[extropy-chat] Fragmentation of computations

[Mike Dougherty]

On 3/26/07, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:
> I think our universe is modeled on complex numbers!  At least
> in quantum field theory  :-)    But I was assuming an event at
> each point of a real-valued spacetime.  I wasn't thinking of a
> cellular or granular universe, although I think that the same
> arguments probably apply.

complex numbers immediately make me think of fractals.  If you
consider the computation of Mandelbrot and Julia sets, they're
iterative functions.  As such, a given point is calculated until a
"good-enough" approximation is determined.  If this is analogous, then
perhaps further calculation is immaterial because the emerging detail
asymptotically approach a limit that can be computed without
iteration.

Also consider periodicity in an iterative function.  There may still
be computation, but unless there is some external counter of history,
there would be no way to determine if a cycle exists.  The system
would continue runtime calculations, yet no "new" points are graphed.
(external history might include an extra dimension to track iteration
number at each point, so a given point may exist at multiple iteration
counts)

Is our form of consciousness a particularly strong attractor from
which we are unable to escape?