> > Marchal <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > > I have still a question for Russell, what is the meaning of > > giving a "physical existence" to a mathematical structure ? This is > > not at all a clear statement for me. > > > > There is a tendency for sciences to speak in the metaphors of the age in > which they arise. Thus economics is written in the language of steam > engines: pressures, velocities, inflation, volumes. > > In a few years time I think people will look back and laugh at this period > when the cosmos was talked about in the language of desktop computing. > > -dlj. > > > >
We're not using the language of desktop computing - we're using the language of Turing Machines, which substantially predates electronic computers. However, the key to all of this is that information is important to understanding how the anthropic principle works. That Turing computability is built into our information theory is perhaps a naive restriction, but at present that's the only information theory we have. I remain agnostic about whether more sophisticated information theories are possible. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Russell Standish Director High Performance Computing Support Unit, University of NSW Phone 9385 6967 Sydney 2052 Fax 9385 6965 Australia [EMAIL PROTECTED] Room 2075, Red Centre http://parallel.hpc.unsw.edu.au/rks ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
