[ExI] Computronium planet.

[Giulio Prisco]

Like Anders, I don't really agree with the observation that I
reported. For all practical purposes (FAPP), what really matters is
not perfect computation, but good-enough, fit-for-purpose computation,
and we know that a small part of the universe (like a supercomputer)
can compute the future of another part of the universe (like
tomorrow's weather, or a baby AI) with a reasonably good approximation
FAPP. Computronium is the ultimate supercomputing substrate.

But I find the observation (and the overall attitude behind it)
interesting. Our own thinking ability requires a space-time and all
the laws of physics to run it, so the universe is already partly
optimized for processing conscious thoughts (not necessarily fully
optimized though). In a all-is-connected way, perhaps the tiniest
particles in a far galaxy influence our thoughts here and now, in a
sort of cognitive Mach principle.

On Sat, Oct 13, 2012 at 6:08 PM, Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 12 October 2012 18:52, Giulio Prisco <giulio at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Recently a friend observed that if our universe is the fastest machine
>> able to compute itself (this assumption seems necessary to avoid
>> causality violation paradoxes), then our matter is _already_
>> computronium, and we just cannot squeeze more computing power out of
>> it.
>
>
> Wolfram or Lloyd Seth seem to think along the same line. The fact is that
> the universe does not devote much of its computations to our own ends... :-)
>
> --
> Stefano Vaj
>
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>