wrote:


...


In my view, it would be nicer to treat such a question
historically. Your position based on your theorem, after all, is
one of possible positions.


What do you mean by my position? I don't think I defend a position.
I do study the consequence of comp, if only to give a chance to a
real non-comp theory.


A position that the natural numbers are the foundation of the world.


I don't defend that position. I show it to be a consequence of the  
comp hypothesis + occam razor.




I agree that you often repeat the assumption for your theorem but I  
believe that your answers to my question have been answered exactly  
from such a position.


That is possible, that is why I repeat ad nauseam that I assume comp,  
not that I defend that theory, only that that it is testable.
It gives also a rational alternative with less magic notion, like  
primitive matter, or consciousness.


UDA is an argument showing that if the brain (in a large sense) is a  
machine at some level, then the natural numbers, or their universal  
cousins, are the foundation of the web of interfering computations on  
worlds supervenes.










In your paper to express your position you employ a normal human
language. Hence I believe that that the question about general
terms in the human language is the same as about the natural
numbers.


? (I can agree and disagree, it is too vague)


When we talk with each other and make proofs we use a human  
language. Hence to make sure that we can make universal proofs by  
means of a human language, it might be good to reach an agreement on  
what it is.


This is an impossible task. That is why I use the semi-axiomatic  
method (in UDA), and math in AUDA.
If you disagree with a method of reasoning, you have to explain why.  
In english, no problem.







Again, the ideal world of Plato was not designed for natural
numbers only.


Sure. Although it begins with natural numbers only, and it ended on
this, somehow, because the neoplatonists were aware of the
importance of numbers and were coming back to Pythagorean form of
platonism.

Now, with comp, or just with Church thesis, there is a sort of
rehabilitation of the Pythagorean view, for the non natural numbers
reappears in the natural number realm as unavoidable epistemic tools
for the natural numbers to understand themselves, and anymore than
numbers (and their basic laws) is not just unnecessary, it is that it
cannot work without adding some explicit non-comp magic.

I am not against non-comp, but I am against any gap-theory, where we
introduce something in the ontology to make a problem unsolvable
leading to don't ask policy.


We are back to a human language. It seems that you mean that some  
constructions expressed by it do not make sense. It well might be  
but again we have to discuss the language then.


I don't see why we have to discuss language, apart from the machines  
and their languages.





As for comp, I have written once

Simulation Hypothesis and Simulation Technology
http://blog.rudnyi.ru/2011/09/simulation-hypothesis-and-simulation-technology.html

that practically speaking it just does not work. I understand that  
you talk in principle but how could we know if comp in principle is  
true if we cannot check it in practice?


The whole point is that we can check it, at least if you accept the  
classical theory of knowledge. Physics arise from number self- 
reference in a precise constrained way, and the logic of observable  
already give rise to quantum-like logic.
If mechanism is false, we can know it. If it is true we can only bet  
on it, and the bet or not on some level of substitution. The facts  
(Everett QM) gives evidence that our first person plural is given by  
the electronic orbital, our stories does not depend on the precise  
position of electron in those orbitals.





I personally find an extrapolation of a working model outside of its  
scope that has been researched pretty dangerous.


I am just showing that computationalism (widespread) and materialism  
(widespread) are incompatible. I reason only, and I extrapolate less  
than Aristotelians.


Bruno


http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/



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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-25 Thread Bruno Marchal


On 24 May 2012, at 19:48, meekerdb wrote:


On 5/24/2012 6:42 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:


On 24 May 2012, at 09:07, Russell Standish wrote:


On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 04:41:56PM +0200, Bruno Marchal wrote:


To be sure I usually use - for the material implication, that is
a - b is indeed not a or b (or not(a and not b)).

The IF ... THEN used in math is generally of that type.

I use a = b for from a I can derive b, in the theory I am
currently considering.


Actually, thinking about your thesis, I don't recall you ever once
using the symbol =. Instead, you tend to write

a
-
b

I do appreciate the distinction, though!



For any theory having the modus ponens rule, we have that a - b
entails (yet at another meta-level) a = b. This should be
trivial.
For many quite standard logics, the reciprocal is correct too, that
is:  a =  b entails a - b. This is usually rather hard to
prove (Herbrand or deduction theorem). It is typically false in
modal logic or in many weak logics. For example the normal modal
logics (those having Kripke semantics, like G, S4, ...) are all
close for the rule a = Ba, but virtually none can prove the  
formula

a - Ba. This is a source of many errors.

Simple Exercises (for those remembering Kripke semantics):
1) find a Kripke model falsifying a - Ba.
2) explain to yourself why a = Ba is always the case in all
Kripke models.


Isn't a=Ba trivially true since every axiom is a theorem?


a alone can be read as a is true.
If a = Ba was a valid rule, and reading B as provable, it would  
mean that if a is true then a is provable. Incompleteness provide a  
counter-example. Dt is true (for PA), but not provable (by PA).
So a = Ba is not a valid rule, and a - Ba is not always a true  
proposition (Dt - BDt is false).


Note that a - Ba is true if a is a sigma_1 proposition, and B is the  
provability modality of any sigma_1 complete theory.


x - Bx asserts a form of completeness, like Bx - x asserts a form of  
correctness or soundness.








I recall that a Kripke model is a set (of worlds) with a binary
relation (accessibility relation). The key is that Ba is true in a
world Alpha is a is true in all worlds Beta such that (Alpha, Beta)
is in the accessibility relation.



Why is a = Ba true in Kripke models? Surely, it is possible for a  
to

be true, yet false in some successor world?


You are right, but this shows only that a - Ba is false in the  
world you are in.


I'm confused. ~[a-Ba] means a is true but not provable (i.e. Ba is  
false) in the world you are in?  Why is proof relative to the world  
you are in?


By definition of the Kripke semantics. Truth is relativized to worlds.  
Then, for the Gödelian provability, it just happens, by Solovay  
theorem, that it obeys a normal modal logic, (G), which means it has a  
Kripke semantics. You can interpret a world by a model (in the sense  
of model theory).






it means that a is supposed to be valid (for example you have  
already prove it), so a, like any theorem,  will be true in all  
worlds, so a will be in particular true in all worlds accessible  
from anywhere in the model, so Ba will be true in all worlds of the  
model, so Ba is also a theorem.


- is the implication, but = concerns deduction. In fact a =  
Ba should not be said true, or false, only valid, or non valid. It  
is a rule of inference. It means for example that from a proof of  
a, you can deduce a proof of Ba.


Doesn't that last sentence say Ba=BBa?


It does imply it, but if B is self-referential, it is equivalent with  
Ba - BBa.





And this is correct in the Kripke model, because a proof of a makes  
a true in *all* worlds (of the appropriate Kripke structure).


So Ba-a but ~[(a=Ba)-a]?


This is meaningless, as you can't mix = and -.
 ~[(a=Ba)-a] is neither a formula, nor a rule.

Bruno


http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/



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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-24 Thread Bruno Marchal


On 23 May 2012, at 20:19, Evgenii Rudnyi wrote:


On 23.05.2012 20:01 Bruno Marchal said the following:


On 23 May 2012, at 19:19, Evgenii Rudnyi wrote:



...


Let us take terms like information, computation, etc. Are they
mental or mathematical?


Information is vague, and can be both.

Computation is mathematical, by using the Church (Turing Kleene Post
Markov) thesis.

But humans, and any universal machine, can mentally handle and reason
on mathematical notions, implementing or representing them locally.

With comp, trivially, the mental is the doing of a universal
numbers.




It might be good simultaneously to extend this question by
including general terms that people use to describe the word. Are
mathematical objects then are different from them?


I am not sure I understand what you are asking.


I am talking about language that we use to describe the Nature.  
Information and computation were just an example. We can however  
find also energy, mass, or animal, human being.


I guess that Plato has not limited the Platonia to the mathematical  
objects rather it was about ideas. So is my question.


Let me repeat about the fight between realism vs. nominalism.  
Realism in this context is different from the modern meaning of the  
word.


Realism and nominalism in philosophy are related to universals. A  
simple example:


A is a person;
B is a person.

Does A is equal to B? The answer is no, A and B are after all  
different persons. Yet the question would be if something universal  
and related to a term “person” exists objectively (say as an  
objective attribute).


Realism says that universals do exist independent from the mind,  
nominalism that they are just notation and do not exist as such  
independently from the mind.


But that distinction is usually made in the aristotelian context,  
where some concrete physical universe is postulated. With comp we know  
this is not possible.
You can restate it by saying that the natural numbers are concrete,  
but that a property like 'being prime is abstract. Then  
mathematicians are mostly realist, because they believe that being  
prime is an independent property of natural numbers.
for a mechanical generable set, like the set of prime numbers, you can  
come back to nominalism through Gödel numbering, and through the  
identification of the concept of primes with the number (machine)  
which generates all and only the prime numbers. But this leads to  
difficulties for the non mechanically generable sets of numbers, which  
*do* play a role in the machine/numbers points of view.





To me this difference realism vs. nominalism seems to be related  
to the question whether mathematical objects are mental or not.


But with comp, mental is a number's attributes. And eventually  
physical is a collection of number attribute. If you make  
mathematical object mental, and *only* mental, you have to tell me  
what you assume at the start in the theory. If you chose something  
physical, then you have to abandon comp, and you have to tell how you  
relate mental and physical, by using provably non Turing emulable  
components. You will lose also the explanation of why something  
physical exist, and why it hurts.


Bruno


http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/



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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-24 Thread Russell Standish
On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 04:41:56PM +0200, Bruno Marchal wrote:
 
 To be sure I usually use - for the material implication, that is
 a - b is indeed not a or b (or not(a and not b)).
 
 The IF ... THEN used in math is generally of that type.
 
 I use a = b for from a I can derive b, in the theory I am
 currently considering.

Actually, thinking about your thesis, I don't recall you ever once
using the symbol =. Instead, you tend to write

a
-
b

I do appreciate the distinction, though!

 
 For any theory having the modus ponens rule, we have that a - b
 entails (yet at another meta-level) a = b. This should be
 trivial.
 For many quite standard logics, the reciprocal is correct too, that
 is:  a =  b entails a - b. This is usually rather hard to
 prove (Herbrand or deduction theorem). It is typically false in
 modal logic or in many weak logics. For example the normal modal
 logics (those having Kripke semantics, like G, S4, ...) are all
 close for the rule a = Ba, but virtually none can prove the formula
 a - Ba. This is a source of many errors.
 
 Simple Exercises (for those remembering Kripke semantics):
 1) find a Kripke model falsifying a - Ba.
 2) explain to yourself why a = Ba is always the case in all
 Kripke models.
 
 I recall that a Kripke model is a set (of worlds) with a binary
 relation (accessibility relation). The key is that Ba is true in a
 world Alpha is a is true in all worlds Beta such that (Alpha, Beta)
 is in the accessibility relation.
 

Why is a = Ba true in Kripke models? Surely, it is possible for a to
be true, yet false in some successor world?


-- 


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Principal, High Performance Coders
Visiting Professor of Mathematics  hpco...@hpcoders.com.au
University of New South Wales  http://www.hpcoders.com.au


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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-24 Thread Bruno Marchal


On 24 May 2012, at 09:07, Russell Standish wrote:


On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 04:41:56PM +0200, Bruno Marchal wrote:


To be sure I usually use - for the material implication, that is
a - b is indeed not a or b (or not(a and not b)).

The IF ... THEN used in math is generally of that type.

I use a = b for from a I can derive b, in the theory I am
currently considering.


Actually, thinking about your thesis, I don't recall you ever once
using the symbol =. Instead, you tend to write

a
-
b

I do appreciate the distinction, though!



For any theory having the modus ponens rule, we have that a - b
entails (yet at another meta-level) a = b. This should be
trivial.
For many quite standard logics, the reciprocal is correct too, that
is:  a =  b entails a - b. This is usually rather hard to
prove (Herbrand or deduction theorem). It is typically false in
modal logic or in many weak logics. For example the normal modal
logics (those having Kripke semantics, like G, S4, ...) are all
close for the rule a = Ba, but virtually none can prove the formula
a - Ba. This is a source of many errors.

Simple Exercises (for those remembering Kripke semantics):
1) find a Kripke model falsifying a - Ba.
2) explain to yourself why a = Ba is always the case in all
Kripke models.

I recall that a Kripke model is a set (of worlds) with a binary
relation (accessibility relation). The key is that Ba is true in a
world Alpha is a is true in all worlds Beta such that (Alpha, Beta)
is in the accessibility relation.



Why is a = Ba true in Kripke models? Surely, it is possible for a to
be true, yet false in some successor world?


You are right, but this shows only that a - Ba is false in the  
world you are in.


But a = Ba is a valid rule for all logic having a Kripke semantics.  
Why? Because it means that a is supposed to be valid (for example you  
have already prove it), so a, like any theorem,  will be true in all  
worlds, so a will be in particular true in all worlds accessible from  
anywhere in the model, so Ba will be true in all worlds of the model,  
so Ba is also a theorem.


- is the implication, but = concerns deduction. In fact a =  
Ba should not be said true, or false, only valid, or non valid. It is  
a rule of inference. It means for example that from a proof of a, you  
can deduce a proof of Ba. And this is correct in the Kripke model,  
because a proof of a makes a true in *all* worlds (of the appropriate  
Kripke structure).


Bruno


http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/



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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-24 Thread meekerdb

On 5/24/2012 6:42 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:


On 24 May 2012, at 09:07, Russell Standish wrote:


On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 04:41:56PM +0200, Bruno Marchal wrote:


To be sure I usually use - for the material implication, that is
a - b is indeed not a or b (or not(a and not b)).

The IF ... THEN used in math is generally of that type.

I use a = b for from a I can derive b, in the theory I am
currently considering.


Actually, thinking about your thesis, I don't recall you ever once
using the symbol =. Instead, you tend to write

a
-
b

I do appreciate the distinction, though!



For any theory having the modus ponens rule, we have that a - b
entails (yet at another meta-level) a = b. This should be
trivial.
For many quite standard logics, the reciprocal is correct too, that
is:  a =  b entails a - b. This is usually rather hard to
prove (Herbrand or deduction theorem). It is typically false in
modal logic or in many weak logics. For example the normal modal
logics (those having Kripke semantics, like G, S4, ...) are all
close for the rule a = Ba, but virtually none can prove the formula
a - Ba. This is a source of many errors.

Simple Exercises (for those remembering Kripke semantics):
1) find a Kripke model falsifying a - Ba.
2) explain to yourself why a = Ba is always the case in all
Kripke models.


Isn't a=Ba trivially true since every axiom is a theorem?



I recall that a Kripke model is a set (of worlds) with a binary
relation (accessibility relation). The key is that Ba is true in a
world Alpha is a is true in all worlds Beta such that (Alpha, Beta)
is in the accessibility relation.



Why is a = Ba true in Kripke models? Surely, it is possible for a to
be true, yet false in some successor world?


You are right, but this shows only that a - Ba is false in the world you are in. 


I'm confused. ~[a-Ba] means a is true but not provable (i.e. Ba is false) in the world 
you are in?  Why is proof relative to the world you are in?


it means that a is supposed to be valid (for example you have already prove it), so a, 
like any theorem,  will be true in all worlds, so a will be in particular true in all 
worlds accessible from anywhere in the model, so Ba will be true in all worlds of the 
model, so Ba is also a theorem.


- is the implication, but = concerns deduction. In fact a = Ba should not be 
said true, or false, only valid, or non valid. It is a rule of inference. It means for 
example that from a proof of a, you can deduce a proof of Ba. 


Doesn't that last sentence say Ba=BBa?

And this is correct in the Kripke model, because a proof of a makes a true in *all* 
worlds (of the appropriate Kripke structure).


So Ba-a but ~[(a=Ba)-a]?

Brent



Bruno


http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/





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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-23 Thread Bruno Marchal


On 23 May 2012, at 01:22, Stephen P. King wrote:


On 5/22/2012 6:01 PM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:




2012/5/22 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net

 No, Bruno, it is not Neutral monism as such cannot assume any  
particular as primitive, even if it is quantity itself, for to do  
such is to violate the very notion of neutrality itself. You might  
like to spend some time reading Spinoza and Bertrand Russell's  
discussions of this. I did not invent this line of reasoning.


 Neutral monism, in philosophy, is the metaphysical view that the  
mental and the physical are two ways of organizing or describing  
the same elements, which are themselves neutral, that is, neither  
physical nor mental.


I don't see how taking N,+,* as primitive is not neutral monism. It  
is neither physical nor mental.


If mathematical objects are not within the category of Mental  
then that is news to philosophers...


If mathematical objects are within the category of Mental then that  
is news to mathematicians...


And it is disastrous for those who want study the mental by defining  
it by the mathematical, as in computer science, cognitive science,  
artificial intelligence, etc;












even more perplexing to me; how is it that the Integers are given  
such special status,


Because of digital in digital mechanism. It is not so much an  
emphasis on numbers, than on finite.


So how do you justify finiteness?  I have been accused of  
having the everything disease whose symptom is the inability to  
conceive anything but infinite, ill defined ensembles, but in my  
defense I must state that what I am conceiving is an over-abundance  
of very precisely defined ensembles. My disease is the inability to  
properly articulate a written description.





especially when we cast aside all possibility (within our  
ontology) of the reality of the physical world?


Not at all. Only primitively physical reality is put in doubt.


Not me. I already came to the conclusion that reality cannot be  
primitively physical.



You are unclear on what you posit. You always came back to the  
physical reality point, so I don't know what more to say...  
either you agree physical reality is not ontologically primitive or  
you don't, there's no in between position.


We have to start at the physical reality that we individually  
experience, it is, aside from our awareness, the most real thing  
we have to stand upon philosophically.


The most real things might be consciousness, here and now.  And this  
doesn't make consciousness primitive, but invite us to be  
methodologically skeptical on the physical, as we know since the  
dream argument.




From there we venture out in our speculations as to our ontology.  
cosmogony and epistemology. is there an alternative?


So you start from physics? This contradicts your neutral monism.












Without the physical world to act as a selection mechanism for  
what is Real,


This contradicts your neutral monism.


No, it does not. Please see my discussion of neutral monism  
above.


Yes it does, reading you, you posit a physical material reality as  
primitive, which is not neutral...


No, I posit the physical and the mental as real in the sense  
that I am experiencing them.



You can't experience the physical. The physical is inferred from  
theory, even if automated by years of evolution.



Telescoping out to the farthest point of abstraction we have ideas  
like Bruno's.  I guess that I need to draw some diagrams...


Not ideas. Universal truth following a deduction in a theoretical  
frame. It is just a theorem in applied logic: if we are digital  
machine, then physics (whatever inferable from observable)  is  
derivable from arithmetic. Adding anything to it, *cannot* be of any  
use (cf UDA step 7 and 8).


You are free to use any philosophy you want to *find* a flaw in the  
reasoning, but a philosophical conviction does not refute it by itself.


If you think there is a loophole, just show it to us.










why the bias for integers?


Because comp = machine, and machine are supposed to be of the type  
finitely describable.


This is true only after the possibility of determining  
differences is stipulated. One cannot assume a neutral monism that  
stipulates a non-neutral stance, to do so it a contradiction.


Computationalism is the theory that your consciousness can be  
emulated on a turing machine, a program is a finite object and can  
be described by an integer. I don't see a contradiction.


I am with Penrose in claiming that consciousness is not emulable  
by a finite machine.


This contradicts your statement that your theory is consistent with  
comp (as it is not, as I argue to you). You are making my point. It  
took time.













This has been a question that I have tried to get answered to no  
avail.


You don't listen. This has been repeated very often. When you say  
yes to the doctor, you accept that you 

Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-23 Thread Russell Standish
On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 09:56:24AM -0500, Joseph Knight wrote:
 On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 7:36 AM, Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.netwrote:
 
   On 5/21/2012 6:26 PM, Russell Standish wrote:
 
   Yes, that is the usual meaning. It can also be written (DP or not COMP).
 
 
  = = or not]
 
 
 Actually a implies b is defined as not a or b.
 

Whoops! (#.#)

-- 


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Principal, High Performance Coders
Visiting Professor of Mathematics  hpco...@hpcoders.com.au
University of New South Wales  http://www.hpcoders.com.au


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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-23 Thread Bruno Marchal


On 23 May 2012, at 07:21, Russell Standish wrote:


On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 09:56:24AM -0500, Joseph Knight wrote:
On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 7:36 AM, Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net 
wrote:



On 5/21/2012 6:26 PM, Russell Standish wrote:

Yes, that is the usual meaning. It can also be written (DP or not  
COMP).



   = = or not]



Actually a implies b is defined as not a or b.



Whoops! (#.#)


To be sure I usually use - for the material implication, that is a  
- b is indeed not a or b (or not(a and not b)).


The IF ... THEN used in math is generally of that type.

I use a = b for from a I can derive b, in the theory I am currently  
considering.


For any theory having the modus ponens rule, we have that a - b  
entails (yet at another meta-level) a = b. This should be trivial.
For many quite standard logics, the reciprocal is correct too, that  
is:  a =  b entails a - b. This is usually rather hard to prove  
(Herbrand or deduction theorem). It is typically false in modal logic  
or in many weak logics. For example the normal modal logics (those  
having Kripke semantics, like G, S4, ...) are all close for the rule a  
= Ba, but virtually none can prove the formula a - Ba. This is a  
source of many errors.


Simple Exercises (for those remembering Kripke semantics):
1) find a Kripke model falsifying a - Ba.
2) explain to yourself why a = Ba is always the case in all Kripke  
models.


I recall that a Kripke model is a set (of worlds) with a binary  
relation (accessibility relation). The key is that Ba is true in a  
world Alpha is a is true in all worlds Beta such that (Alpha, Beta) is  
in the accessibility relation.


A beginners course in logic consists in six month of explanation of  
the difference between a - b and a = b, and then six month of  
proving them equivalent (in classical logic).


a = b is often written:

a
_

b

Like in the modus ponens rule

a   a - b


b


Bruno








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Principal, High Performance Coders
Visiting Professor of Mathematics  hpco...@hpcoders.com.au
University of New South Wales  http://www.hpcoders.com.au


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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-23 Thread Bruno Marchal


On 23 May 2012, at 02:54, meekerdb wrote:


On 5/22/2012 4:22 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:


On 5/22/2012 6:01 PM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:




2012/5/22 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net

 No, Bruno, it is not Neutral monism as such cannot assume any  
particular as primitive, even if it is quantity itself, for to do  
such is to violate the very notion of neutrality itself. You might  
like to spend some time reading Spinoza and Bertrand Russell's  
discussions of this. I did not invent this line of reasoning.


 Neutral monism, in philosophy, is the metaphysical view that the  
mental and the physical are two ways of organizing or describing  
the same elements, which are themselves neutral, that is,  
neither physical nor mental.


I don't see how taking N,+,* as primitive is not neutral monism.  
It is neither physical nor mental.


If mathematical objects are not within the category of Mental  
then that is news to philosophers...









even more perplexing to me; how is it that the Integers are  
given such special status,


Because of digital in digital mechanism. It is not so much an  
emphasis on numbers, than on finite.


So how do you justify finiteness?  I have been accused of  
having the everything disease whose symptom is the inability to  
conceive anything but infinite, ill defined ensembles, but in my  
defense I must state that what I am conceiving is an over- 
abundance of very precisely defined ensembles. My disease is the  
inability to properly articulate a written description.





especially when we cast aside all possibility (within our  
ontology) of the reality of the physical world?


Not at all. Only primitively physical reality is put in doubt.


Not me. I already came to the conclusion that reality cannot  
be primitively physical.



You are unclear on what you posit. You always came back to the  
physical reality point, so I don't know what more to say...  
either you agree physical reality is not ontologically primitive  
or you don't, there's no in between position.


We have to start at the physical reality that we individually  
experience, it is, aside from our awareness, the most real thing  
we have to stand upon philosophically. From there we venture out in  
our speculations as to our ontology. cosmogony and epistemology. is  
there an alternative?









Without the physical world to act as a selection mechanism for  
what is Real,


This contradicts your neutral monism.


No, it does not. Please see my discussion of neutral monism  
above.


Yes it does, reading you, you posit a physical material reality as  
primitive, which is not neutral...


No, I posit the physical and the mental as real in the sense  
that I am experiencing them.



The physical world is a model.  It's a very good model and I like  
it, but like any model you can't *know* whether it's really real or  
not.  Bruno's model explains some things the physical model doesn't,  
but so far it doesn't seem to have the predictive power that the  
physical model does.


Hmm... I agree with all your points in this post, except this one. The  
comp model (theory) has much more predictive power than physics,  
given that it predicts the whole of physics, and the whole of what  
that physics predicts (and this without mentioning that it predicts  
the whole qualia part too, unlike the physics model). But it does it  
in a very more difficult way, without copying on nature.


Of course it might be false. It might be that comp leads to a  
different mass for the electron or to the non existence of electrons.  
But comp, together with some definition of knowledge, predicts physics  
quantitatively and qualitatively.


Of course to use comp to predict an eclipse is not yet in its range,  
if it can ever be. To use comp for this, would be like using string  
theory to prepare a cup of tea. But the goal is not to do physics,  
just to formulate the mind-body problem, and figure out the less wrong  
bigger picture.


Bruno






Telescoping out to the farthest point of abstraction we have ideas  
like Bruno's.  I guess that I need to draw some diagrams...









why the bias for integers?


Because comp = machine, and machine are supposed to be of the  
type finitely describable.


This is true only after the possibility of determining  
differences is stipulated. One cannot assume a neutral monism that  
stipulates a non-neutral stance, to do so it a contradiction.


Computationalism is the theory that your consciousness can be  
emulated on a turing machine, a program is a finite object and can  
be described by an integer. I don't see a contradiction.


I am with Penrose in claiming that consciousness is not  
emulable by a finite machine.


It's instantiated by brains which are empirically finite.  Penrose's  
argument from Godelian incompleteness is fallacious.












This has been a question that I have tried to get answered to no  
avail.


You don't 

Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-23 Thread meekerdb

On 5/23/2012 8:47 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:
Hmm... I agree with all your points in this post, except this one. The comp model 
(theory) has much more predictive power than physics, given that it predicts the whole 
of physics,


It's easy to predict the whole of physics; just predict that everything happens.  But 
that's not predictive power.


Brent

and the whole of what that physics predicts (and this without mentioning that it 
predicts the whole qualia part too, unlike the physics model). But it does it in a 
very more difficult way, without copying on nature.


Of course it might be false. It might be that comp leads to a different mass for the 
electron or to the non existence of electrons. But comp, together with some definition 
of knowledge, predicts physics quantitatively and qualitatively.


Of course to use comp to predict an eclipse is not yet in its range, if it can ever be. 
To use comp for this, would be like using string theory to prepare a cup of tea. But the 
goal is not to do physics, just to formulate the mind-body problem, and figure out the 
less wrong bigger picture.


Bruno


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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-23 Thread Evgenii Rudnyi

On 23.05.2012 10:47 Bruno Marchal said the following:


On 23 May 2012, at 01:22, Stephen P. King wrote:


...


If mathematical objects are not within the category of Mental
then that is news to philosophers...


If mathematical objects are within the category of Mental then that
is news to mathematicians...



Let us take terms like information, computation, etc. Are they mental or 
mathematical?


It might be good simultaneously to extend this question by including 
general terms that people use to describe the word. Are mathematical 
objects then are different from them?


Evgenii

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-23 Thread Stephen P. King

On 5/23/2012 4:47 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:


On 23 May 2012, at 01:22, Stephen P. King wrote:


On 5/22/2012 6:01 PM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



2012/5/22 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net 
mailto:stephe...@charter.net



 No, Bruno, it is not Neutral monism as such cannot assume any
particular as primitive, even if it is quantity itself, for to
do such is to violate the very notion of neutrality itself. You
might like to spend some time reading Spinoza
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spinoza/ and Bertrand
Russell's discussions of this. I did not invent this line of
reasoning.


*Neutral monism*, in philosophy 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy, is the metaphysical 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphysics view that the mental and 
the physical are two ways of organizing or describing the same 
elements, which are themselves neutral, that is, neither physical 
nor mental.


I don't see how taking N,+,* as primitive is not neutral monism. It 
is neither physical nor mental.


If mathematical objects are not within the category of Mental 
then that is news to philosophers...


If mathematical objects are within the category of Mental then that 
is news to mathematicians...


And it is disastrous for those who want study the mental by defining 
it by the mathematical, as in computer science, cognitive science, 
artificial intelligence, etc;


Are we being intentionally unable to understand the obvious? Do we 
physically interact with mathematical objects? No. Thus they are not in 
the physical realm. We interact with mathematical objects with our 
minds, thus they are in the mental realm. Not complicated.















even more perplexing to me; how is it that the Integers are
given such special status,


Because of digital in digital mechanism. It is not so much an
emphasis on numbers, than on finite.


So how do you justify finiteness?  I have been accused of
having the everything disease whose symptom is the inability
to conceive anything but infinite, ill defined ensembles, but
in my defense I must state that what I am conceiving is an
over-abundance of very precisely defined ensembles. My disease
is the inability to properly articulate a written description.



especially when we cast aside all possibility (within our
ontology) of the reality of the physical world?


Not at all. Only primitively physical reality is put in doubt.


Not me. I already came to the conclusion that reality cannot
be primitively physical.


You are unclear on what you posit. You always came back to the 
physical reality point, so I don't know what more to say... either 
you agree physical reality is not ontologically primitive or you 
don't, there's no in between position.


We have to start at the physical reality that we individually 
experience, it is, aside from our awareness, the most real thing we 
have to stand upon philosophically.


The most real things might be consciousness, here and now.  And this 
doesn't make consciousness primitive, but invite us to be 
methodologically skeptical on the physical, as we know since the 
dream argument.


The only person that is making it, albeit indirectly by 
implication, is you, Bruno. You think that you are safe because you 
believe that you have isolated mathematics from the physical and from 
the contingency of having to be known by particular individuals, but you 
have not over come the basic flaw of Platonism: if you disconnect the 
Forms from consciousness you forever prevent the act of apprehension. 
You seem to think that property definiteness is an ontological a priori. 
You are not the first, E. Kant had the same delusion.






From there we venture out in our speculations as to our ontology. 
cosmogony and epistemology. is there an alternative?


So you start from physics? This contradicts your neutral monism.


So you do need a diagram to understand a simple idea.














Without the physical world to act as a selection mechanism
for what is Real,


This contradicts your neutral monism.


No, it does not. Please see my discussion of neutral monism
above.


Yes it does, reading you, you posit a physical material reality as 
primitive, which is not neutral...


No, I posit the physical and the mental as real in the sense 
that I am experiencing them.



You can't experience the physical. The physical is inferred from 
theory, even if automated by years of evolution.


We cannot experience anything directly, except for our individual 
consciousness, all else is inferred.





Telescoping out to the farthest point of abstraction we have ideas 
like Bruno's.  I guess that I need to draw some diagrams...


Not ideas. Universal truth following a deduction in a theoretical 
frame. It is just a theorem in applied logic: if we are digital 
machine, then physics (whatever inferable from observable)  is 

Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-23 Thread Quentin Anciaux
2012/5/23 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net

  On 5/23/2012 4:47 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:


  On 23 May 2012, at 01:22, Stephen P. King wrote:

  On 5/22/2012 6:01 PM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



 2012/5/22 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net


   No, Bruno, it is not Neutral monism as such cannot assume any
 particular as primitive, even if it is quantity itself, for to do such is
 to violate the very notion of neutrality itself. You might like to spend
 some time reading Spinoza http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spinoza/and 
 Bertrand Russell's discussions of this. I did not invent this line of
 reasoning.


  *Neutral monism*, in philosophy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy,
 is the metaphysical http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphysics view that
 the mental and the physical are two ways of organizing or describing the
 same elements, which are themselves neutral, that is, neither physical
 nor mental.

 I don't see how taking N,+,* as primitive is not neutral monism. It is
 neither physical nor mental.


 If mathematical objects are not within the category of Mental then
 that is news to philosophers...


  If mathematical objects are within the category of Mental then that is
 news to mathematicians...

  And it is disastrous for those who want study the mental by defining it
 by the mathematical, as in computer science, cognitive science, artificial
 intelligence, etc;


 Are we being intentionally unable to understand the obvious? Do we
 physically interact with mathematical objects? No.


Do you physically interact with the physical ? No ! no mind, no
interaction, hence the physical is mental, QED... or what you say is just
plain wrong...

Quentin


 Thus they are not in the physical realm. We interact with mathematical
 objects with our minds, thus they are in the mental realm. Not complicated.










  even more perplexing to me; how is it that the Integers are given such
 special status,


  Because of digital in digital mechanism. It is not so much an
 emphasis on numbers, than on finite.


  So how do you justify finiteness?  I have been accused of having the
 everything disease whose symptom is the inability to conceive anything
 but infinite, ill defined ensembles, but in my defense I must state that
 what I am conceiving is an over-abundance of very precisely defined
 ensembles. My disease is the inability to properly articulate a written
 description.




 especially when we cast aside all possibility (within our ontology) of
 the reality of the physical world?


  Not at all. Only primitively physical reality is put in doubt.


  Not me. I already came to the conclusion that reality cannot be
 primitively physical.


 You are unclear on what you posit. You always came back to the physical
 reality point, so I don't know what more to say... either you agree
 physical reality is not ontologically primitive or you don't, there's no in
 between position.


 We have to start at the physical reality that we individually
 experience, it is, aside from our awareness, the most real thing we have
 to stand upon philosophically.


  The most real things might be consciousness, here and now.  And this
 doesn't make consciousness primitive, but invite us to be methodologically
 skeptical on the physical, as we know since the dream argument.


 The only person that is making it, albeit indirectly by implication,
 is you, Bruno. You think that you are safe because you believe that you
 have isolated mathematics from the physical and from the contingency of
 having to be known by particular individuals, but you have not over come
 the basic flaw of Platonism: if you disconnect the Forms from consciousness
 you forever prevent the act of apprehension. You seem to think that
 property definiteness is an ontological a priori. You are not the first, E.
 Kant had the same delusion.





  From there we venture out in our speculations as to our ontology.
 cosmogony and epistemology. is there an alternative?


  So you start from physics? This contradicts your neutral monism.


 So you do need a diagram to understand a simple idea.











  Without the physical world to act as a selection mechanism for what
 is Real,


  This contradicts your neutral monism.



  No, it does not. Please see my discussion of neutral monism above.


 Yes it does, reading you, you posit a physical material reality as
 primitive, which is not neutral...


 No, I posit the physical and the mental as real in the sense that I
 am experiencing them.



  You can't experience the physical. The physical is inferred from theory,
 even if automated by years of evolution.


 We cannot experience anything directly, except for our individual
 consciousness, all else is inferred.



  Telescoping out to the farthest point of abstraction we have ideas like
 Bruno's.  I guess that I need to draw some diagrams...


  Not ideas. Universal truth following a deduction in a theoretical frame.
 

Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-23 Thread Stephen P. King

On 5/23/2012 1:19 PM, Evgenii Rudnyi wrote:

On 23.05.2012 10:47 Bruno Marchal said the following:


On 23 May 2012, at 01:22, Stephen P. King wrote:


...


If mathematical objects are not within the category of Mental
then that is news to philosophers...


If mathematical objects are within the category of Mental then that
is news to mathematicians...



Let us take terms like information, computation, etc. Are they mental 
or mathematical?


It might be good simultaneously to extend this question by including 
general terms that people use to describe the word. Are mathematical 
objects then are different from them?


Evgenii


Hi Evgenii,

There seems to be a divergence of definitions occurring. It might 
be better for me to withdraw from philosophical discussions for a while 
and focus just on mathematical questions, like the dependence on order 
of a basis...


--
Onward!

Stephen

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
~ Francis Bacon


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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-23 Thread Evgenii Rudnyi

On 23.05.2012 19:43 Stephen P. King said the following:

...


There seems to be a divergence of definitions occurring. It might be
 better for me to withdraw from philosophical discussions for a while
and focus just on mathematical questions, like the dependence on
order of a basis...



I believe that to this end, one just needs to number basis vectors, so 
we must order them. If I remember correctly, depending on how you order 
x, y, z you obtain either a right or left-handed coordinate system.


Evgenii

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-23 Thread Bruno Marchal


On 23 May 2012, at 19:19, Evgenii Rudnyi wrote:


On 23.05.2012 10:47 Bruno Marchal said the following:


On 23 May 2012, at 01:22, Stephen P. King wrote:


...


If mathematical objects are not within the category of Mental
then that is news to philosophers...


If mathematical objects are within the category of Mental then that
is news to mathematicians...



Let us take terms like information, computation, etc. Are they  
mental or mathematical?


Information is vague, and can be both.

Computation is mathematical, by using the Church (Turing Kleene Post  
Markov) thesis.


But humans, and any universal machine, can mentally handle and reason  
on mathematical notions, implementing or representing them locally.


With comp, trivially, the mental is the doing of a universal numbers.




It might be good simultaneously to extend this question by including  
general terms that people use to describe the word. Are mathematical  
objects then are different from them?


I am not sure I understand what you are asking.

Bruno


http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/



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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-23 Thread Evgenii Rudnyi

On 23.05.2012 20:01 Bruno Marchal said the following:


On 23 May 2012, at 19:19, Evgenii Rudnyi wrote:



...


Let us take terms like information, computation, etc. Are they
mental or mathematical?


Information is vague, and can be both.

Computation is mathematical, by using the Church (Turing Kleene Post
 Markov) thesis.

But humans, and any universal machine, can mentally handle and reason
on mathematical notions, implementing or representing them locally.

With comp, trivially, the mental is the doing of a universal
numbers.




It might be good simultaneously to extend this question by
including general terms that people use to describe the word. Are
mathematical objects then are different from them?


I am not sure I understand what you are asking.


I am talking about language that we use to describe the Nature. 
Information and computation were just an example. We can however find 
also energy, mass, or animal, human being.


I guess that Plato has not limited the Platonia to the mathematical 
objects rather it was about ideas. So is my question.


Let me repeat about the fight between realism vs. nominalism. Realism in 
this context is different from the modern meaning of the word.


Realism and nominalism in philosophy are related to universals. A simple 
example:


A is a person;
B is a person.

Does A is equal to B? The answer is no, A and B are after all different 
persons. Yet the question would be if something universal and related to 
a term “person” exists objectively (say as an objective attribute).


Realism says that universals do exist independent from the mind, 
nominalism that they are just notation and do not exist as such 
independently from the mind.


To me this difference realism vs. nominalism seems to be related to 
the question whether mathematical objects are mental or not.


Evgenii

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-23 Thread Bruno Marchal


On 23 May 2012, at 19:23, Stephen P. King wrote:


On 5/23/2012 4:47 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:



On 23 May 2012, at 01:22, Stephen P. King wrote:


On 5/22/2012 6:01 PM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:




2012/5/22 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net

 No, Bruno, it is not Neutral monism as such cannot assume any  
particular as primitive, even if it is quantity itself, for to do  
such is to violate the very notion of neutrality itself. You  
might like to spend some time reading Spinoza and Bertrand  
Russell's discussions of this. I did not invent this line of  
reasoning.


 Neutral monism, in philosophy, is the metaphysical view that the  
mental and the physical are two ways of organizing or describing  
the same elements, which are themselves neutral, that is,  
neither physical nor mental.


I don't see how taking N,+,* as primitive is not neutral monism.  
It is neither physical nor mental.


If mathematical objects are not within the category of  
Mental then that is news to philosophers...


If mathematical objects are within the category of Mental then  
that is news to mathematicians...


And it is disastrous for those who want study the mental by  
defining it by the mathematical, as in computer science, cognitive  
science, artificial intelligence, etc;


Are we being intentionally unable to understand the obvious? Do  
we physically interact with mathematical objects? No. Thus they are  
not in the physical realm.


I can agree, and disagree. Too much fuzzy if you don't make your  
assumption clear.




We interact with mathematical objects with our minds, thus they are  
in the mental realm. Not complicated.




But like programs and music, number can incarnate disks and physical  
memories, locally. Now you do seem dualist, of the non monist kind.


















even more perplexing to me; how is it that the Integers are  
given such special status,


Because of digital in digital mechanism. It is not so much an  
emphasis on numbers, than on finite.


So how do you justify finiteness?  I have been accused of  
having the everything disease whose symptom is the inability  
to conceive anything but infinite, ill defined ensembles, but in  
my defense I must state that what I am conceiving is an over- 
abundance of very precisely defined ensembles. My disease is the  
inability to properly articulate a written description.





especially when we cast aside all possibility (within our  
ontology) of the reality of the physical world?


Not at all. Only primitively physical reality is put in doubt.


Not me. I already came to the conclusion that reality cannot  
be primitively physical.



You are unclear on what you posit. You always came back to the  
physical reality point, so I don't know what more to say...  
either you agree physical reality is not ontologically primitive  
or you don't, there's no in between position.


We have to start at the physical reality that we individually  
experience, it is, aside from our awareness, the most real thing  
we have to stand upon philosophically.


The most real things might be consciousness, here and now.  And  
this doesn't make consciousness primitive, but invite us to be  
methodologically skeptical on the physical, as we know since the  
dream argument.


The only person that is making it, albeit indirectly by  
implication, is you, Bruno. You think that you are safe


?



because you believe that you have isolated mathematics from the  
physical and from the contingency of having to be known by  
particular individuals,


?


but you have not over come the basic flaw of Platonism: if you  
disconnect the Forms from consciousness you forever prevent the act  
of apprehension. You seem to think that property definiteness is an  
ontological a priori. You are not the first, E. Kant had the same  
delusion.


?

(I only argue, showing the consistency and inconsistency of set of  
beliefs, in the comp theory).










From there we venture out in our speculations as to our ontology.  
cosmogony and epistemology. is there an alternative?


So you start from physics? This contradicts your neutral monism.


So you do need a diagram to understand a simple idea.














Without the physical world to act as a selection mechanism  
for what is Real,


This contradicts your neutral monism.


No, it does not. Please see my discussion of neutral monism  
above.


Yes it does, reading you, you posit a physical material reality  
as primitive, which is not neutral...


No, I posit the physical and the mental as real in the sense  
that I am experiencing them.



You can't experience the physical. The physical is inferred from  
theory, even if automated by years of evolution.


We cannot experience anything directly, except for our  
individual consciousness, all else is inferred.



OK, so we agree on this. (it contradicts your sentence above). I guess  
it is your dyslexia and that you were meaning:


No, 

Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-23 Thread Bruno Marchal


On 23 May 2012, at 19:08, meekerdb wrote:


On 5/23/2012 8:47 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:
Hmm... I agree with all your points in this post, except this one.  
The comp model (theory) has much more predictive power than  
physics, given that it predicts the whole of physics,


It's easy to predict the whole of physics; just predict that  
everything happens.  But that's not predictive power.


 I will take it that you are forgetting the whole argument. When I  
say that it predicts the whole physics, I mean it literally. And not  
everything happens only something like what is described by the  
physical theories, except that physicists derive them from direct  
observation, and comp derives them by the logic of universal machine  
observable.


Physics, with comp, and arguably already with QM, is not at all  
everything happens, but more everything interfere leading to non  
trivial symmetries and symmetries breaking, etc.


Bruno



Brent

and the whole of what that physics predicts (and this without  
mentioning that it predicts the whole qualia part too, unlike the  
physics model). But it does it in a very more difficult way,  
without copying on nature.


Of course it might be false. It might be that comp leads to a  
different mass for the electron or to the non existence of  
electrons. But comp, together with some definition of knowledge,  
predicts physics quantitatively and qualitatively.


Of course to use comp to predict an eclipse is not yet in its  
range, if it can ever be. To use comp for this, would be like using  
string theory to prepare a cup of tea. But the goal is not to do  
physics, just to formulate the mind-body problem, and figure out  
the less wrong bigger picture.


Bruno


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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-23 Thread meekerdb

On 5/23/2012 11:28 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:


On 23 May 2012, at 19:08, meekerdb wrote:


On 5/23/2012 8:47 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:
Hmm... I agree with all your points in this post, except this one. The comp model 
(theory) has much more predictive power than physics, given that it predicts the whole 
of physics,


It's easy to predict the whole of physics; just predict that everything happens.  But 
that's not predictive power.


 I will take it that you are forgetting the whole argument. When I say that it predicts 
the whole physics, I mean it literally. And not everything happens only something like 
what is described by the physical theories, except that physicists derive them from 
direct observation, and comp derives them by the logic of universal machine observable.


Physics, with comp, and arguably already with QM, is not at all everything happens, 
but more everything interfere leading to non trivial symmetries and symmetries 
breaking, etc.


Bruno


I don't see that comp has predicted anything except uncertainty.  Can comp explain the 
reason QM is based on complex Hilbert space instead or real, or quaternion, or octonion?  
Can it explain where the mass gap comes from?  Can it predict the dimensionality of 
spacetime?  Can it tell whether spacetime is discrete at some level?


Brent

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RE: The limit of all computations

2012-05-23 Thread Hal Ruhl
Hi Brent:

What you appear to be asking for are predictions of the physics of a
particular universe. 

My belief is that the best we can do is to predict the components of physics
common to every evolving universe.

My efforts have focused on understanding why there is a dynamic within the
Everything [such as UDs] and what observers in a universe containing them
are observing.  

In my model I have identified a dynamic driver [incompleteness] and what
observers observe [TRANSITIONS between universe states]. 

Since I do not prohibit computations, I believe Comp [including any
prediction of QM in many universes] is allowed within my model but is not
the only descriptor of universe evolution.  Many evolving universes may
contain no such computational component.

Hal Ruhl

-Original Message-
From: everything-list@googlegroups.com
[mailto:everything-list@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of meekerdb
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 3:52 PM
To: everything-list@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: The limit of all computations

On 5/23/2012 11:28 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:

 On 23 May 2012, at 19:08, meekerdb wrote:

 On 5/23/2012 8:47 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:
 Hmm... I agree with all your points in this post, except this one. The
comp model 
 (theory) has much more predictive power than physics, given that it 
 predicts the whole of physics,

 It's easy to predict the whole of physics; just predict that 
 everything happens.  But that's not predictive power.

  I will take it that you are forgetting the whole argument. When I say 
 that it predicts the whole physics, I mean it literally. And not 
 everything happens only something like what is described by the 
 physical theories, except that physicists derive them from direct
observation, and comp derives them by the logic of universal machine
observable.

 Physics, with comp, and arguably already with QM, is not at all 
 everything happens, but more everything interfere leading to non 
 trivial symmetries and symmetries breaking, etc.

 Bruno

I don't see that comp has predicted anything except uncertainty.  Can comp
explain the reason QM is based on complex Hilbert space instead or real, or
quaternion, or octonion?  
Can it explain where the mass gap comes from?  Can it predict the
dimensionality of spacetime?  Can it tell whether spacetime is discrete at
some level?

Brent

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-23 Thread meekerdb

On 5/23/2012 1:20 PM, Hal Ruhl wrote:

Hi Brent:

What you appear to be asking for are predictions of the physics of a
particular universe.


It's the other extreme from 'predicting' everything happens. Since we only have the one 
physical universe against which to test the prediction, it's the only kind of prediction 
that means anything.


Brent

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RE: The limit of all computations

2012-05-23 Thread Hal Ruhl
Hi Brent:

 

I ask if it is reasonable to propose that a theory of everything must be
able to list ALL the aspects of the local physics for each one of a complete
catalog of universes?

 

Suppose ours is just number 9,876,869,345 in the catalog.  Would we ever
complete such a project within the observers present  lifetime of our
universe?  

 

My current belief is that Comp is a broad brush description of a subset of
universes within my own model.  If Bruno thinks his approach is more precise
than that I do not have a problem with that.

 

My model appears to answer my questions about the basis of dynamics within
the everything and a response as to what observers observe.

 

Perhaps this sort of level is all we can expect, but it is, I believe,
necessary to police the results so that most individuals can eventually
sign on some day.  For example we sure need in my opinion a substantially
increased level of comprehension of economics which is actually a result of
any local physics.  I can't accomplish this re most of Bruno's work since I
am definitely not adequate in the relevant logic disciplines.

 

Hal Ruhl

 

 

From: everything-list@googlegroups.com
[mailto:everything-list@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of meekerdb
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 4:41 PM
To: everything-list@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: The limit of all computations

 

On 5/23/2012 1:20 PM, Hal Ruhl wrote: 

Hi Brent:
 
What you appear to be asking for are predictions of the physics of a
particular universe.


It's the other extreme from 'predicting' everything happens. Since we only
have the one physical universe against which to test the prediction, it's
the only kind of prediction that means anything.

Brent

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-23 Thread meekerdb

On 5/23/2012 4:42 PM, Hal Ruhl wrote:


Hi Brent:

I ask if it is reasonable to propose that a theory of everything must be able to list 
ALL the aspects of the local physics for each one of a complete catalog of universes?




But I wasn't asking for ALL the aspects, just a few very general ones which are questions 
in current research, meaning there's a chance we might be able to check the predictions.


Brent

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RE: The limit of all computations

2012-05-23 Thread Hal Ruhl
Hi Brent:

 

I shall try to respond tomorrow. 

 

Hal Ruhl

 

From: everything-list@googlegroups.com
[mailto:everything-list@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of meekerdb
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 8:41 PM
To: everything-list@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: The limit of all computations

 

On 5/23/2012 4:42 PM, Hal Ruhl wrote: 

Hi Brent:

 

I ask if it is reasonable to propose that a theory of everything must be
able to list ALL the aspects of the local physics for each one of a complete
catalog of universes?


But I wasn't asking for ALL the aspects, just a few very general ones which
are questions in current research, meaning there's a chance we might be able
to check the predictions.

Brent

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-22 Thread meekerdb

On 5/21/2012 10:56 PM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



2012/5/22 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net mailto:stephe...@charter.net

On 5/21/2012 3:49 PM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



2012/5/21 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net 
mailto:stephe...@charter.net

On 5/21/2012 7:54 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



2012/5/21 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net 
mailto:stephe...@charter.net

On 5/21/2012 1:55 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:

No it's not a computation, it arises because at every step,
computations diverge into new sets of infinite computations, 
giving
rise to the 1p indeterminacy.

Quentin

 Hi Quentin,

   So could we agree that the idea that the universe is 
defined/determined
ab initio (in the beginning) is refuted by this?



I don't know what you mean here... but in comp the universe per se does 
not
exist, it emerges from computations and is not an object by itself
(independent of computations).



Dear Quentin,

My interest is philosophy so I am asking questions in an attempt to 
learn
about peoples ideas. Now I am learning about yours. Your sentence here 
implies
to me that only objects (considered as capable of being separate and 
isolated
from all others) can exist. Only objects exist and not, for example,
processes. Is this correct?


No, it depends what you mean by existing. When I say in comp the universe 
per se
does not exist, I mean it does not exist ontologically as it emerge from
computations. Existence means different thing at different level.

Does a table exist ? It depends at which level you describe it.


Dear Quentin,

I am trying to understand exactly how you think and define words.

By exist


Existence is dependent on the level of description, and can be seperated by what exists 
ontologically and what exists epistemologically. So it depends on the theory you use to 
define existence.


I would favor a theory which would define existence by what can be experienced/observed. 
Maybe it's a lack of imagination, but I don't know what it would mean for a thing to 
exist and never be observed/experienced.



You're not likely to experience a quark or even an atom.  What exists is determined by 
your model of the world.  Even parts of the model that make no possible difference to the 
experiences the model predicts may be kept because they make the theory simpler, e.g. 
infinitesimal distances in physics.


Brent


are you considering capacity of the referent of a word, say table, of being 
actually
experiencing by anyone that might happen to be in its vecinity or otherwise 
capable
of being causally affected by the presence and non-presence of the table?




I still don't understand what you mean by the idea that the universe is
defined/determined ab initio (in the beginning) is refuted by this.

Regards,
Quentin


Don't worry about that for now. Let us nail down what existence is 
first.

-- 
Onward!


Stephen

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
~ Francis Bacon

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-22 Thread Quentin Anciaux
2012/5/22 meekerdb meeke...@verizon.net

  On 5/21/2012 10:56 PM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



 2012/5/22 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net

  On 5/21/2012 3:49 PM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



 2012/5/21 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net

  On 5/21/2012 7:54 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



 2012/5/21 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net

 On 5/21/2012 1:55 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:

 No it's not a computation, it arises because at every step,
 computations diverge into new sets of infinite computations, giving rise 
 to
 the 1p indeterminacy.

 Quentin

   Hi Quentin,

So could we agree that the idea that the universe is
 defined/determined ab initio (in the beginning) is refuted by this?



 I don't know what you mean here... but in comp the universe per se does
 not exist, it emerges from computations and is not an object by itself
 (independent of computations).


  Dear Quentin,

 My interest is philosophy so I am asking questions in an attempt to
 learn about peoples ideas. Now I am learning about yours. Your sentence
 here implies to me that only objects (considered as capable of being
 separate and isolated from all others) can exist. Only objects exist
 and not, for example, processes. Is this correct?


 No, it depends what you mean by existing. When I say in comp the
 universe per se does not exist, I mean it does not exist ontologically as
 it emerge from computations. Existence means different thing at different
 level.

 Does a table exist ? It depends at which level you describe it.


  Dear Quentin,

 I am trying to understand exactly how you think and define words.

 By exist


 Existence is dependent on the level of description, and can be seperated
 by what exists ontologically and what exists epistemologically. So it
 depends on the theory you use to define existence.

 I would favor a theory which would define existence by what can be
 experienced/observed. Maybe it's a lack of imagination, but I don't know
 what it would mean for a thing to exist and never be observed/experienced.



 You're not likely to experience a quark or even an atom.


Well I didn't say *I*... observer != human. It's something that can
interact (with the rest of the world)... And also I agree that what *I*
think exists is determined by the model of the world I use... but what
really exists doesn't care about what I think or the model I have ;)

Quentin


   What exists is determined by your model of the world.  Even parts of the
 model that make no possible difference to the experiences the model
 predicts may be kept because they make the theory simpler, e.g.
 infinitesimal distances in physics.

 Brent




 are you considering capacity of the referent of a word, say table, of
 being actually experiencing by anyone that might happen to be in its
 vecinity or otherwise capable of being causally affected by the presence
 and non-presence of the table?



 I still don't understand what you mean by the idea that the universe is
 defined/determined ab initio (in the beginning) is refuted by this.

 Regards,
 Quentin


  Don't worry about that for now. Let us nail down what existence is
 first.

 --
 Onward!

 Stephen

 Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
 ~ Francis Bacon

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-22 Thread Stephen P. King

On 5/21/2012 6:26 PM, Russell Standish wrote:

On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 07:42:01AM -0400, Stephen P. King wrote:

On 5/21/2012 12:33 AM, Russell Standish wrote:

On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 12:06:05PM -0700, meekerdb wrote:

On 5/20/2012 9:27 AM, Stephen P. King wrote:

4) What is the cardinality of all computations?

Aleph1.


Actually, it is aleph_0. The set of all computations is
countable. OTOH, the set of all experiences (under COMP) is uncountable
(2^\aleph_0 in fact), which only equals \aleph_1 if the continuity
hypothesis holds.

Hi Russell,

 Interesting. Do you have any thoughts on what would follow from
not holding the continuity (Cantor's continuum?) hypothesis?


No - its not my field. My understanding is that the CH has bugger all
impact on quotidian mathematics - the stuff physicists use,
basically. But it has a profound effect on the properties of
transfinite sets. And nobody can decide whether CH should be true or
false (both possibilities produce consistent results).


Hi Russell,

I once thought that consistency, in mathematics, was the indication 
of existence but situations like this make that idea a point of 
contention... CH and AoC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom_of_choice 
are two axioms associated with ZF set theory that have lead some people 
(including me) to consider a wider interpretation of mathematics. What 
if all possible consistent mathematical theories must somehow exist?




Its one reason why Bruno would like to restrict ontology to machines,
or at most integers - echoing Kronecker's quotable God made the
integers, all else is the work of man.




I understand that, but this choice to restrict makes Bruno's 
Idealism even more perplexing to me; how is it that the Integers are 
given such special status, especially when we cast aside all possibility 
(within our ontology) of the reality of the physical world? Without 
the physical world to act as a selection mechanism for what is Real, 
why the bias for integers? This has been a question that I have tried to 
get answered to no avail.






This is the origin of Bruno's claim that COMP entails that physics is
not computable, a corrolory of which is that Digital Physics is
refuted (since DP=COMP).


 Does the symbol = mean implies? I get confused ...


Yes, that is the usual meaning. It can also be written (DP or not COMP).


= = or not

I am still trying to comprehent that equivalence! BTW, I was 
reading a related Wiki article 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transposition_%28logic%29 and found the 
sentence the truth of A implies B the truth of Not-B implies 
not-A. That looks familiar... Didn't I write something like that to 
Quentin and was rebuffed... I wrote it incorrectly it appears...




Of course in Fortran, it means something entirely different: it
renames a type, much like the typedef statement of C. Sorry, that was
a digression.


That's OK. ;-) I suppose that it is a blessing to be able to think 
in code. ;-)




--
Onward!

Stephen

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
~ Francis Bacon

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-22 Thread Stephen P. King

On 5/22/2012 3:35 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



2012/5/22 meekerdb meeke...@verizon.net mailto:meeke...@verizon.net

On 5/21/2012 10:56 PM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



2012/5/22 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net
mailto:stephe...@charter.net

On 5/21/2012 3:49 PM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



2012/5/21 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net
mailto:stephe...@charter.net

On 5/21/2012 7:54 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



2012/5/21 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net
mailto:stephe...@charter.net

On 5/21/2012 1:55 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:

No it's not a computation, it arises because at
every step, computations diverge into new sets
of infinite computations, giving rise to the 1p
indeterminacy.

Quentin

 Hi Quentin,

   So could we agree that the idea that the
universe is defined/determined ab initio (in the
beginning) is refuted by this?



I don't know what you mean here... but in comp the
universe per se does not exist, it emerges from
computations and is not an object by itself
(independent of computations).



Dear Quentin,

My interest is philosophy so I am asking questions
in an attempt to learn about peoples ideas. Now I am
learning about yours. Your sentence here implies to me
that only objects (considered as capable of being
separate and isolated from all others) can exist. Only
objects exist and not, for example, processes. Is this
correct?


No, it depends what you mean by existing. When I say in
comp the universe per se does not exist, I mean it does not
exist ontologically as it emerge from computations.
Existence means different thing at different level.

Does a table exist ? It depends at which level you describe it.


Dear Quentin,

I am trying to understand exactly how you think and
define words.

By exist


Existence is dependent on the level of description, and can be
seperated by what exists ontologically and what exists
epistemologically. So it depends on the theory you use to define
existence.

I would favor a theory which would define existence by what can
be experienced/observed. Maybe it's a lack of imagination, but I
don't know what it would mean for a thing to exist and never be
observed/experienced.



You're not likely to experience a quark or even an atom.


Well I didn't say *I*... observer != human. It's something that can 
interact (with the rest of the world)... And also I agree that what 
*I* think exists is determined by the model of the world I use... but 
what really exists doesn't care about what I think or the model I have ;)


Quentin

  What exists is determined by your model of the world.  Even
parts of the model that make no possible difference to the
experiences the model predicts may be kept because they make the
theory simpler, e.g. infinitesimal distances in physics.

Brent



Hi!

What about the existence of numbers? How exactly does interaction 
between numbers and observers (per Quentin's definition) occur such that 
we can make claims as to their existence? (Assuming the postulations of 
Arithmetic Realism 
http://www.mail-archive.com/everything-list@googlegroups.com/msg10752.html.)


--
Onward!

Stephen

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
~ Francis Bacon

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-22 Thread Joseph Knight
On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 7:36 AM, Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.netwrote:

  On 5/21/2012 6:26 PM, Russell Standish wrote:

 On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 07:42:01AM -0400, Stephen P. King wrote:

  On 5/21/2012 12:33 AM, Russell Standish wrote:

  On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 12:06:05PM -0700, meekerdb wrote:

  On 5/20/2012 9:27 AM, Stephen P. King wrote:

  4) What is the cardinality of all computations?

  Aleph1.


  Actually, it is aleph_0. The set of all computations is
 countable. OTOH, the set of all experiences (under COMP) is uncountable
 (2^\aleph_0 in fact), which only equals \aleph_1 if the continuity
 hypothesis holds.

  Hi Russell,

 Interesting. Do you have any thoughts on what would follow from
 not holding the continuity (Cantor's continuum?) hypothesis?


  No - its not my field. My understanding is that the CH has bugger all
 impact on quotidian mathematics - the stuff physicists use,
 basically. But it has a profound effect on the properties of
 transfinite sets. And nobody can decide whether CH should be true or
 false (both possibilities produce consistent results).


 Hi Russell,

 I once thought that consistency, in mathematics, was the indication of
 existence but situations like this make that idea a point of contention...
 CH and AoC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom_of_choice are two axioms
 associated with ZF set theory that have lead some people (including me) to
 consider a wider interpretation of mathematics. What if all possible
 consistent mathematical theories must somehow exist?


Joel David Hamkins introduced the set-theoretic multiverse idea
(linkhttp://arxiv.org/abs/1108.4223).
The abstract reads:

The multiverse view in set theory, introduced and argued for in this
article, is the view that there are many distinct concepts of set, each
instantiated in a corresponding set-theoretic universe. The universe view,
in contrast, asserts that there is an absolute background set concept, with
a corresponding absolute set-theoretic universe in which every
set-theoretic question has a definite answer. The multiverse position, I
argue, explains our experience with the enormous diversity of set-theoretic
possibilities, a phenomenon that challenges the universe view. In
particular, I argue that the continuum hypothesis is settled on the
multiverse view by our extensive knowledge about how it behaves in the
multiverse, and as a result it can no longer be settled in the manner
formerly hoped for.




  Its one reason why Bruno would like to restrict ontology to machines,
 or at most integers - echoing Kronecker's quotable God made the
 integers, all else is the work of man.




 I understand that, but this choice to restrict makes Bruno's Idealism
 even more perplexing to me; how is it that the Integers are given such
 special status, especially when we cast aside all possibility (within our
 ontology) of the reality of the physical world? Without the physical
 world to act as a selection mechanism for what is Real, why the bias
 for integers? This has been a question that I have tried to get answered to
 no avail.


I think Bruno gives such high status to the natural numbers because they
are perhaps the least-doubt-able mathematical entities there are. The very
fact that talks of a set-theoretic multiverse exist makes one ask, how
real are sets? Do set theories tell us more about our minds than they do
about the mathematical world? (Obviously, as David Lewis pointed out, you
need something like a set theory in order to do mathematics at all, and as
Russell says, for the average mathematician it really doesn't matter.)

Also: *No one here has questioned the reality of the physical world. *Should
I append this statement to every email until you stop countering it?





   This is the origin of Bruno's claim that COMP entails that physics is
 not computable, a corrolory of which is that Digital Physics is
 refuted (since DP=COMP).


  Does the symbol = mean implies? I get confused ...


  Yes, that is the usual meaning. It can also be written (DP or not COMP).


 = = or not]


Actually a implies b is defined as not a or b.



 I am still trying to comprehent that equivalence! BTW, I was reading a 
 related
 Wiki article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transposition_%28logic%29 and
 found the sentence the truth of A implies B the truth of Not-B implies
 not-A. That looks familiar... Didn't I write something like that to
 Quentin and was rebuffed... I wrote it incorrectly it appears...


  Of course in Fortran, it means something entirely different: it
 renames a type, much like the typedef statement of C. Sorry, that was
 a digression.


 That's OK. ;-) I suppose that it is a blessing to be able to think in
 code. ;-)




 --
 Onward!

 Stephen

 Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
 ~ Francis Bacon

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 You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
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 To post to this group, send email to 

Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-22 Thread Bruno Marchal


On 22 May 2012, at 14:36, Stephen P. King wrote:


On 5/21/2012 6:26 PM, Russell Standish wrote:


On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 07:42:01AM -0400, Stephen P. King wrote:

On 5/21/2012 12:33 AM, Russell Standish wrote:

On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 12:06:05PM -0700, meekerdb wrote:

On 5/20/2012 9:27 AM, Stephen P. King wrote:

4) What is the cardinality of all computations?

Aleph1.


Actually, it is aleph_0. The set of all computations is
countable. OTOH, the set of all experiences (under COMP) is  
uncountable

(2^\aleph_0 in fact), which only equals \aleph_1 if the continuity
hypothesis holds.

Hi Russell,

Interesting. Do you have any thoughts on what would follow from
not holding the continuity (Cantor's continuum?) hypothesis?


No - its not my field. My understanding is that the CH has bugger all
impact on quotidian mathematics - the stuff physicists use,
basically. But it has a profound effect on the properties of
transfinite sets. And nobody can decide whether CH should be true or
false (both possibilities produce consistent results).


Hi Russell,

I once thought that consistency, in mathematics, was the  
indication of existence but situations like this make that idea a  
point of contention... CH and AoC are two axioms associated with ZF  
set theory that have lead some people (including me) to consider a  
wider interpretation of mathematics. What if all possible consistent  
mathematical theories must somehow exist?




Its one reason why Bruno would like to restrict ontology to machines,
or at most integers - echoing Kronecker's quotable God made the
integers, all else is the work of man.




I understand that, but this choice to restrict makes Bruno's  
Idealism


It is not idealism. It is neutral monism. Idealism would makes mind or  
ideas primitive, which is not the case.




even more perplexing to me; how is it that the Integers are given  
such special status,


Because of digital in digital mechanism. It is not so much an  
emphasis on numbers, than on finite.





especially when we cast aside all possibility (within our ontology)  
of the reality of the physical world?


Not at all. Only primitively physical reality is put in doubt.



Without the physical world to act as a selection mechanism for  
what is Real,


This contradicts your neutral monism.




why the bias for integers?


Because comp = machine, and machine are supposed to be of the type  
finitely describable.




This has been a question that I have tried to get answered to no  
avail.


You don't listen. This has been repeated very often. When you say  
yes to the doctor, you accept that you survive with a computer  
executing a code. A code is mainly a natural number, up to computable  
isomorphism. Comp refers to computer science, which study the  
computable function, which can always be recasted in term of  
computable function from N to N.
And there are no other theory of computability, on reals or whatever,  
or if you prefer, there are too many, without any Church thesis or  
genuine universality notion. (Cf Pour-Hel, Blum Shub and Smale, etc.)


Bruno







This is the origin of Bruno's claim that COMP entails that  
physics is

not computable, a corrolory of which is that Digital Physics is
refuted (since DP=COMP).


Does the symbol = mean implies? I get confused ...

Yes, that is the usual meaning. It can also be written (DP or not  
COMP).


= = or not

I am still trying to comprehent that equivalence! BTW, I was  
reading a related Wiki article and found the sentence the truth of  
A implies B the truth of Not-B implies not-A. That looks  
familiar... Didn't I write something like that to Quentin and was  
rebuffed... I wrote it incorrectly it appears...




Of course in Fortran, it means something entirely different: it
renames a type, much like the typedef statement of C. Sorry, that was
a digression.


That's OK. ;-) I suppose that it is a blessing to be able to  
think in code. ;-)




--
Onward!

Stephen

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
~ Francis Bacon

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http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/



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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-22 Thread Stephen P. King

On 5/22/2012 10:56 AM, Joseph Knight wrote:



On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 7:36 AM, Stephen P. King 
stephe...@charter.net mailto:stephe...@charter.net wrote:


On 5/21/2012 6:26 PM, Russell Standish wrote:

snip

Hi Russell,

I once thought that consistency, in mathematics, was the
indication of existence but situations like this make that idea a
point of contention... CH and AoC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom_of_choice are two axioms
associated with ZF set theory that have lead some people
(including me) to consider a wider interpretation of mathematics.
What if all possible consistent mathematical theories must somehow
exist?


Joel David Hamkins introduced the set-theoretic multiverse idea 
(link http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.4223). The abstract reads:


The multiverse view in set theory, introduced and argued for in this 
article, is the view that there are many distinct concepts of set, 
each instantiated in a corresponding set-theoretic universe. The 
universe view, in contrast, asserts that there is an absolute 
background set concept, with a corresponding absolute set-theoretic 
universe in which every set-theoretic question has a definite answer. 
The multiverse position, I argue, explains our experience with the 
enormous diversity of set-theoretic possibilities, a phenomenon that 
challenges the universe view. In particular, I argue that the 
continuum hypothesis is settled on the multiverse view by our 
extensive knowledge about how it behaves in the multiverse, and as a 
result it can no longer be settled in the manner formerly hoped for.


 Hi Joseph,

Thank you for this comment and link! Do you think that there is a 
possibility of an invariance theory, like Special relativity but for 
mathematics, at the end of this chain of reasoning? My thinking is that 
any form of consciousness or theory of knowledge has to assume that 
there is something meaningful to the idea that knowledge implies agency 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agency_%28philosophy%29 and intention 
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/intention/...






Its one reason why Bruno would like to restrict ontology to machines,
or at most integers - echoing Kronecker's quotable God made the
integers, all else is the work of man.




I understand that, but this choice to restrict makes Bruno's
Idealism even more perplexing to me; how is it that the Integers
are given such special status, especially when we cast aside all
possibility (within our ontology) of the reality of the physical
world? Without the physical world to act as a selection
mechanism for what is Real, why the bias for integers? This has
been a question that I have tried to get answered to no avail.


I think Bruno gives such high status to the natural numbers because 
they are perhaps the least-doubt-able mathematical entities there are. 
The very fact that talks of a set-theoretic multiverse exist makes 
one ask, how real are sets? Do set theories tell us more about our 
minds than they do about the mathematical world? (Obviously, as David 
Lewis pointed out, you need something like a set theory in order to do 
mathematics at all, and as Russell says, for the average mathematician 
it really doesn't matter.)


My skeptisism centers on the ambiguity of the metric that defines 
the least-doubt-able mathematical entities there are. We operate as if 
there is a clear domain of meaning to this phrase and yet are free to 
range outside it at will without self-contradiction. Set theory, whether 
implicit of explicitly acknowledged seems to be a requirement for 
communication of the 1st person content. Is it necessary for 
consciousness itself? Might consciousness, boiled down to its essence, 
be the act of making a distinction itself?




Also: *No one here has questioned the reality of the physical world. 
*Should I append this statement to every email until you stop 
countering it?


I frankly have to explicitly mention this because the reality of 
the physical world is, in fact, being questioned by many posters on 
this list. That you would write this remark is puzzling to me. I think 
that I can safely assume that you have read Bruno's papers... Maybe the 
problem is that I fail to see how reducing the physical world to the 
epiphenomena of numbers does not also remove its reality.







This is the origin of Bruno's claim that COMP entails that physics is
not computable, a corrolory of which is that Digital Physics is
refuted (since DP=COMP).


 Does the symbol = mean implies? I get confused ...


Yes, that is the usual meaning. It can also be written (DP or not COMP).


= = or not]


Actually a implies b is defined as not a or b.

Thank you for this clarification! Would you care to elaborate on 
this definition?


--
Onward!

Stephen

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
~ Francis Bacon

--
You received this message because you 

Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-22 Thread Quentin Anciaux
2012/5/22 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net

  On 5/22/2012 10:56 AM, Joseph Knight wrote:



 On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 7:36 AM, Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.netwrote:

  On 5/21/2012 6:26 PM, Russell Standish wrote:

 snip

  Hi Russell,

 I once thought that consistency, in mathematics, was the indication
 of existence but situations like this make that idea a point of
 contention... CH and AoC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom_of_choiceare 
 two axioms associated with ZF set theory that have lead some people
 (including me) to consider a wider interpretation of mathematics. What if
 all possible consistent mathematical theories must somehow exist?


  Joel David Hamkins introduced the set-theoretic multiverse idea 
 (linkhttp://arxiv.org/abs/1108.4223).
 The abstract reads:

  The multiverse view in set theory, introduced and argued for in this
 article, is the view that there are many distinct concepts of set, each
 instantiated in a corresponding set-theoretic universe. The universe view,
 in contrast, asserts that there is an absolute background set concept, with
 a corresponding absolute set-theoretic universe in which every
 set-theoretic question has a definite answer. The multiverse position, I
 argue, explains our experience with the enormous diversity of set-theoretic
 possibilities, a phenomenon that challenges the universe view. In
 particular, I argue that the continuum hypothesis is settled on the
 multiverse view by our extensive knowledge about how it behaves in the
 multiverse, and as a result it can no longer be settled in the manner
 formerly hoped for.


  Hi Joseph,

 Thank you for this comment and link! Do you think that there is a
 possibility of an invariance theory, like Special relativity but for
 mathematics, at the end of this chain of reasoning? My thinking is that any
 form of consciousness or theory of knowledge has to assume that there is
 something meaningful to the idea that knowledge implies 
 agencyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agency_%28philosophy%29and
 intention http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/intention/...






  Its one reason why Bruno would like to restrict ontology to machines,
 or at most integers - echoing Kronecker's quotable God made the
 integers, all else is the work of man.




  I understand that, but this choice to restrict makes Bruno's
 Idealism even more perplexing to me; how is it that the Integers are given
 such special status, especially when we cast aside all possibility (within
 our ontology) of the reality of the physical world? Without the physical
 world to act as a selection mechanism for what is Real, why the bias
 for integers? This has been a question that I have tried to get answered to
 no avail.


  I think Bruno gives such high status to the natural numbers because they
 are perhaps the least-doubt-able mathematical entities there are. The very
 fact that talks of a set-theoretic multiverse exist makes one ask, how
 real are sets? Do set theories tell us more about our minds than they do
 about the mathematical world? (Obviously, as David Lewis pointed out, you
 need something like a set theory in order to do mathematics at all, and as
 Russell says, for the average mathematician it really doesn't matter.)


 My skeptisism centers on the ambiguity of the metric that defines the
 least-doubt-able mathematical entities there are. We operate as if there
 is a clear domain of meaning to this phrase and yet are free to range
 outside it at will without self-contradiction. Set theory, whether implicit
 of explicitly acknowledged seems to be a requirement for communication of
 the 1st person content. Is it necessary for consciousness itself? Might
 consciousness, boiled down to its essence, be the act of making a
 distinction itself?



  Also: *No one here has questioned the reality of the physical world. *Should
 I append this statement to every email until you stop countering it?


 I frankly have to explicitly mention this because the reality of the
 physical world is, in fact, being questioned by many posters on this list.


Who ? It's been more than 10 years that I read this list... never seen
anybody who questionned the reality of the physical world... we live in it,
so it obviously exist. What is put in question is the reality of *a
**primitive** material world*.

Quentin


 That you would write this remark is puzzling to me. I think that I can
 safely assume that you have read Bruno's papers... Maybe the problem is
 that I fail to see how reducing the physical world to the epiphenomena of
 numbers does not also remove its reality.







   This is the origin of Bruno's claim that COMP entails that physics is
 not computable, a corrolory of which is that Digital Physics is
 refuted (since DP=COMP).


  Does the symbol = mean implies? I get confused ...


  Yes, that is the usual meaning. It can also be written (DP or not COMP).


  = = or not]


  Actually a implies b is defined as not a or 

Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-22 Thread Joseph Knight
On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 11:08 AM, Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.netwrote:

  On 5/22/2012 10:56 AM, Joseph Knight wrote:



 On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 7:36 AM, Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.netwrote:

  On 5/21/2012 6:26 PM, Russell Standish wrote:

 snip

  Hi Russell,

 I once thought that consistency, in mathematics, was the indication
 of existence but situations like this make that idea a point of
 contention... CH and AoC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom_of_choiceare 
 two axioms associated with ZF set theory that have lead some people
 (including me) to consider a wider interpretation of mathematics. What if
 all possible consistent mathematical theories must somehow exist?


  Joel David Hamkins introduced the set-theoretic multiverse idea 
 (linkhttp://arxiv.org/abs/1108.4223).
 The abstract reads:

  The multiverse view in set theory, introduced and argued for in this
 article, is the view that there are many distinct concepts of set, each
 instantiated in a corresponding set-theoretic universe. The universe view,
 in contrast, asserts that there is an absolute background set concept, with
 a corresponding absolute set-theoretic universe in which every
 set-theoretic question has a definite answer. The multiverse position, I
 argue, explains our experience with the enormous diversity of set-theoretic
 possibilities, a phenomenon that challenges the universe view. In
 particular, I argue that the continuum hypothesis is settled on the
 multiverse view by our extensive knowledge about how it behaves in the
 multiverse, and as a result it can no longer be settled in the manner
 formerly hoped for.


  Hi Joseph,

 Thank you for this comment and link! Do you think that there is a
 possibility of an invariance theory, like Special relativity but for
 mathematics, at the end of this chain of reasoning?


I am doubtful, simply because, for example, the Continuum Hypothesis and
its negation are both consistent with ZF set theory. Ditto for the axiom of
choice, of course.

I find it fascinating that, at this level of the foundations of
mathematics, mathematics becomes almost an intuitive science. Questions are
asked such as: *Ought *the axiom of choice be true? Are its consequences in
line with how we intuit sets to behave? This is the intersection of minds
and mathematics.


 My thinking is that any form of consciousness or theory of knowledge has
 to assume that there is something meaningful to the idea that knowledge
 implies agency http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agency_%28philosophy%29 and
 intention http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/intention/...






  Its one reason why Bruno would like to restrict ontology to machines,
 or at most integers - echoing Kronecker's quotable God made the
 integers, all else is the work of man.




  I understand that, but this choice to restrict makes Bruno's
 Idealism even more perplexing to me; how is it that the Integers are given
 such special status, especially when we cast aside all possibility (within
 our ontology) of the reality of the physical world? Without the physical
 world to act as a selection mechanism for what is Real, why the bias
 for integers? This has been a question that I have tried to get answered to
 no avail.


  I think Bruno gives such high status to the natural numbers because they
 are perhaps the least-doubt-able mathematical entities there are. The very
 fact that talks of a set-theoretic multiverse exist makes one ask, how
 real are sets? Do set theories tell us more about our minds than they do
 about the mathematical world? (Obviously, as David Lewis pointed out, you
 need something like a set theory in order to do mathematics at all, and as
 Russell says, for the average mathematician it really doesn't matter.)


 My skeptisism centers on the ambiguity of the metric that defines the
 least-doubt-able mathematical entities there are.


I understand. At the end of the day, it may be up to the individual to
decide what is doubt-able and what is not.


 We operate as if there is a clear domain of meaning to this phrase and yet
 are free to range outside it at will without self-contradiction. Set
 theory, whether implicit of explicitly acknowledged seems to be a
 requirement for communication of the 1st person content. Is it necessary
 for consciousness itself? Might consciousness, boiled down to its essence,
 be the act of making a distinction itself?


This is an extremely interesting line of thought. Sets do seem to be
necessary for the communication of mathematical ideas, maybe even the
communication of ideas period. I will have to give this more thought.





  Also: *No one here has questioned the reality of the physical world. *Should
 I append this statement to every email until you stop countering it?


 I frankly have to explicitly mention this because the reality of the
 physical world is, in fact, being questioned by many posters on this list.


Only its status as fundamental is being questioned, 

Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-22 Thread Stephen P. King

On 5/22/2012 11:53 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:


On 22 May 2012, at 14:36, Stephen P. King wrote:


On 5/21/2012 6:26 PM, Russell Standish wrote:

On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 07:42:01AM -0400, Stephen P. King wrote:

On 5/21/2012 12:33 AM, Russell Standish wrote:

On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 12:06:05PM -0700, meekerdb wrote:

On 5/20/2012 9:27 AM, Stephen P. King wrote:

4) What is the cardinality of all computations?

Aleph1.


Actually, it is aleph_0. The set of all computations is
countable. OTOH, the set of all experiences (under COMP) is uncountable
(2^\aleph_0 in fact), which only equals \aleph_1 if the continuity
hypothesis holds.

Hi Russell,

 Interesting. Do you have any thoughts on what would follow from
not holding the continuity (Cantor's continuum?) hypothesis?


No - its not my field. My understanding is that the CH has bugger all
impact on quotidian mathematics - the stuff physicists use,
basically. But it has a profound effect on the properties of
transfinite sets. And nobody can decide whether CH should be true or
false (both possibilities produce consistent results).


Hi Russell,

I once thought that consistency, in mathematics, was the 
indication of existence but situations like this make that idea a 
point of contention... CH and AoC 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom_of_choice are two axioms 
associated with ZF set theory that have lead some people (including 
me) to consider a wider interpretation of mathematics. What if all 
possible consistent mathematical theories must somehow exist?



Its one reason why Bruno would like to restrict ontology to machines,
or at most integers - echoing Kronecker's quotable God made the
integers, all else is the work of man.




I understand that, but this choice to restrict makes Bruno's 
Idealism


It is not idealism. It is neutral monism. Idealism would makes mind or 
ideas primitive, which is not the case.


 No, Bruno, it is not Neutral monism as such cannot assume any 
particular as primitive, even if it is quantity itself, for to do such 
is to violate the very notion of neutrality itself. You might like to 
spend some time reading Spinoza 
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spinoza/ and Bertrand Russell's 
discussions of this. I did not invent this line of reasoning.






even more perplexing to me; how is it that the Integers are given 
such special status,


Because of digital in digital mechanism. It is not so much an 
emphasis on numbers, than on finite.


So how do you justify finiteness?  I have been accused of having 
the everything disease whose symptom is the inability to conceive 
anything but infinite, ill defined ensembles, but in my defense I must 
state that what I am conceiving is an over-abundance of very precisely 
defined ensembles. My disease is the inability to properly articulate a 
written description.


especially when we cast aside all possibility (within our ontology) 
of the reality of the physical world?


Not at all. Only primitively physical reality is put in doubt.


Not me. I already came to the conclusion that reality cannot be 
primitively physical.






Without the physical world to act as a selection mechanism for what 
is Real,


This contradicts your neutral monism.


No, it does not. Please see my discussion of neutral monism above.






why the bias for integers?


Because comp = machine, and machine are supposed to be of the type 
finitely describable.


This is true only after the possibility of determining differences 
is stipulated. One cannot assume a neutral monism that stipulates a 
non-neutral stance, to do so it a contradiction.







This has been a question that I have tried to get answered to no avail.


You don't listen. This has been repeated very often. When you say 
yes to the doctor, you accept that you survive with a computer 
executing a code. A code is mainly a natural number, up to computable 
isomorphism. Comp refers to computer science, which study the 
computable function, which can always be recasted in term of 
computable function from N to N.
And there are no other theory of computability, on reals or whatever, 
or if you prefer, there are too many, without any Church thesis or 
genuine universality notion. (Cf Pour-Hel, Blum Shub and Smale, etc.)


I do listen and read as well. Now it is your turn. The entire 
theory of computation rests upon the ability to distinguish quantity 
from non-quantity, even to the point of the possibility of the act of 
making a distinction. When you propose a primitive ground that assumes a 
prior distinction and negates the prior act that generated the result, 
you are demanding the belief in fiat acts. This is familiar to me from 
my childhood days of sitting in the pew of my father's church. It is an 
act of blind faith, not evidence based science. Please stop pretending 
otherwise.


--
Onward!

Stephen

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
~ Francis Bacon

--
You received this message because you are 

Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-22 Thread Quentin Anciaux
2012/5/22 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net

  On 5/22/2012 11:53 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:


  On 22 May 2012, at 14:36, Stephen P. King wrote:

  On 5/21/2012 6:26 PM, Russell Standish wrote:

 On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 07:42:01AM -0400, Stephen P. King wrote:

  On 5/21/2012 12:33 AM, Russell Standish wrote:

  On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 12:06:05PM -0700, meekerdb wrote:

  On 5/20/2012 9:27 AM, Stephen P. King wrote:

  4) What is the cardinality of all computations?

  Aleph1.


  Actually, it is aleph_0. The set of all computations is
 countable. OTOH, the set of all experiences (under COMP) is uncountable
 (2^\aleph_0 in fact), which only equals \aleph_1 if the continuity
 hypothesis holds.

  Hi Russell,

 Interesting. Do you have any thoughts on what would follow from
 not holding the continuity (Cantor's continuum?) hypothesis?


  No - its not my field. My understanding is that the CH has bugger all
 impact on quotidian mathematics - the stuff physicists use,
 basically. But it has a profound effect on the properties of
 transfinite sets. And nobody can decide whether CH should be true or
 false (both possibilities produce consistent results).


 Hi Russell,

 I once thought that consistency, in mathematics, was the indication of
 existence but situations like this make that idea a point of contention...
 CH and AoC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom_of_choice are two axioms
 associated with ZF set theory that have lead some people (including me) to
 consider a wider interpretation of mathematics. What if all possible
 consistent mathematical theories must somehow exist?

  Its one reason why Bruno would like to restrict ontology to machines,
 or at most integers - echoing Kronecker's quotable God made the
 integers, all else is the work of man.




 I understand that, but this choice to restrict makes Bruno's Idealism


  It is not idealism. It is neutral monism. Idealism would makes mind or
 ideas primitive, which is not the case.


  No, Bruno, it is not Neutral monism as such cannot assume any particular
 as primitive, even if it is quantity itself, for to do such is to violate
 the very notion of neutrality itself. You might like to spend some time
 reading Spinoza http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spinoza/ and Bertrand
 Russell's discussions of this. I did not invent this line of reasoning.


 *Neutral monism*, in philosophy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy,
is the metaphysical http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphysics view that
the mental and the physical are two ways of organizing or describing the
same elements, which are themselves neutral, that is, neither physical
nor mental.

I don't see how taking N,+,* as primitive is not neutral monism. It is
neither physical nor mental.






  even more perplexing to me; how is it that the Integers are given such
 special status,


  Because of digital in digital mechanism. It is not so much an emphasis
 on numbers, than on finite.


 So how do you justify finiteness?  I have been accused of having the
 everything disease whose symptom is the inability to conceive anything
 but infinite, ill defined ensembles, but in my defense I must state that
 what I am conceiving is an over-abundance of very precisely defined
 ensembles. My disease is the inability to properly articulate a written
 description.




 especially when we cast aside all possibility (within our ontology) of the
 reality of the physical world?


  Not at all. Only primitively physical reality is put in doubt.


 Not me. I already came to the conclusion that reality cannot be
 primitively physical.


You are unclear on what you posit. You always came back to the physical
reality point, so I don't know what more to say... either you agree
physical reality is not ontologically primitive or you don't, there's no in
between position.






  Without the physical world to act as a selection mechanism for what is
 Real,


  This contradicts your neutral monism.



No, it does not. Please see my discussion of neutral monism above.


Yes it does, reading you, you posit a physical material reality as
primitive, which is not neutral...





  why the bias for integers?


  Because comp = machine, and machine are supposed to be of the type
 finitely describable.


 This is true only after the possibility of determining differences is
 stipulated. One cannot assume a neutral monism that stipulates a
 non-neutral stance, to do so it a contradiction.

 Computationalism is the theory that you consciousness can be emulated on a
turing machine, a program is a finite object and can be described by an
integer. I don't see a contradiction.






  This has been a question that I have tried to get answered to no avail.


  You don't listen. This has been repeated very often. When you say yes
 to the doctor, you accept that you survive with a computer executing a
 code. A code is mainly a natural number, up to computable isomorphism. Comp
 refers to computer science, 

RE: The limit of all computations

2012-05-22 Thread Hal Ruhl
Hi Everyone:

Unfortunately I have been unable to support a post reading/creation activity
on this list for a long time.

I had started this post as a comment to one of Russell's responses [Hi
Russell] to a post by Stephen [Hi Stephen].

I have a model (considerably revised here) that I have been developing for a
long time and was going to use it to support my comments.   However, the
post evolved.   

Note:
The next most recent version of the following model was posted to the list
on Friday, December 26, 2008 @ 9:28 PM as far as I can reconstruct events.

  A brief model of - well - Everything 

SOME DEFINITIONS:

i) Distinction:

That which enables a separation such as a particular red from other colors.

ii) Devisor:

That which encloses a quantity [none to every] of distinctions. [Some
divisors are thus collections of divisors.] 


MODEL:

1) Assumption # A1: There exists a set consisting of all possible divisors.
Call this set A [for All].

A encompasses every distinction. A is thus itself a divisor by (i) and
therefore contains itself an unbounded number of times. 


2) Definition (iii): Define Ns as those divisors that enclose zero
distinction.  Call them Nothings.

3) Definition (iv): Define Ss as divisors that enclose non zero
distinction but not all distinction.  Call them Somethings. 

4) An issue that arises is whether or not an individual specific divisor is
static or dynamic. That is: Is its quantity of distinction subject to
change? It cannot be both.

This requires that all divisors individually enclose the self referential
distinction of being static or dynamic. 

5) At least one divisor type - the Ns, by definition (iii), enclose no
such distinction but must enclose this one.  This is a type of
incompleteness.  That is the Ns cannot answer this question which is
nevertheless meaningful to them.  [The incompleteness is taken to be rather
similar functionally to the incompleteness of some mathematical Formal
Axiomatic Systems - See Godel.]

The N are thus unstable with respect to their initial condition.  They
each must at some point spontaneously enclose this static or dynamic
distinction.  They thereby transition into Ss. 

6) By (4) and (5) Transitions exist.

7) Some of these Ss may themselves be incomplete in a similar manner but
in a different distinction family.  They must evolve - via similar
incompleteness driven transitions - until complete in the sense of (5).

8) Assumption # A2: Each element of A is a universe state.

9) The result is a flow of Ss that are encompassing more and more
distinction with each transition.

10) This flow is a multiplicity of paths of successions of transitions
from element to element of the All.  That is (by A2) a transition from a
universe state to a successor universe state. 

Consequences:

a) Our Universe's evolution would be one such path on which the S has
constantly gotten larger.

b) Since a particular incompleteness can have multiple resolutions, the path
of an evolving S may split into multiple paths at any transition. 

c) A path may also originate on any incomplete S not just the Ns. 

d) Observer constructs such as life entities and likely all other constructs
imbedded in a universe bear witness to the transitions via morphing. 

e) Paths can be of any length.

f) Since many elements of A are very large, large transitions could become
infrequent on a long path where the particular S gets very large.  (Few
White Rabbits if both sides of the transition are sufficiently similar).  

---

So far I see no computation in my model. 

However, as I prepared the post and did more reading of recent posts and
thinking I found that I could add one more requirement to the model and thus
make it contain [but not be limited to] comp as far as I can tell:

Add to the end of (5):

Any transition must resolve at least one incompleteness in the relevant S.
Equate some  fraction of the incompleteness of SOME relevant Ss to a
snapshot of a computation(s) that has(have) not halted. 
  
The transition path of such an S must include (but not limited to)
transitions to a next state containing the next step of at least one such
computation.

Thus I see the model as containing, but not limited to, comp. 


Well, the model is still a work in progress.



Hal Ruhl

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-22 Thread Stephen P. King

On 5/22/2012 6:01 PM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



2012/5/22 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net 
mailto:stephe...@charter.net



 No, Bruno, it is not Neutral monism as such cannot assume any
particular as primitive, even if it is quantity itself, for to do
such is to violate the very notion of neutrality itself. You might
like to spend some time reading Spinoza
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spinoza/ and Bertrand
Russell's discussions of this. I did not invent this line of
reasoning.


*Neutral monism*, in philosophy 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy, is the metaphysical 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphysics view that the mental and 
the physical are two ways of organizing or describing the same 
elements, which are themselves neutral, that is, neither physical 
nor mental.


I don't see how taking N,+,* as primitive is not neutral monism. It is 
neither physical nor mental.


If mathematical objects are not within the category of Mental 
then that is news to philosophers...










even more perplexing to me; how is it that the Integers are
given such special status,


Because of digital in digital mechanism. It is not so much an
emphasis on numbers, than on finite.


So how do you justify finiteness?  I have been accused of
having the everything disease whose symptom is the inability to
conceive anything but infinite, ill defined ensembles, but in my
defense I must state that what I am conceiving is an
over-abundance of very precisely defined ensembles. My disease is
the inability to properly articulate a written description.



especially when we cast aside all possibility (within our
ontology) of the reality of the physical world?


Not at all. Only primitively physical reality is put in doubt.


Not me. I already came to the conclusion that reality cannot
be primitively physical.


You are unclear on what you posit. You always came back to the 
physical reality point, so I don't know what more to say... either 
you agree physical reality is not ontologically primitive or you 
don't, there's no in between position.


We have to start at the physical reality that we individually 
experience, it is, aside from our awareness, the most real thing we 
have to stand upon philosophically. From there we venture out in our 
speculations as to our ontology. cosmogony and epistemology. is there an 
alternative?









Without the physical world to act as a selection mechanism for
what is Real,


This contradicts your neutral monism.


No, it does not. Please see my discussion of neutral monism
above.


Yes it does, reading you, you posit a physical material reality as 
primitive, which is not neutral...


No, I posit the physical and the mental as real in the sense that 
I am experiencing them. Telescoping out to the farthest point of 
abstraction we have ideas like Bruno's.  I guess that I need to draw 
some diagrams...









why the bias for integers?


Because comp = machine, and machine are supposed to be of the
type finitely describable.


This is true only after the possibility of determining
differences is stipulated. One cannot assume a neutral monism that
stipulates a non-neutral stance, to do so it a contradiction.

Computationalism is the theory that your consciousness can be emulated 
on a turing machine, a program is a finite object and can be described 
by an integer. I don't see a contradiction.


I am with Penrose in claiming that consciousness is not emulable by 
a finite machine.









This has been a question that I have tried to get answered to no
avail.


You don't listen. This has been repeated very often. When you say
yes to the doctor, you accept that you survive with a computer
executing a code. A code is mainly a natural number, up to
computable isomorphism. Comp refers to computer science, which
study the computable function, which can always be recasted in
term of computable function from N to N.
And there are no other theory of computability, on reals or
whatever, or if you prefer, there are too many, without any
Church thesis or genuine universality notion. (Cf Pour-Hel, Blum
Shub and Smale, etc.)


I do listen and read as well. Now it is your turn. The entire
theory of computation rests upon the ability to distinguish
quantity from non-quantity, even to the point of the possibility
of the act of making a distinction. When you propose a primitive
ground that assumes a prior distinction and negates the prior act
that generated the result, you are demanding the belief in fiat
acts. This is familiar to me from my childhood days of sitting in
the pew of my father's church. It is an act of blind faith, not
evidence based science. Please stop pretending otherwise.

evidence based science ??


Yes, like not 

Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-22 Thread meekerdb

On 5/22/2012 4:22 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:

On 5/22/2012 6:01 PM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



2012/5/22 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net mailto:stephe...@charter.net


 No, Bruno, it is not Neutral monism as such cannot assume any particular as
primitive, even if it is quantity itself, for to do such is to violate the 
very
notion of neutrality itself. You might like to spend some time reading 
Spinoza
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spinoza/ and Bertrand Russell's 
discussions of
this. I did not invent this line of reasoning.


*Neutral monism*, in philosophy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy, is the 
metaphysical http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphysics view that the mental and the 
physical are two ways of organizing or describing the same elements, which are 
themselves neutral, that is, neither physical nor mental.


I don't see how taking N,+,* as primitive is not neutral monism. It is neither physical 
nor mental.


If mathematical objects are not within the category of Mental then that is news to 
philosophers...










even more perplexing to me; how is it that the Integers are given such 
special
status,


Because of digital in digital mechanism. It is not so much an emphasis on
numbers, than on finite.


So how do you justify finiteness?  I have been accused of having the
everything disease whose symptom is the inability to conceive anything 
but
infinite, ill defined ensembles, but in my defense I must state that what 
I am
conceiving is an over-abundance of very precisely defined ensembles. My 
disease is
the inability to properly articulate a written description.



especially when we cast aside all possibility (within our ontology) of the
reality of the physical world?


Not at all. Only primitively physical reality is put in doubt.


Not me. I already came to the conclusion that reality cannot be 
primitively
physical.


You are unclear on what you posit. You always came back to the physical reality 
point, so I don't know what more to say... either you agree physical reality is not 
ontologically primitive or you don't, there's no in between position.


We have to start at the physical reality that we individually experience, it is, 
aside from our awareness, the most real thing we have to stand upon philosophically. 
From there we venture out in our speculations as to our ontology. cosmogony and 
epistemology. is there an alternative?









Without the physical world to act as a selection mechanism for what is 
Real,


This contradicts your neutral monism.


No, it does not. Please see my discussion of neutral monism above.


Yes it does, reading you, you posit a physical material reality as primitive, which is 
not neutral...


No, I posit the physical and the mental as real in the sense that I am 
experiencing them.



The physical world is a model.  It's a very good model and I like it, but like any model 
you can't *know* whether it's really real or not.  Bruno's model explains some things the 
physical model doesn't, but so far it doesn't seem to have the predictive power that the 
physical model does.


Telescoping out to the farthest point of abstraction we have ideas like Bruno's.  I 
guess that I need to draw some diagrams...









why the bias for integers?


Because comp = machine, and machine are supposed to be of the type finitely
describable.


This is true only after the possibility of determining differences is
stipulated. One cannot assume a neutral monism that stipulates a non-neutral
stance, to do so it a contradiction.

Computationalism is the theory that your consciousness can be emulated on a turing 
machine, a program is a finite object and can be described by an integer. I don't see a 
contradiction.


I am with Penrose in claiming that consciousness is not emulable by a 
finite machine.


It's instantiated by brains which are empirically finite.  Penrose's argument from 
Godelian incompleteness is fallacious.












This has been a question that I have tried to get answered to no avail.


You don't listen. This has been repeated very often. When you say yes to 
the
doctor, you accept that you survive with a computer executing a code. A 
code is
mainly a natural number, up to computable isomorphism. Comp refers to 
computer
science, which study the computable function, which can always be recasted 
in term
of computable function from N to N.
And there are no other theory of computability, on reals or whatever, or if 
you
prefer, there are too many, without any Church thesis or genuine 
universality
notion. (Cf Pour-Hel, Blum Shub and Smale, etc.)


I do listen and read as well. Now it is your turn. The entire theory of
computation rests upon the ability to distinguish quantity from 
non-quantity, even
to the point of the possibility of the act 

Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-22 Thread Quentin Anciaux
2012/5/23 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net

  On 5/22/2012 6:01 PM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



 2012/5/22 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net


   No, Bruno, it is not Neutral monism as such cannot assume any
 particular as primitive, even if it is quantity itself, for to do such is
 to violate the very notion of neutrality itself. You might like to spend
 some time reading Spinoza http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spinoza/and 
 Bertrand Russell's discussions of this. I did not invent this line of
 reasoning.


  *Neutral monism*, in philosophy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy,
 is the metaphysical http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphysics view that
 the mental and the physical are two ways of organizing or describing the
 same elements, which are themselves neutral, that is, neither physical
 nor mental.

 I don't see how taking N,+,* as primitive is not neutral monism. It is
 neither physical nor mental.


 If mathematical objects are not within the category of Mental then
 that is news to philosophers...



If numbers (accepting arithmetical realism) are independent of you, the
universe, any mind, it is difficult to see how then can be mental object...
the way we discover mathematics is through our mind, that doesn't mean
mathematical object are mind object... I discover the physical world
through my mind, that doesn't mean the physical world is a mental object.









  even more perplexing to me; how is it that the Integers are given such
 special status,


  Because of digital in digital mechanism. It is not so much an
 emphasis on numbers, than on finite.


  So how do you justify finiteness?  I have been accused of having the
 everything disease whose symptom is the inability to conceive anything
 but infinite, ill defined ensembles, but in my defense I must state that
 what I am conceiving is an over-abundance of very precisely defined
 ensembles. My disease is the inability to properly articulate a written
 description.




 especially when we cast aside all possibility (within our ontology) of
 the reality of the physical world?


  Not at all. Only primitively physical reality is put in doubt.


  Not me. I already came to the conclusion that reality cannot be
 primitively physical.


 You are unclear on what you posit. You always came back to the physical
 reality point, so I don't know what more to say... either you agree
 physical reality is not ontologically primitive or you don't, there's no in
 between position.


 We have to start at the physical reality that we individually
 experience, it is, aside from our awareness, the most real thing we have
 to stand upon philosophically.


If you start from physicality it is hardly neutral monism.


 From there we venture out in our speculations as to our ontology.
 cosmogony and epistemology. is there an alternative?








  Without the physical world to act as a selection mechanism for what
 is Real,


  This contradicts your neutral monism.



  No, it does not. Please see my discussion of neutral monism above.


 Yes it does, reading you, you posit a physical material reality as
 primitive, which is not neutral...


 No, I posit the physical and the mental as real in the sense that I
 am experiencing them. Telescoping out to the farthest point of abstraction
 we have ideas like Bruno's.  I guess that I need to draw some diagrams...





  why the bias for integers?


  Because comp = machine, and machine are supposed to be of the type
 finitely describable.


  This is true only after the possibility of determining differences
 is stipulated. One cannot assume a neutral monism that stipulates a
 non-neutral stance, to do so it a contradiction.

   Computationalism is the theory that your consciousness can be emulated
 on a turing machine, a program is a finite object and can be described by
 an integer. I don't see a contradiction.


 I am with Penrose in claiming that consciousness is not emulable by a
 finite machine.


You claim what you want, you simply reject computationalism then, but I
have not to accept your claim without you backing it.

Regards,
Quentin









  This has been a question that I have tried to get answered to no avail.


  You don't listen. This has been repeated very often. When you say yes
 to the doctor, you accept that you survive with a computer executing a
 code. A code is mainly a natural number, up to computable isomorphism. Comp
 refers to computer science, which study the computable function, which can
 always be recasted in term of computable function from N to N.
 And there are no other theory of computability, on reals or whatever, or
 if you prefer, there are too many, without any Church thesis or genuine
 universality notion. (Cf Pour-Hel, Blum Shub and Smale, etc.)


  I do listen and read as well. Now it is your turn. The entire theory
 of computation rests upon the ability to distinguish quantity from
 non-quantity, even to the point of the 

Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-21 Thread Bruno Marchal


On 20 May 2012, at 18:27, Stephen P. King wrote:


On 5/20/2012 6:06 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



In Bruno's theory, the physical world is not computed by an  
algorithm, the physical world is the limit of all computations  
going throught your current state... what is computable is your  
current state, an infinity of computations goes through it. So I  
don't see the problem here, the UD is not an algorithm which  
computes the physical world 4D or whatever.


Quentin


Hi Quentin,

Maybe you can answer some questions. These might be badly  
composed so feel free to fix them. ;-)


1) If my current state is equivalent to a 4-manifold and the  
next state is also, what is connecting the two? Markov's proof 
tells us that it is not a algorithm. So what is it?


Markov theorem says that giving two arbitrary states, it is  
undecidable to know if a computation will relate those states or not.

It does not say that some states are not algorithmically linked.


With computer it is not in general possible to know in advance if  
states are related by computations. If they are, this can be usually  
decided, but if there are not , well there are no algorithm for  
deciding that in general.






2) Is there another equivalent set of words for the physical world  
is the limit of all computations going through your current state?


3) Is there at least one physical system running the computations?  
Is the physical universe a purely subjective appearance/experience  
for each conscious entity? What is it that shifts from one state to  
the next?


4) What is the cardinality of all computations?


Aleph_0, when see in the third person picture.
2^aleph_0, when seen in the first person picture (well, the 3-view on  
the 1-views, because it is 1, from the 1_view on the 1_view). In that  
case, arbitrary sequence of natural numbers play the role of oracle.





5) Is the totality of what exists static and timeless and are all of  
the subsets of that totality static and timeless as well?


Yes, for the basic ontological reality. No, for the epistemological  
reality.




6) Does all succession of events emerge only from the well  
ordering of Natural numbers?


Not for the physical events. (epistemological, with comp).

Bruno


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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-21 Thread Bruno Marchal


On 21 May 2012, at 07:31, meekerdb wrote:


On 5/20/2012 8:15 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:







Yes. Are those entities that exist from the beginning (which is  
what ontological primitivity implies...) or are they aspects of the  
unfolding reality?


I think they are concepts we made up.  But you're the one claiming  
the universe (actually I think you mean the multiverse) is not  
computable and you think this is contrary to Bruno.  But Bruno's UD  
isn't a Turing machine and what it produces is not computable, if I  
understand him correctly.



?

The UD is a Turing machine. I gave the algorithm in LISP (and from  
this you can compile it into a Turing machine).


What it does is computable, in the 3-views, but not in the 1-view  
(which 'contains' consciousness and matter).


A simple pseudo code is

begin
For i, j, k, non negative integers
Compute phi_i(j) up to k steps
end

The relation 'phi_i(j) = r' is purely arithmetical.

The UD is just a cousin of the universal machine, forced to generate  
all what it can do. It has to dovetail for not being stuck in some  
infinite computations (which we cannot prevent in advance).


The existence of UMs and UDs are theorem of elementary arithmetic.

The UD gives the only one known effective notion of everything.








This is debate that has been going on since Democritus and  
Heraclitus stepped into the Academy. Can you guess what ontology  
I am championing?




That is what goes into defining meaningfulness. When you define  
that X is Y, you are also defining all not-X to equal not-Y, no?


No. Unless your simply defining X to be identical with Y, a mere  
semantic renaming, then a definition is something like X:=Y|Zx.   
And it is not the case that ~X=~Y.


OK.



When you start talking about a collection then you have to  
define what are its members.


I'm not talking about a collection.  You're the one assuming that  
all 4-manifolds exist and that everything existing must be  
computed BY THE SAME ALGORITHM.  That's two more assumptions than  
I'm willing to make.


Is a universal algorithm capable of generating all possible  
outputs when feed all possible inputs?


I dunno what a universal algorithm is.  What you describe however  
is easy to write:


x-input
print x.


I think a better answer is a Universal Turing Machine, or universal  
computable function code. It is a number u such that phi_u(x, y) =  
phi_x(y).


This exist provably for all known and very different powerful enough  
'programming language' (systems, numbers, programs, ...), and it  
exists absolutely, with Church thesis.


Bruno






What exactly is an algorithm in your thinking?


An explicit sequence of instructions.






Absent the specification or ability to specify the members of a  
collection, what can you say of the collection?


This universe is defined ostensively.


Interesting word: Ostensively.

Represented or appearing as such... It implies a subject to  
whom the representations or appearances have meaningful content.  
Who plays that role in your thinking?


You do.  When I write this you know what I mean.


And are we alone in the universe? You seem to take for granted  
the existence of others.


I wouldn't say taken for granted.  I have some evidence.

Brent










Brent



What is the a priori constraint on the Universe? Why this  
one and not some other? Is the limit of all computations not a  
computation? How did this happen?





No attempts to even comment on these?


As Mark Twain said, I'm pleased to be able to answer all your  
questions directly.  I don't know.


Brent


OK...
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Stephen

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
~ Francis Bacon
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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-21 Thread Bruno Marchal


On 20 May 2012, at 21:06, meekerdb wrote:


On 5/20/2012 9:27 AM, Stephen P. King wrote:


On 5/20/2012 6:06 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



In Bruno's theory, the physical world is not computed by an  
algorithm, the physical world is the limit of all computations  
going throught your current state... what is computable is your  
current state, an infinity of computations goes through it. So I  
don't see the problem here, the UD is not an algorithm which  
computes the physical world 4D or whatever.


Quentin


Hi Quentin,

Maybe you can answer some questions. These might be badly  
composed so feel free to fix them. ;-)


1) If my current state is equivalent to a 4-manifold and the  
next state is also, what is connecting the two? Markov's proof  
tells us that it is not a algorithm. So what is it?


I don't think Markov's theorem tells you that.  It says there can be  
no algorithm that will determine the homomorphy of any two arbitrary  
compact 4-manifolds.  But there is nothing that says the next state  
can be any arbitrary 4-manifold.  In most theories it is an  
evolution of the Cauchy data on the present manifold, where  
'present' is defined by some time slice.




2) Is there another equivalent set of words for the physical world  
is the limit of all computations going through your current state?


3) Is there at least one physical system running the computations?  
Is the physical universe a purely subjective appearance/ 
experience for each conscious entity? What is it that shifts from  
one state to the next?


Well that's a crucial question.  Bruno assumes that truth implies  
existence.


That makes no sense. Only truth of existential statement entails  
existence. s(s(s(0))) is prime' entails Ex x is prime





So if 1+1=2 is true that implies that 1, +, =, and 2 exist.


This is because we assume logic, and P(n) === ExP(x) is an inference  
rule in first order logic. And this works for 1 and 2, not for + and  
=, which might exist for different reason, as well defined subsets  
of the models or as relation at the meta-level or through their Gödel  
numbers.




I think this is a doubtful proposition; particularly when talking  
about infinities.  Even if every number has a successor is true,  
what existence is implied?  Just the non-existence of a number with  
no successor.





4) What is the cardinality of all computations?


Aleph1.


From the 1-views (or from the 3-view of the many 1-views).

Bruno





5) Is the totality of what exists static and timeless and are all  
of the subsets of that totality static and timeless as well?


6) Does all succession of events emerge only from the well  
ordering of Natural numbers?

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Stephen

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
~ Francis Bacon
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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-21 Thread Russell Standish
On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 12:06:05PM -0700, meekerdb wrote:
 On 5/20/2012 9:27 AM, Stephen P. King wrote:
 
 4) What is the cardinality of all computations?
 
 Aleph1.
 

Actually, it is aleph_0. The set of all computations is
countable. OTOH, the set of all experiences (under COMP) is uncountable
(2^\aleph_0 in fact), which only equals \aleph_1 if the continuity
hypothesis holds.

This is the origin of Bruno's claim that COMP entails that physics is
not computable, a corrolory of which is that Digital Physics is
refuted (since DP=COMP).

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-21 Thread Stephen P. King

On 5/21/2012 12:33 AM, Russell Standish wrote:

On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 12:06:05PM -0700, meekerdb wrote:

On 5/20/2012 9:27 AM, Stephen P. King wrote:

4) What is the cardinality of all computations?

Aleph1.


Actually, it is aleph_0. The set of all computations is
countable. OTOH, the set of all experiences (under COMP) is uncountable
(2^\aleph_0 in fact), which only equals \aleph_1 if the continuity
hypothesis holds.


Hi Russell,

Interesting. Do you have any thoughts on what would follow from not 
holding the continuity (Cantor's continuum?) hypothesis?




This is the origin of Bruno's claim that COMP entails that physics is
not computable, a corrolory of which is that Digital Physics is
refuted (since DP=COMP).


Does the symbol = mean implies? I get confused ...

--
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Stephen

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
~ Francis Bacon


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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-21 Thread Stephen P. King

On 5/21/2012 1:55 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:
No it's not a computation, it arises because at every step, 
computations diverge into new sets of infinite computations, giving 
rise to the 1p indeterminacy.


Quentin


 Hi Quentin,

So could we agree that the idea that the universe is 
defined/determined ab initio (in the beginning) is refuted by this?


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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-21 Thread Quentin Anciaux
2012/5/21 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net

 On 5/21/2012 1:55 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:

 No it's not a computation, it arises because at every step, computations
 diverge into new sets of infinite computations, giving rise to the 1p
 indeterminacy.

 Quentin

   Hi Quentin,

So could we agree that the idea that the universe is defined/determined
 ab initio (in the beginning) is refuted by this?



I don't know what you mean here... but in comp the universe per se does not
exist, it emerges from computations and is not an object by itself
(independent of computations).

Quentin

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 Stephen

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-21 Thread Stephen P. King

On 5/21/2012 7:54 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



2012/5/21 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net 
mailto:stephe...@charter.net


On 5/21/2012 1:55 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:

No it's not a computation, it arises because at every step,
computations diverge into new sets of infinite computations,
giving rise to the 1p indeterminacy.

Quentin

 Hi Quentin,

   So could we agree that the idea that the universe is
defined/determined ab initio (in the beginning) is refuted by this?



I don't know what you mean here... but in comp the universe per se 
does not exist, it emerges from computations and is not an object by 
itself (independent of computations).


Quentin

Hi Quentin,

OK, you are equating universe with physical universe? Are you 
considering computations to be ontologically primitive? It feels like 
I am starting to explain myself all over again. That's OK, but just a 
bit frustrating.


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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-21 Thread meekerdb

On 5/20/2012 9:33 PM, Russell Standish wrote:

On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 12:06:05PM -0700, meekerdb wrote:

On 5/20/2012 9:27 AM, Stephen P. King wrote:

4) What is the cardinality of all computations?

Aleph1.


Actually, it is aleph_0.


I see that the set of all programs is countable.


The set of all computations is
countable. OTOH, the set of all experiences (under COMP) is uncountable
(2^\aleph_0 in fact), which only equals \aleph_1 if the continuity
hypothesis holds.


Ok, I was thinking that because the outputs of infinitely many programs were infinite 
there would be 2^\aleph_0, but I see that's a mistake.


Brent



This is the origin of Bruno's claim that COMP entails that physics is
not computable, a corrolory of which is that Digital Physics is
refuted (since DP=COMP).



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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-21 Thread Stephen P. King

On 5/21/2012 7:54 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



2012/5/21 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net 
mailto:stephe...@charter.net


On 5/21/2012 1:55 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:

No it's not a computation, it arises because at every step,
computations diverge into new sets of infinite computations,
giving rise to the 1p indeterminacy.

Quentin

 Hi Quentin,

   So could we agree that the idea that the universe is
defined/determined ab initio (in the beginning) is refuted by this?



I don't know what you mean here... but in comp the universe per se 
does not exist, it emerges from computations and is not an object by 
itself (independent of computations).




Dear Quentin,

My interest is philosophy so I am asking questions in an attempt to 
learn about peoples ideas. Now I am learning about yours. Your sentence 
here implies to me that only objects (considered as capable of being 
separate and isolated from all others) can exist. Only objects exist 
and not, for example, processes. Is this correct?


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Stephen

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~ Francis Bacon

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-21 Thread Quentin Anciaux
2012/5/21 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net

  On 5/21/2012 7:54 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



 2012/5/21 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net

 On 5/21/2012 1:55 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:

 No it's not a computation, it arises because at every step, computations
 diverge into new sets of infinite computations, giving rise to the 1p
 indeterminacy.

 Quentin

   Hi Quentin,

So could we agree that the idea that the universe is
 defined/determined ab initio (in the beginning) is refuted by this?



 I don't know what you mean here... but in comp the universe per se does
 not exist, it emerges from computations and is not an object by itself
 (independent of computations).


  Dear Quentin,

 My interest is philosophy so I am asking questions in an attempt to
 learn about peoples ideas. Now I am learning about yours. Your sentence
 here implies to me that only objects (considered as capable of being
 separate and isolated from all others) can exist. Only objects exist
 and not, for example, processes. Is this correct?


No, it depends what you mean by existing. When I say in comp the universe
per se does not exist, I mean it does not exist ontologically as it emerge
from computations. Existence means different thing at different level.

Does a table exist ? It depends at which level you describe it.

I still don't understand what you mean by the idea that the universe is
defined/determined ab initio (in the beginning) is refuted by this.

Regards,
Quentin



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 ~ Francis Bacon

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-21 Thread meekerdb

On 5/21/2012 12:51 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:


On 21 May 2012, at 07:31, meekerdb wrote:


On 5/20/2012 8:15 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:





Yes. Are those entities that exist from the beginning (which is what ontological 
primitivity implies...) or are they aspects of the unfolding reality?


I think they are concepts we made up.  But you're the one claiming the universe 
(actually I think you mean the multiverse) is not computable and you think this is 
contrary to Bruno.  But Bruno's UD isn't a Turing machine and what it produces is not 
computable, if I understand him correctly.



?

The UD is a Turing machine. I gave the algorithm in LISP (and from this you can compile 
it into a Turing machine).


What it does is computable, in the 3-views, but not in the 1-view (which 'contains' 
consciousness and matter).


A simple pseudo code is

begin
For i, j, k, non negative integers
Compute phi_i(j) up to k steps
end

The relation 'phi_i(j) = r' is purely arithmetical.

The UD is just a cousin of the universal machine, forced to generate all what it can do. 
It has to dovetail for not being stuck in some infinite computations (which we cannot 
prevent in advance).


The existence of UMs and UDs are theorem of elementary arithmetic.

The UD gives the only one known effective notion of everything.


Ok, I stand corrected.

Then what is the relation to the problem Stephen poses.  Can the UD compute the topology 
of all possible 4-manifolds - it seems it can since they correspond to Turing machine 
computations.  So does Markov's theorem just correspond to the fact that there is no 
general algortihm to determine whether to Turing machines compute the same function?


Brent

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-21 Thread Russell Standish
On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 07:42:01AM -0400, Stephen P. King wrote:
 On 5/21/2012 12:33 AM, Russell Standish wrote:
 On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 12:06:05PM -0700, meekerdb wrote:
 On 5/20/2012 9:27 AM, Stephen P. King wrote:
 4) What is the cardinality of all computations?
 Aleph1.
 
 Actually, it is aleph_0. The set of all computations is
 countable. OTOH, the set of all experiences (under COMP) is uncountable
 (2^\aleph_0 in fact), which only equals \aleph_1 if the continuity
 hypothesis holds.
 
 Hi Russell,
 
 Interesting. Do you have any thoughts on what would follow from
 not holding the continuity (Cantor's continuum?) hypothesis?
 

No - its not my field. My understanding is that the CH has bugger all
impact on quotidian mathematics - the stuff physicists use,
basically. But it has a profound effect on the properties of
transfinite sets. And nobody can decide whether CH should be true or
false (both possibilities produce consistent results).

Its one reason why Bruno would like to restrict ontology to machines,
or at most integers - echoing Kronecker's quotable God made the
integers, all else is the work of man.

 
 This is the origin of Bruno's claim that COMP entails that physics is
 not computable, a corrolory of which is that Digital Physics is
 refuted (since DP=COMP).
 
 Does the symbol = mean implies? I get confused ...
 

Yes, that is the usual meaning. It can also be written (DP or not COMP).

Of course in Fortran, it means something entirely different: it
renames a type, much like the typedef statement of C. Sorry, that was
a digression.

 -- 
 Onward!
 
 Stephen
 
 Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
 ~ Francis Bacon
 
 
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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-21 Thread Stephen P. King

On 5/21/2012 3:49 PM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



2012/5/21 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net 
mailto:stephe...@charter.net


On 5/21/2012 7:54 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



2012/5/21 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net
mailto:stephe...@charter.net

On 5/21/2012 1:55 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:

No it's not a computation, it arises because at every
step, computations diverge into new sets of infinite
computations, giving rise to the 1p indeterminacy.

Quentin

 Hi Quentin,

   So could we agree that the idea that the universe is
defined/determined ab initio (in the beginning) is refuted
by this?



I don't know what you mean here... but in comp the universe per
se does not exist, it emerges from computations and is not an
object by itself (independent of computations).



Dear Quentin,

My interest is philosophy so I am asking questions in an
attempt to learn about peoples ideas. Now I am learning about
yours. Your sentence here implies to me that only objects
(considered as capable of being separate and isolated from all
others) can exist. Only objects exist and not, for example,
processes. Is this correct?


No, it depends what you mean by existing. When I say in comp the 
universe per se does not exist, I mean it does not exist 
ontologically as it emerge from computations. Existence means 
different thing at different level.


Does a table exist ? It depends at which level you describe it.


Dear Quentin,

I am trying to understand exactly how you think and define words.

By exist are you considering capacity of the referent of a word, 
say table, of being actually experiencing by anyone that might happen to 
be in its vecinity or otherwise capable of being causally affected by 
the presence and non-presence of the table?




I still don't understand what you mean by the idea that the universe 
is defined/determined ab initio (in the beginning) is refuted by this.


Regards,
Quentin


Don't worry about that for now. Let us nail down what existence 
is first.


--
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Stephen

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
~ Francis Bacon

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-21 Thread Quentin Anciaux
2012/5/22 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net

  On 5/21/2012 3:49 PM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



 2012/5/21 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net

  On 5/21/2012 7:54 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



 2012/5/21 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net

 On 5/21/2012 1:55 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:

 No it's not a computation, it arises because at every step,
 computations diverge into new sets of infinite computations, giving rise to
 the 1p indeterminacy.

 Quentin

   Hi Quentin,

So could we agree that the idea that the universe is
 defined/determined ab initio (in the beginning) is refuted by this?



 I don't know what you mean here... but in comp the universe per se does
 not exist, it emerges from computations and is not an object by itself
 (independent of computations).


  Dear Quentin,

 My interest is philosophy so I am asking questions in an attempt to
 learn about peoples ideas. Now I am learning about yours. Your sentence
 here implies to me that only objects (considered as capable of being
 separate and isolated from all others) can exist. Only objects exist
 and not, for example, processes. Is this correct?


 No, it depends what you mean by existing. When I say in comp the universe
 per se does not exist, I mean it does not exist ontologically as it emerge
 from computations. Existence means different thing at different level.

 Does a table exist ? It depends at which level you describe it.


 Dear Quentin,

 I am trying to understand exactly how you think and define words.

 By exist


Existence is dependent on the level of description, and can be seperated by
what exists ontologically and what exists epistemologically. So it depends
on the theory you use to define existence.

I would favor a theory which would define existence by what can be
experienced/observed. Maybe it's a lack of imagination, but I don't know
what it would mean for a thing to exist and never be observed/experienced.


 are you considering capacity of the referent of a word, say table, of
 being actually experiencing by anyone that might happen to be in its
 vecinity or otherwise capable of being causally affected by the presence
 and non-presence of the table?



 I still don't understand what you mean by the idea that the universe is
 defined/determined ab initio (in the beginning) is refuted by this.

 Regards,
 Quentin


 Don't worry about that for now. Let us nail down what existence is
 first.

 --
 Onward!

 Stephen

 Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
 ~ Francis Bacon

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-20 Thread Stephen P. King

On 5/20/2012 6:06 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:


In Bruno's theory, the physical world is not computed by an algorithm, 
the physical world is the limit of all computations going throught 
your current state... what is computable is your current state, an 
infinity of computations goes through it. So I don't see the problem 
here, the UD is not an algorithm which computes the physical world 4D 
or whatever.


Quentin



Hi Quentin,

Maybe you can answer some questions. These might be badly composed 
so feel free to fix them. ;-)


1) If my current state is equivalent to a 4-manifold and the next 
state is also, what is connecting the two? Markov's proof tells us that 
it is not a algorithm. So what is it?


2) Is there another equivalent set of words for the physical world is 
the limit of all computations going through your current state?


3) Is there at least one physical system running the computations? Is 
the physical universe a purely subjective appearance/experience for 
each conscious entity? What is it that shifts from one state to the next?


4) What is the cardinality of all computations?

5) Is the totality of what exists static and timeless and are all of the 
subsets of that totality static and timeless as well?


6) Does all succession of events emerge only from the well ordering of 
Natural numbers?


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Stephen

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
~ Francis Bacon

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-20 Thread Quentin Anciaux
2012/5/20 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net

  On 5/20/2012 6:06 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:


  In Bruno's theory, the physical world is not computed by an algorithm,
 the physical world is the limit of all computations going throught your
 current state... what is computable is your current state, an infinity of
 computations goes through it. So I don't see the problem here, the UD is
 not an algorithm which computes the physical world 4D or whatever.

 Quentin


   Hi Quentin,

 Maybe you can answer some questions. These might be badly composed so
 feel free to fix them. ;-)

 1) If my current state is equivalent to a 4-manifold and the next
 state is also, what is connecting the two? Markov's proof tells us that it
 is not a algorithm. So what is it?


Any computations going through your current state has a next state. You
don't have *a* next state but many next state, any state is always computed
by an infinity of computation.


 2) Is there another equivalent set of words for the physical world is the
 limit of all computations going through your current state?


The physical world is the thing that is stable in the majority of
computations that compute your current conscious moment, if
computationalism is true (if consciousness is turing emulable).


 3) Is there at least one physical system running the computations?


No, if the UDA is correct... well technically there still could be a
primitive physical universe, but you could not use it to correctly predict
your next moment, nor what you see, and you would not be able to know what
it is (because all of what is accessible to you is in the computations that
support you, still if computationalism is true).


 Is the physical universe a purely subjective appearance/experience for
 each conscious entity?


It is subjective in the sense that it can be only known subjectively. It is
objective as the thing that each conscious entity can observe.


 What is it that shifts from one state to the next?


The computations.


 4) What is the cardinality of all computations?

 N0 ? and if we take that to contains oracle program, even the continuum.


  5) Is the totality of what exists static and timeless and are all of the
 subsets of that totality static and timeless as well?


Time is an internal thing of existence, time is related to an observer.


 6) Does all succession of events emerge only from the well ordering of
 Natural numbers?


Succession of events emerge from the succession of states, of what is
needed to compute you, it does not have to be related to the ordering of
natural numbers.

Quentin

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 Stephen

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 ~ Francis Bacon

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-20 Thread meekerdb

On 5/20/2012 9:27 AM, Stephen P. King wrote:

On 5/20/2012 6:06 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:


In Bruno's theory, the physical world is not computed by an algorithm, the physical 
world is the limit of all computations going throught your current state... what is 
computable is your current state, an infinity of computations goes through it. So I 
don't see the problem here, the UD is not an algorithm which computes the physical 
world 4D or whatever.


Quentin



Hi Quentin,

Maybe you can answer some questions. These might be badly composed so feel free to 
fix them. ;-)


1) If my current state is equivalent to a 4-manifold and the next state is also, 
what is connecting the two? Markov's proof tells us that it is not a algorithm. So what 
is it?


I don't think Markov's theorem tells you that.  It says there can be no algorithm that 
will determine the homomorphy of any two arbitrary compact 4-manifolds.  But there is 
nothing that says the next state can be any arbitrary 4-manifold.  In most theories it is 
an evolution of the Cauchy data on the present manifold, where 'present' is defined by 
some time slice.




2) Is there another equivalent set of words for the physical world is the limit of all 
computations going through your current state?


3) Is there at least one physical system running the computations? Is the physical 
universe a purely subjective appearance/experience for each conscious entity? What is 
it that shifts from one state to the next?


Well that's a crucial question.  Bruno assumes that truth implies existence.  So if 1+1=2 
is true that implies that 1, +, =, and 2 exist.  I think this is a doubtful proposition; 
particularly when talking about infinities.  Even if every number has a successor is true, 
what existence is implied?  Just the non-existence of a number with no successor.





4) What is the cardinality of all computations?


Aleph1.



5) Is the totality of what exists static and timeless and are all of the subsets of that 
totality static and timeless as well?


6) Does all succession of events emerge only from the well ordering of 
Natural numbers?
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Stephen

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
~ Francis Bacon
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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-20 Thread meekerdb

On 5/20/2012 10:03 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



3) Is there at least one physical system running the computations?


No, if the UDA is correct... well technically there still could be a primitive physical 
universe, but you could not use it to correctly predict your next moment, nor what you 
see, and you would not be able to know what it is (because all of what is accessible to 
you is in the computations that support you, still if computationalism is true).


If there is a primitive physical universe, and it's Turing emulable, then you could in 
principle know it's program.


Brent

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-20 Thread Stephen P. King

On 5/20/2012 1:03 PM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:



2012/5/20 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net 
mailto:stephe...@charter.net


On 5/20/2012 6:06 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:


In Bruno's theory, the physical world is not computed by an
algorithm, the physical world is the limit of all computations
going throught your current state... what is computable is your
current state, an infinity of computations goes through it. So I
don't see the problem here, the UD is not an algorithm which
computes the physical world 4D or whatever.

Quentin



Hi Quentin,

Maybe you can answer some questions. These might be badly
composed so feel free to fix them. ;-)

1) If my current state is equivalent to a 4-manifold and the
next state is also, what is connecting the two? Markov's proof
tells us that it is not a algorithm. So what is it?


Any computations going through your current state has a next state. 
You don't have *a* next state but many next state, any state is always 
computed by an infinity of computation.


Dear Quentin,

OK, but what exactly is it that operates the transition from one 
state to the next? What is the connecting function(s)? This is what 
theories of time try to explain.




2) Is there another equivalent set of words for the physical
world is the limit of all computations going through your current
state?


The physical world is the thing that is stable in the majority of 
computations that compute your current conscious moment, if 
computationalism is true (if consciousness is turing emulable).


Sure, it is a form of invariant or fixed point on a collection of 
transformations. But I invite you to look into exactly what is known 
about how these invariants exist and what are their requirements. For 
example, in the Brouwer fixed point theorem 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brouwer_fixed-point_theorem there is the 
requirement that there exist a closed, convex and compact set of points, 
a function transforming them and a means to evaluate the functions. If 
the conditions are met then the theorem predicts that a function f(x)=x 
exists.
When we say that physical world is the thing that is stable in the 
majority of computations that compute your current conscious moment, we 
are effectively saying that the physical world is much like that x such 
that f(x) = x. The computations are the functions transforming the 
states. They are actions, not entities. Additionally we have to account 
for all possible versions of your current conscious moment since 
whoever your is referring to is not a set of only one member, thus we 
have to have an explanation that applies to all possible observers (aka 
entities with the capacity of having a current conscious moment).




3) Is there at least one physical system running the computations?


No, if the UDA is correct... well technically there still could be a 
primitive physical universe, but you could not use it to correctly 
predict your next moment, nor what you see, and you would not be able 
to know what it is (because all of what is accessible to you is in the 
computations that support you, still if computationalism is true).


What purpose would the primitive physical universe serve? Here I 
agree 100% with Bruno. His result proves that there cannot be a 
primitive physical universe. My argument with Bruno is over the 
ontological status of numbers. He claims that they are ontologically 
primitive and I claim that they cannot be.




Is the physical universe a purely subjective
appearance/experience for each conscious entity?


It is subjective in the sense that it can be only known subjectively. 
It is objective as the thing that each conscious entity can observe.


We can define objective to be that which is invariant with 
respect to transformations on the collection of content of all possible 
conscious entities can observe *and* communicate to each other. In other 
words, the objective universe is what which we can all agree upon as 
existing. We do not need to think that it is somehow independent of 
us. It is sufficient to say that it is /dependent on all of us/ and 
/not dependent on any one of u/s. This way of thinking applies to 
computational universality as well: a computation is universal iff can 
be run on any functionally equivalent physical system such that it does 
not depend on any one physical configuration.




What is it that shifts from one state to the next?


The computations.


And what defines the computations? Do definitions just appear by fiat?



4) What is the cardinality of all computations?

N0 ? and if we take that to contains oracle program, even the continuum.


How many paths exist in the continuum that you are considering 
here? Each path would be equivalent to a computation in your thinking, 
no? Are the paths capable of being smoothly transformed into each other? 
If so, then the continuum has 

Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-20 Thread Stephen P. King

On 5/20/2012 3:06 PM, meekerdb wrote:

On 5/20/2012 9:27 AM, Stephen P. King wrote:

On 5/20/2012 6:06 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:


In Bruno's theory, the physical world is not computed by an 
algorithm, the physical world is the limit of all computations going 
throught your current state... what is computable is your current 
state, an infinity of computations goes through it. So I don't see 
the problem here, the UD is not an algorithm which computes the 
physical world 4D or whatever.


Quentin



Hi Quentin,

Maybe you can answer some questions. These might be badly 
composed so feel free to fix them. ;-)


1) If my current state is equivalent to a 4-manifold and the next 
state is also, what is connecting the two? Markov's proof tells us 
that it is not a algorithm. So what is it?


I don't think Markov's theorem tells you that.  It says there can be 
no algorithm that will determine the homomorphy of any two arbitrary 
compact 4-manifolds.  But there is nothing that says the next state 
can be any arbitrary 4-manifold.  In most theories it is an evolution 
of the Cauchy data on the present manifold, where 'present' is defined 
by some time slice.


 Dear Quentin,

there can be no algorithm that will determine the homomorphy of 
any two arbitrary compact 4-manifolds Exactly. The physical theories 
that are used today and accepted as fact define our objective universe 
as a compact 3,1-manifold(up to isomorphisms), this includes time as 
a dimension. There is only a technical difference between a 3,1-manifold 
and a 4-manifold.


My point is that for there to exist an a priori given string of 
numbers that is equivalent our universe there must exist a computation 
of the homomorphies between all possible 4-manifolds. Markov theorem 
tells us that no such homomorphy exists, therefore our universe cannot 
be considered to be the result of a computation in the Turing universal 
sense. It is well known that the act of defining an exact time slice 
is a computationally intractable problem, the Cauchy surface problem 
http://www.google.com/url?sa=trct=jq=esrc=ssource=webcd=2sqi=2ved=0CE8QFjABurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tapir.caltech.edu%2F%7Elindblom%2FPublications%2F10_CommMathPhys.61.87.pdfei=G1O5T9y1NYG69QT036GoCgusg=AFQjCNGQxEJa9DEFbyKnXiub-nS7zvPkswsig2=9za6duwSbfQp-yZ_Cj6vzA. 
Physicists use approximations and cheats to get around this intractability.







2) Is there another equivalent set of words for the physical world 
is the limit of all computations going through your current state?


3) Is there at least one physical system running the computations? Is 
the physical universe a purely subjective appearance/experience for 
each conscious entity? What is it that shifts from one state to the 
next?


Well that's a crucial question.  Bruno assumes that truth implies 
existence.


I agree with that claim. An entity must exist for there to be a 
true representation of it.



  So if 1+1=2 is true that implies that 1, +, =, and 2 exist.


No, existence does not determine or define properties, it is the 
mere necessary possibility of such. Just because some unstated sentence 
may be true and its referents might exist does nothing to the 
determination of the properties of said sentence or its referents. 
Properties are determined by physical acts of measurement and by nothing 
else, therefore the meaning of the sentence 1+1=2 is indefinite in the 
absence of a physical means to evaluate the sentence.


  I think this is a doubtful proposition; particularly when talking 
about infinities.  Even if every number has a successor is true, what 
existence is implied?  Just the non-existence of a number with no 
successor.





4) What is the cardinality of all computations?


Aleph1.


Is the content of Alph_1 sufficient to represent all knowledge?





5) Is the totality of what exists static and timeless and are all of 
the subsets of that totality static and timeless as well?


6) Does all succession of events emerge only from the well ordering 
of Natural numbers?


Do you understand these questions?


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Onward!

Stephen

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
~ Francis Bacon

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-20 Thread meekerdb

On 5/20/2012 1:31 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:
My point is that for there to exist an a priori given string of numbers that is 
equivalent our universe there must exist a computation of the homomorphies between all 
possible 4-manifolds. 


Why?

Markov theorem tells us that no such homomorphy exists, 


No, it tells there is no algorithm for deciding such homomorphy *that works for all 
possible 4-manifolds*.  If our universe-now has a particular topology and our 
universe-next has a particular topology, there in nothing in Markov's theorem that says 
that an algorithm can't determine that.  It just says that same algorithm can't work for 
*every pair*.


therefore our universe cannot be considered to be the result of a computation in the 
Turing universal sense. 


Sure it can.  Even if your interpretation of Markov's theorem were correct our universe 
could, for example, always have the same topology, or it could evolve only through 
topologies that were computable from one another?  Where does it say our universe must 
have all possible topologies?


Brent

It is well known that the act of defining an exact time slice is a computationally 
intractable problem, the Cauchy surface problem 
http://www.google.com/url?sa=trct=jq=esrc=ssource=webcd=2sqi=2ved=0CE8QFjABurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tapir.caltech.edu%2F%7Elindblom%2FPublications%2F10_CommMathPhys.61.87.pdfei=G1O5T9y1NYG69QT036GoCgusg=AFQjCNGQxEJa9DEFbyKnXiub-nS7zvPkswsig2=9za6duwSbfQp-yZ_Cj6vzA. 
Physicists use approximations and cheats to get around this intractability.


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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-20 Thread Stephen P. King

On 5/20/2012 4:39 PM, meekerdb wrote:

On 5/20/2012 1:31 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:
My point is that for there to exist an a priori given string of 
numbers that is equivalent our universe there must exist a 
computation of the homomorphies between all possible 4-manifolds. 


Why?

Hi Brent,

Because otherwise the amazing precision of the mathematical models 
based on the assumption of, among other things, that physical systems 
exist in space-time that is equivalent to a 4-manifold. The mathematical 
reasoning involved is much like a hugeJenga tower 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenga#Tallest_tower; pull the wrong piece 
out and it collapses.




Markov theorem tells us that no such homomorphy exists, 


No, it tells there is no algorithm for deciding such homomorphy *that 
works for all possible 4-manifolds*.  If our universe-now has a 
particular topology and our universe-next has a particular topology, 
there in nothing in Markov's theorem that says that an algorithm can't 
determine that.  It just says that same algorithm can't work for 
*every pair*.


I agree with your point that Markov's theorem does not disallow the 
existence of some particular algorithm that can compute the relation 
between some particular pair of 4-manifolds. Please understand that this 
moves us out of considering universal algorithms and into specific 
algorithms. This difference is very important. It is the difference 
between the class of universal algorithms and a particular algorithm 
that is the computation of some particular function. The non-existence 
of the general algorithm implies the non-existence of an a priori 
structure of relations between the possible 4-manifolds.
I am making an ontological argument against the idea that there 
exists an a priori given structure that *is* the computation of the 
Universe. This is my argument against Platonism.




therefore our universe cannot be considered to be the result of a 
computation in the Turing universal sense. 


Sure it can.  Even if your interpretation of Markov's theorem were 
correct our universe could, for example, always have the same topology,


No, it cannot. If there does not exist a general algorithm that can 
compute the homomorphy relations between all 4-manifolds then what is 
the result of such cannot exit either. We cannot talk coherently within 
computational methods about a topology when such cannot be specified 
in advance. Algorithms are recursively enumerable functions. That means 
that you must specify their code in advance, otherwise your are not 
really talking about computations; you are talking about some imaginary 
things created by imaginary entities in imaginary places that do 
imaginary acts; hence my previous references to Pink Unicorns.


Let me put this in other words. If you cannot build the equipment 
needed to mix, bake and decorate the cake then you cannot eat it. We 
cannot have a coherent ontological theory that assumes something that 
can only exist as the result of some process and that same ontological 
theory prohibits the process from occurring.


or it could evolve only through topologies that were computable from 
one another?  Where does it say our universe must have all possible 
topologies?



The alternative is to consider that the computation of the 
homomorphies is an ongoing process, not one that is already existing in 
Platonia as a string of numbers or anything equivalent. I would even 
say that time_is_ the computation of the homomorphies. Time exists 
because everything cannot happen simultaneously.


We must say that the universe has all possible topologies unless we 
can specify reasons why it does not. That is what goes into defining 
meaningfulness. When you define that X is Y, you are also defining all 
not-X to equal not-Y, no? When you start talking about a collection then 
you have to define what are its members. Absent the specification or 
ability to specify the members of a collection, what can you say of the 
collection?


What is the a priori constraint on the Universe? Why this one and 
not some other? Is the limit of all computations not a computation? How 
did this happen?



--
Onward!

Stephen

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
~ Francis Bacon

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-20 Thread Stephen P. King

On 5/20/2012 7:13 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:

On 5/20/2012 4:39 PM, meekerdb wrote:

On 5/20/2012 1:31 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:
My point is that for there to exist an a priori given string of 
numbers that is equivalent our universe there must exist a 
computation of the homomorphies between all possible 4-manifolds. 


Why?

Hi Brent,

Because otherwise the amazing precision of the mathematical models 
based on the assumption of, among other things, that physical systems 
exist in space-time that is equivalent to a 4-manifold. The 
mathematical reasoning involved is much like a hugeJenga tower 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenga#Tallest_tower; pull the wrong 
piece out and it collapses.


I need to add a remark here. We cannot just assume one particular 
4-manifold as the one we exist on/in. We have to consider the entire 
ensemble of them to even ask coherent questions about the one we are in. 
Why do you think cosmologists are so busy looking at such things as the 
spectral distribution of the CMB and so forth? It is because those are 
clues as to the specific type of 4-manifold that we are on/in. 
Additionally, when we try to model the cosmology setting of many 
observers and their observations we have to consider that each observer 
has a ensemble of possible of 4-manifolds that represent the universe 
that they observe.


--
Onward!

Stephen

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
~ Francis Bacon

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-20 Thread meekerdb

On 5/20/2012 4:13 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:

On 5/20/2012 4:39 PM, meekerdb wrote:

On 5/20/2012 1:31 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:
My point is that for there to exist an a priori given string of numbers that is 
equivalent our universe there must exist a computation of the homomorphies between all 
possible 4-manifolds. 


Why?

Hi Brent,

Because otherwise the amazing precision of the mathematical models based on the 
assumption of, among other things, that physical systems exist in space-time that is 
equivalent to a 4-manifold. The mathematical reasoning involved is much like a hugeJenga 
tower http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenga#Tallest_tower; pull the wrong piece out and 
it collapses.




Markov theorem tells us that no such homomorphy exists, 


No, it tells there is no algorithm for deciding such homomorphy *that works for all 
possible 4-manifolds*.  If our universe-now has a particular topology and our 
universe-next has a particular topology, there in nothing in Markov's theorem that says 
that an algorithm can't determine that.  It just says that same algorithm can't work 
for *every pair*.


I agree with your point that Markov's theorem does not disallow the existence of 
some particular algorithm that can compute the relation between some particular pair of 
4-manifolds. Please understand that this moves us out of considering universal 
algorithms and into specific algorithms. This difference is very important. It is the 
difference between the class of universal algorithms and a particular algorithm that is 
the computation of some particular function. The non-existence of the general algorithm 
implies the non-existence of an a priori structure of relations between the possible 
4-manifolds.
I am making an ontological argument against the idea that there exists an a priori 
given structure that *is* the computation of the Universe. This is my argument against 
Platonism.




therefore our universe cannot be considered to be the result of a computation in the 
Turing universal sense. 


Sure it can.  Even if your interpretation of Markov's theorem were correct our universe 
could, for example, always have the same topology,


No, it cannot. If there does not exist a general algorithm that can compute the 
homomorphy relations between all 4-manifolds then what is the result of such cannot exit 
either. 


The result is an exhaustive classification of compact 4-mainifolds.  The absence of such a 
classification neither prevents nor entails the existence of the manifolds.


We cannot talk coherently within computational methods about a topology when such 
cannot be specified in advance. Algorithms are recursively enumerable functions. That 
means that you must specify their code in advance, otherwise your are not really talking 
about computations; you are talking about some imaginary things created by imaginary 
entities in imaginary places that do imaginary acts; hence my previous references to 
Pink Unicorns.


Let me put this in other words. If you cannot build the equipment needed to mix, 
bake and decorate the cake then you cannot eat it. 


You can have the equipment mix, bake, decorate and eat a cake without having the equipment 
to mix, bake, decorate, and eat all possible cakes.


We cannot have a coherent ontological theory that assumes something that can only exist 
as the result of some process and that same ontological theory prohibits the process 
from occurring.


or it could evolve only through topologies that were computable from one another?  
Where does it say our universe must have all possible topologies?



The alternative is to consider that the computation of the homomorphies is an 
ongoing process, not one that is already existing in Platonia as a string of numbers 
or anything equivalent. I would even say that time_is_ the computation of the 
homomorphies. Time exists because everything cannot happen simultaneously.


We must say that the universe has all possible topologies unless we can specify 
reasons why it does not. 


I don't fee any compulsion to say that.  In any case, this universe does not have all 
possible topologies.  If you want to hypothesize a multiverse that includes universes with 
all possible topologies then there will be no *single* algorithm that can classify all of 
them.  But this is just the same as there is no algorithm which can tell you which of the 
UD programs will halt.


That is what goes into defining meaningfulness. When you define that X is Y, you are 
also defining all not-X to equal not-Y, no? 


No. Unless your simply defining X to be identical with Y, a mere semantic renaming, then a 
definition is something like X:=Y|Zx.  And it is not the case that ~X=~Y.


When you start talking about a collection then you have to define what are its members. 
Absent the specification or ability to specify the members of a collection, what can you 
say of the collection?


This universe is defined ostensively.


Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-20 Thread meekerdb

On 5/20/2012 4:25 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:
I need to add a remark here. We cannot just assume one particular 4-manifold as the 
one we exist on/in. We have to consider the entire ensemble of them to even ask coherent 
questions about the one we are in. 


But we don't have to assume the ensemble has a single algorithm that will exhaustively 
classify them.  That would be like saying we can't investigate what programs exist without 
first solving the halting problem - which we know to insoluble.


Why do you think cosmologists are so busy looking at such things as the spectral 
distribution of the CMB and so forth? It is because those are clues as to the specific 
type of 4-manifold that we are on/in. 


If we are in one specific one.  So what?

Additionally, when we try to model the cosmology setting of many observers and their 
observations we have to consider that each observer has a ensemble of possible of 
4-manifolds that represent the universe that they observe.


So what?  We don't have to suppose they classifiable by a single algorithm.

Brent

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-20 Thread Stephen P. King

On 5/20/2012 8:08 PM, meekerdb wrote:

On 5/20/2012 4:13 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:

On 5/20/2012 4:39 PM, meekerdb wrote:

On 5/20/2012 1:31 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:
My point is that for there to exist an a priori given string of 
numbers that is equivalent our universe there must exist a 
computation of the homomorphies between all possible 4-manifolds. 


Why?

Hi Brent,

Because otherwise the amazing precision of the mathematical 
models based on the assumption of, among other things, that physical 
systems exist in space-time that is equivalent to a 4-manifold. The 
mathematical reasoning involved is much like a hugeJenga tower 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenga#Tallest_tower; pull the wrong 
piece out and it collapses.




Markov theorem tells us that no such homomorphy exists, 


No, it tells there is no algorithm for deciding such homomorphy 
*that works for all possible 4-manifolds*.  If our universe-now has 
a particular topology and our universe-next has a particular 
topology, there in nothing in Markov's theorem that says that an 
algorithm can't determine that.  It just says that same algorithm 
can't work for *every pair*.


I agree with your point that Markov's theorem does not disallow 
the existence of some particular algorithm that can compute the 
relation between some particular pair of 4-manifolds. Please 
understand that this moves us out of considering universal algorithms 
and into specific algorithms. This difference is very important. It 
is the difference between the class of universal algorithms and a 
particular algorithm that is the computation of some particular 
function. The non-existence of the general algorithm implies the 
non-existence of an a priori structure of relations between the 
possible 4-manifolds.
I am making an ontological argument against the idea that there 
exists an a priori given structure that *is* the computation of the 
Universe. This is my argument against Platonism.




therefore our universe cannot be considered to be the result of a 
computation in the Turing universal sense. 


Sure it can.  Even if your interpretation of Markov's theorem were 
correct our universe could, for example, always have the same topology,


No, it cannot. If there does not exist a general algorithm that 
can compute the homomorphy relations between all 4-manifolds then 
what is the result of such cannot exit either. 


The result is an exhaustive classification of compact 4-mainifolds.  
The absence of such a classification neither prevents nor entails the 
existence of the manifolds.


 But you fail to see that without the means to define the manifolds, 
there is nothing to distinguish a manifold from a fruitloop from a pink 
unicorn from a . Absent the means to distinguish properties there is 
no such thing as definite properties.




We cannot talk coherently within computational methods about a 
topology when such cannot be specified in advance. Algorithms are 
recursively enumerable functions. That means that you must specify 
their code in advance, otherwise your are not really talking about 
computations; you are talking about some imaginary things created by 
imaginary entities in imaginary places that do imaginary acts; hence 
my previous references to Pink Unicorns.


Let me put this in other words. If you cannot build the equipment 
needed to mix, bake and decorate the cake then you cannot eat it. 


You can have the equipment mix, bake, decorate and eat a cake without 
having the equipment to mix, bake, decorate, and eat all possible cakes.


   My analogy failed to demonstrate its intended idea, it seems. Let me 
rephrase. Do cakes exist as cakes if it is impossible to mix, bake and 
decorate them? Do they just magically appear out of nothing? No. Neither 
does meaningfulness and the definiteness of properties.




We cannot have a coherent ontological theory that assumes something 
that can only exist as the result of some process and that same 
ontological theory prohibits the process from occurring.


or it could evolve only through topologies that were computable from 
one another?  Where does it say our universe must have all possible 
topologies?



The alternative is to consider that the computation of the 
homomorphies is an ongoing process, not one that is already existing 
in Platonia as a string of numbers or anything equivalent. I would 
even say that time_is_ the computation of the homomorphies. Time 
exists because everything cannot happen simultaneously.


We must say that the universe has all possible topologies unless 
we can specify reasons why it does not. 


I don't fee any compulsion to say that.  In any case, this universe 
does not have all possible topologies.


 Why do not see that as surprising? We experience one particular 
universe, having one particular set of properties. How does this happen? 
What picked it out of the hat?


If you want to hypothesize a multiverse that includes 

Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-20 Thread meekerdb

On 5/20/2012 6:53 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:

On 5/20/2012 8:08 PM, meekerdb wrote:

On 5/20/2012 4:13 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:

On 5/20/2012 4:39 PM, meekerdb wrote:

On 5/20/2012 1:31 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:
My point is that for there to exist an a priori given string of numbers that is 
equivalent our universe there must exist a computation of the homomorphies between 
all possible 4-manifolds. 


Why?

Hi Brent,

Because otherwise the amazing precision of the mathematical models based on the 
assumption of, among other things, that physical systems exist in space-time that is 
equivalent to a 4-manifold. The mathematical reasoning involved is much like a 
hugeJenga tower http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenga#Tallest_tower; pull the wrong 
piece out and it collapses.




Markov theorem tells us that no such homomorphy exists, 


No, it tells there is no algorithm for deciding such homomorphy *that works for all 
possible 4-manifolds*.  If our universe-now has a particular topology and our 
universe-next has a particular topology, there in nothing in Markov's theorem that 
says that an algorithm can't determine that.  It just says that same algorithm can't 
work for *every pair*.


I agree with your point that Markov's theorem does not disallow the existence of 
some particular algorithm that can compute the relation between some particular pair 
of 4-manifolds. Please understand that this moves us out of considering universal 
algorithms and into specific algorithms. This difference is very important. It is the 
difference between the class of universal algorithms and a particular algorithm that 
is the computation of some particular function. The non-existence of the general 
algorithm implies the non-existence of an a priori structure of relations between the 
possible 4-manifolds.
I am making an ontological argument against the idea that there exists an a priori 
given structure that *is* the computation of the Universe. This is my argument against 
Platonism.




therefore our universe cannot be considered to be the result of a computation in the 
Turing universal sense. 


Sure it can.  Even if your interpretation of Markov's theorem were correct our 
universe could, for example, always have the same topology,


No, it cannot. If there does not exist a general algorithm that can compute the 
homomorphy relations between all 4-manifolds then what is the result of such cannot 
exit either. 


The result is an exhaustive classification of compact 4-mainifolds.  The absence of 
such a classification neither prevents nor entails the existence of the manifolds.


 But you fail to see that without the means to define the manifolds, there is nothing to 
distinguish a manifold from a fruitloop from a pink unicorn from a . Absent the 
means to distinguish properties there is no such thing as definite properties.




We cannot talk coherently within computational methods about a topology when such 
cannot be specified in advance. Algorithms are recursively enumerable functions. That 
means that you must specify their code in advance, otherwise your are not really 
talking about computations; you are talking about some imaginary things created by 
imaginary entities in imaginary places that do imaginary acts; hence my previous 
references to Pink Unicorns.


Let me put this in other words. If you cannot build the equipment needed to mix, 
bake and decorate the cake then you cannot eat it. 


You can have the equipment mix, bake, decorate and eat a cake without having the 
equipment to mix, bake, decorate, and eat all possible cakes.


   My analogy failed to demonstrate its intended idea, it seems. Let me rephrase. Do 
cakes exist as cakes if it is impossible to mix, bake and decorate them? Do they just 
magically appear out of nothing? No. Neither does meaningfulness and the definiteness of 
properties.


Because I can bake a cake, does it follow that all possible cakes exist?





We cannot have a coherent ontological theory that assumes something that can only 
exist as the result of some process and that same ontological theory prohibits the 
process from occurring.


or it could evolve only through topologies that were computable from one another?  
Where does it say our universe must have all possible topologies?



The alternative is to consider that the computation of the homomorphies is an 
ongoing process, not one that is already existing in Platonia as a string of numbers 
or anything equivalent. I would even say that time_is_ the computation of the 
homomorphies. Time exists because everything cannot happen simultaneously.


We must say that the universe has all possible topologies unless we can specify 
reasons why it does not. 


I don't fee any compulsion to say that.  In any case, this universe does not have all 
possible topologies.


 Why do not see that as surprising? We experience one particular universe, having one 
particular set of properties. How 

Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-20 Thread meekerdb

On 5/20/2012 6:53 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:
The result is an exhaustive classification of compact 4-mainifolds.  The absence of 
such a classification neither prevents nor entails the existence of the manifolds.


 But you fail to see that without the means to define the manifolds, there is nothing to 
distinguish a manifold from a fruitloop from a pink unicorn from a . Absent the 
means to distinguish properties there is no such thing as definite properties.


But there are means to distinguish the properties and ways to define different 4-manifolds 
and ways to determine whether two 4-manifolds are homeomorphic.  If there weren't the 
theorem would be uninteresting.  What makes it interesting, just as it is interesting that 
some programs compute a total function and some don't, it is interesting because there 
exist enough different 4-manifolds so that it is impossible to have a single algorithm 
classify them.  You seem to be arguing that only a subset that can be calculated by some 
single algorithm can exist?


Brent

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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-20 Thread Stephen P. King

On 5/20/2012 10:17 PM, meekerdb wrote:

On 5/20/2012 6:53 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:

On 5/20/2012 8:08 PM, meekerdb wrote:

On 5/20/2012 4:13 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:

On 5/20/2012 4:39 PM, meekerdb wrote:

On 5/20/2012 1:31 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:
My point is that for there to exist an a priori given string 
of numbers that is equivalent our universe there must exist a 
computation of the homomorphies between all possible 4-manifolds. 


Why?

Hi Brent,

Because otherwise the amazing precision of the mathematical 
models based on the assumption of, among other things, that 
physical systems exist in space-time that is equivalent to a 
4-manifold. The mathematical reasoning involved is much like a 
hugeJenga tower http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenga#Tallest_tower; 
pull the wrong piece out and it collapses.




Markov theorem tells us that no such homomorphy exists, 


No, it tells there is no algorithm for deciding such homomorphy 
*that works for all possible 4-manifolds*.  If our universe-now 
has a particular topology and our universe-next has a particular 
topology, there in nothing in Markov's theorem that says that an 
algorithm can't determine that.  It just says that same algorithm 
can't work for *every pair*.


I agree with your point that Markov's theorem does not disallow 
the existence of some particular algorithm that can compute the 
relation between some particular pair of 4-manifolds. Please 
understand that this moves us out of considering universal 
algorithms and into specific algorithms. This difference is very 
important. It is the difference between the class of universal 
algorithms and a particular algorithm that is the computation of 
some particular function. The non-existence of the general 
algorithm implies the non-existence of an a priori structure of 
relations between the possible 4-manifolds.
I am making an ontological argument against the idea that there 
exists an a priori given structure that *is* the computation of the 
Universe. This is my argument against Platonism.




therefore our universe cannot be considered to be the result of a 
computation in the Turing universal sense. 


Sure it can.  Even if your interpretation of Markov's theorem were 
correct our universe could, for example, always have the same 
topology,


No, it cannot. If there does not exist a general algorithm that 
can compute the homomorphy relations between all 4-manifolds then 
what is the result of such cannot exit either. 


The result is an exhaustive classification of compact 4-mainifolds.  
The absence of such a classification neither prevents nor entails 
the existence of the manifolds.


 But you fail to see that without the means to define the manifolds, 
there is nothing to distinguish a manifold from a fruitloop from a 
pink unicorn from a . Absent the means to distinguish properties 
there is no such thing as definite properties.




We cannot talk coherently within computational methods about a 
topology when such cannot be specified in advance. Algorithms are 
recursively enumerable functions. That means that you must specify 
their code in advance, otherwise your are not really talking about 
computations; you are talking about some imaginary things created 
by imaginary entities in imaginary places that do imaginary acts; 
hence my previous references to Pink Unicorns.


Let me put this in other words. If you cannot build the 
equipment needed to mix, bake and decorate the cake then you cannot 
eat it. 


You can have the equipment mix, bake, decorate and eat a cake 
without having the equipment to mix, bake, decorate, and eat all 
possible cakes.


   My analogy failed to demonstrate its intended idea, it seems. Let 
me rephrase. Do cakes exist as cakes if it is impossible to mix, bake 
and decorate them? Do they just magically appear out of nothing? No. 
Neither does meaningfulness and the definiteness of properties.


Because I can bake a cake, does it follow that all possible cakes exist?


Are you the only entity that exists? This is not about youper se, 
this is about the possibility and our discussion of ideas.


The answer to your question is: Yes, because I can bake a cake, it 
follows that all possible cakes must exist. Why? Because if the 
statement I can bake a cake is true and I have not specified which 
cake I have baked, then it follows that I have possibly baked all 
possible cakes. Otherwise, one has to stipulate which of the many cakes 
one has baked to be able to claim that all possible cakes do not exist. 
You are treating the possibility of something the same as the actuality 
of something when they are not the same.






We cannot have a coherent ontological theory that assumes something 
that can only exist as the result of some process and that same 
ontological theory prohibits the process from occurring.


or it could evolve only through topologies that were computable 
from one another?  Where does it say our 

Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-20 Thread Stephen P. King

On 5/20/2012 10:26 PM, meekerdb wrote:

On 5/20/2012 6:53 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:
The result is an exhaustive classification of compact 4-mainifolds.  
The absence of such a classification neither prevents nor entails 
the existence of the manifolds.


 But you fail to see that without the means to define the manifolds, 
there is nothing to distinguish a manifold from a fruitloop from a 
pink unicorn from a . Absent the means to distinguish properties 
there is no such thing as definite properties.


But there are means to distinguish the properties and ways to define 
different 4-manifolds and ways to determine whether two 4-manifolds 
are homeomorphic.  If there weren't the theorem would be 
uninteresting.  What makes it interesting, just as it is interesting 
that some programs compute a total function and some don't, it is 
interesting because there exist enough different 4-manifolds so that 
it is impossible to have a single algorithm classify them.  You seem 
to be arguing that only a subset that can be calculated by some single 
algorithm can exist?


Brent


Sorry Brent,

You are not grasping what I am talking about.

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Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
~ Francis Bacon


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Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-20 Thread meekerdb

On 5/20/2012 8:15 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:

On 5/20/2012 10:17 PM, meekerdb wrote:

On 5/20/2012 6:53 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:

On 5/20/2012 8:08 PM, meekerdb wrote:

On 5/20/2012 4:13 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:

On 5/20/2012 4:39 PM, meekerdb wrote:

On 5/20/2012 1:31 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:
My point is that for there to exist an a priori given string of numbers that 
is equivalent our universe there must exist a computation of the homomorphies 
between all possible 4-manifolds. 


Why?

Hi Brent,

Because otherwise the amazing precision of the mathematical models based on the 
assumption of, among other things, that physical systems exist in space-time that is 
equivalent to a 4-manifold. The mathematical reasoning involved is much like a 
hugeJenga tower http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenga#Tallest_tower; pull the wrong 
piece out and it collapses.




Markov theorem tells us that no such homomorphy exists, 


No, it tells there is no algorithm for deciding such homomorphy *that works for all 
possible 4-manifolds*.  If our universe-now has a particular topology and our 
universe-next has a particular topology, there in nothing in Markov's theorem that 
says that an algorithm can't determine that.  It just says that same algorithm 
can't work for *every pair*.


I agree with your point that Markov's theorem does not disallow the existence of 
some particular algorithm that can compute the relation between some particular pair 
of 4-manifolds. Please understand that this moves us out of considering universal 
algorithms and into specific algorithms. This difference is very important. It is 
the difference between the class of universal algorithms and a particular algorithm 
that is the computation of some particular function. The non-existence of the 
general algorithm implies the non-existence of an a priori structure of relations 
between the possible 4-manifolds.
I am making an ontological argument against the idea that there exists an a 
priori given structure that *is* the computation of the Universe. This is my 
argument against Platonism.




therefore our universe cannot be considered to be the result of a computation in 
the Turing universal sense. 


Sure it can.  Even if your interpretation of Markov's theorem were correct our 
universe could, for example, always have the same topology,


No, it cannot. If there does not exist a general algorithm that can compute the 
homomorphy relations between all 4-manifolds then what is the result of such cannot 
exit either. 


The result is an exhaustive classification of compact 4-mainifolds.  The absence of 
such a classification neither prevents nor entails the existence of the manifolds.


 But you fail to see that without the means to define the manifolds, there is nothing 
to distinguish a manifold from a fruitloop from a pink unicorn from a . Absent the 
means to distinguish properties there is no such thing as definite properties.




We cannot talk coherently within computational methods about a topology when such 
cannot be specified in advance. Algorithms are recursively enumerable functions. 
That means that you must specify their code in advance, otherwise your are not 
really talking about computations; you are talking about some imaginary things 
created by imaginary entities in imaginary places that do imaginary acts; hence my 
previous references to Pink Unicorns.


Let me put this in other words. If you cannot build the equipment needed to mix, 
bake and decorate the cake then you cannot eat it. 


You can have the equipment mix, bake, decorate and eat a cake without having the 
equipment to mix, bake, decorate, and eat all possible cakes.


   My analogy failed to demonstrate its intended idea, it seems. Let me rephrase. Do 
cakes exist as cakes if it is impossible to mix, bake and decorate them? Do they just 
magically appear out of nothing? No. Neither does meaningfulness and the definiteness 
of properties.


Because I can bake a cake, does it follow that all possible cakes exist?


Are you the only entity that exists? This is not about youper se, this is about 
the possibility and our discussion of ideas.


The answer to your question is: Yes, because I can bake a cake, it follows that all 
possible cakes must exist. Why? Because if the statement I can bake a cake is true 
and I have not specified which cake I have baked, then it follows that I have possibly 
baked all possible cakes. Otherwise, one has to stipulate which of the many cakes one 
has baked to be able to claim that all possible cakes do not exist. You are treating the 
possibility of something the same as the actuality of something when they are not the same.


I'm afraid you've caught the 'everything disease' - the inability to conceive anything but 
infinite, ill defined ensembles.








We cannot have a coherent ontological theory that assumes something that can only 
exist as the result of some process and that same 

Re: The limit of all computations

2012-05-20 Thread Quentin Anciaux
2012/5/21 Stephen P. King stephe...@charter.net

  On 5/20/2012 4:39 PM, meekerdb wrote:

 On 5/20/2012 1:31 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:

 My point is that for there to exist an a priori given string of
 numbers that is equivalent our universe there must exist a computation of
 the homomorphies between all possible 4-manifolds.


 Why?

 Hi Brent,

 Because otherwise the amazing precision of the mathematical models
 based on the assumption of, among other things, that physical systems exist
 in space-time that is equivalent to a 4-manifold. The mathematical
 reasoning involved is much like a huge Jenga 
 towerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenga#Tallest_tower;
 pull the wrong piece out and it collapses.


  Markov theorem tells us that no such homomorphy exists,


 No, it tells there is no algorithm for deciding such homomorphy *that
 works for all possible 4-manifolds*.  If our universe-now has a particular
 topology and our universe-next has a particular topology, there in nothing
 in Markov's theorem that says that an algorithm can't determine that.  It
 just says that same algorithm can't work for *every pair*.


 I agree with your point that Markov's theorem does not disallow the
 existence of some particular algorithm that can compute the relation
 between some particular pair of 4-manifolds. Please understand that this
 moves us out of considering universal algorithms and into specific
 algorithms. This difference is very important. It is the difference between
 the class of universal algorithms and a particular algorithm that is the
 computation of some particular function. The non-existence of the general
 algorithm implies the non-existence of an a priori structure of relations
 between the possible 4-manifolds.
 I am making an ontological argument against the idea that there exists
 an a priori given structure that *is* the computation of the Universe. This
 is my argument against Platonism.



 therefore our universe cannot be considered to be the result of a
 computation in the Turing universal sense.


 Sure it can.  Even if your interpretation of Markov's theorem were correct
 our universe could, for example, always have the same topology,


 No, it cannot. If there does not exist a general algorithm that can
 compute the homomorphy relations between all 4-manifolds then what is the
 result of such cannot exit either. We cannot talk coherently within
 computational methods about a topology when such cannot be specified in
 advance. Algorithms are recursively enumerable functions. That means that
 you must specify their code in advance, otherwise your are not really
 talking about computations; you are talking about some imaginary things
 created by imaginary entities in imaginary places that do imaginary acts;
 hence my previous references to Pink Unicorns.

 Let me put this in other words. If you cannot build the equipment
 needed to mix, bake and decorate the cake then you cannot eat it. We cannot
 have a coherent ontological theory that assumes something that can only
 exist as the result of some process and that same ontological theory
 prohibits the process from occurring.

  or it could evolve only through topologies that were computable from one
 another?  Where does it say our universe must have all possible topologies?



 The alternative is to consider that the computation of the
 homomorphies is an ongoing process, not one that is already existing in
 Platonia as a string of numbers or anything equivalent. I would even say
 that time* is* the computation of the homomorphies. Time exists because
 everything cannot happen simultaneously.

 We must say that the universe has all possible topologies unless we
 can specify reasons why it does not. That is what goes into defining
 meaningfulness. When you define that X is Y, you are also defining all
 not-X to equal not-Y, no? When you start talking about a collection then
 you have to define what are its members. Absent the specification or
 ability to specify the members of a collection, what can you say of the
 collection?

 What is the a priori constraint on the Universe? Why this one and not
 some other? Is the limit of all computations not a computation?


No it's not a computation, it arises because at every step, computations
diverge into new sets of infinite computations, giving rise to the 1p
indeterminacy.

Quentin



 How did this happen?



 --
 Onward!

 Stephen

 Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
 ~ Francis Bacon

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