[extropy-chat] Fragmentation of computations

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On 3/25/07, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:
>
> > Moreover, at the next frame, which is computed, the subject would
> > suddenly remember perceiving the light and have no recollection that
> > anything unusual had happened.
>
> That's right.  It takes us back to the by-now old observation that God
> could have created the universe 1 second ago, and we'd be none the
> wiser.

### I would disagree here. From what I know about physics of our world
you cannot predict the future of a physical system at an arbitrary
point in its trajectory without precisely tracing the whole
trajectory, or rather, the sheaf of possible trajectories of the
system over time. If all you know is the state S1 at time T1, you have
to recapitulate the whole multiverse in the light cone starting at T1
with state S1, to describe the probability distribution of all states
at any time T2 after T1.

Assuming that the god we are talking about is not capable of making A
and ~A hold true, even a god must calculate all the billions of years
of swirling hydrogen to make a Lee.

The same applies to the consciousness simulated on a GLUT - lookup of
the state of a physical system *is* a calculation of that state. It is
computationally impossible to  "compute" only select "frames", you
must run the whole film. The same pertains to a non-periodic CA - you
really have to run the whole calculation from state #1 to state #1000
to actually see state #1000.

So, no time-sovereign god and no zombies are possible.

Rafal