[ExI] Simulating the brain (was Question for the psych squad?)

John Clark johnkclark at gmail.com
Tue Jul 11 13:56:31 UTC 2017


On Mon, Jul 10, 2017 at 4:37 AM, Stuart LaForge <avant at sollegro.com> wrote:

​>​
>  I don't see why calculus should work on physical
> ​ ​
> systems if space-time is discrete.
>

​We already know the amount of electrical charge a object has is ​discrete,
and yet calculus does a excellent job approximating what the electrical
field produced by that discrete charge is like. If space and time are
discrete the chunks are probably at the Planck level, and that is very very
small making for very very good approximations.

>
​>
> If infinities exist ontologically, then space-time is a continuum. In
> ​ ​
> which case classical computers would have difficulties with irrational
> ​ ​
> numbers.


​I know this is a bit heretical but perhaps irrational numbers really do
have a last digit. ​If the computational resources of the entire universe
is insufficient to calculate the 10^100^100^100 digit of PI, and given that
there are only about 10^81

​atoms in the observable universe that seems like a reasonable assumption,
could the ​
10^100^100
​^100​
digit of PI
​ even be said to exist?​


> ​> ​
> They will never understand what makes perfect circles perfect
> ​ ​
> regardless if perfect circles actually exist or not.


​If ​perfect circles don't exist is there anything about them to understand?

 John K Clark
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