--- Charles D Hixson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Matt Mahoney wrote: > > --- Eugen Leitl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > >> ... > >> > >> A proton is a damn complex system. Don't see how you could equal it with > one > >> mere bit. > >> > > > > I don't. I am equating one bit with a volume of space about the size of a > > proton. The actual number of baryons in the universe is smaller, about > 10^80. > > If you squashed the universe flat, it would form a sheet about one proton > > thick. > > > > But I am also pointing out a coincidence (or not) of physics. But you > will > > note that the volume of the universe is proportional to T^3, not T^2, so > if > > the relation is not a coincidence, then either the properties of the > proton or > > one of the other physical constants would not be constant. > > > > And BTW I agree that we cannot prove or disprove that the universe is a > > simulation. > > > > > > -- Matt Mahoney, [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > FWIW, you could cut down on the computational needs a whole lot if you > only simulated one brain and used lazy evaluation to derive anything it > might be experiencing. (Where did all you Zombies come from?) > > For that matter, the simulation could have started only a few > nano-seconds ago and might stop now. ... > > Any assumption you make about the nature of the simulation that we might > be running on is unverifiable. (Some of them are falsifiable.)
A while back I described 5 scenarios for a simulated universe in order of decreasing algorithmic complexity, and therefore in increasing order of likelihood (given a Solomonoff distribution). But as the complexity decreased, the amount of computation increased. I concluded that the most likely scenario was an enumeration of all Turing machines, whose algorithmic complexity is K(N), the complexity of the set of natural numbers (very small). And no, I don't know what is doing this computation (turtles all the way down). But it is a general property of agents in a simulation that they lack the computational power to model their environment, whether finite or infinite. So it would be surprising if I did know. -- Matt Mahoney, [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?list_id=11983
