[ExI] digital simulations, descriptions and copies

Gordon Swobe gts_2000 at yahoo.com
Mon Jan 18 12:04:02 UTC 2010


--- On Sun, 1/17/10, Ben Zaiboc <bbenzai at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Gordon does not seem to appreciate the difference between a
> description and a simulation

It seems some people here confuse or simply never understood the important difference between digital simulations and digital copies. 

Digital simulations = digital descriptions of non-digital objects and processes running on digital computers. 

Digital copies = digital duplications of digital objects.

digital copy =  digital duplication
digital simulation = digital description

Digital copies equal the original objects. For example one might load Word onto digital computer A and load another copy of Word onto digital computer B. Those two applications running on A and B now exist as copies/duplicates of the original.

What happens if the original object does not exist as a digital object? I.e., what if the original object does not exist as a digital computer or as a program like Word that runs on one? In that case we can do no more than create a digital simulation of the non-digital object. And digital simulations of non-digital objects do NOT equal the original objects. They merely describe them.

For example you might create a digital simulation of an apple on your digital computer. Your digital simulation of an apple will appear very much like a real apple, but you will find it difficult to eat. The reason you cannot eat that apple should be pretty obvious: it's not really an apple. It's merely a digital simulation of a non-digital object.

While such digital simulations of non-digital objects are very possible and very common, digital copies of non-digital objects and processes are logically, philosophically and technologically impossible. They do not exist. 

So, on digital computers we can... 

1) create digital copies of digital objects, copies which retain all the properties of the originals.

and we can also...

2) create digital simulations of non-digital objects, simulations which lose the real properties of the originals.

PS. Like most everything in the natural world including apples, the human brain appears to be a non-digital object. It's just one very smart apple. 

-gts 






      



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