[ExI] Simulating the brain

Stuart LaForge avant at sollegro.com
Wed Jul 12 05:56:03 UTC 2017


Stathis Papaionnou wrote:

>Calculus works on computer simulations and they are discrete. And if the
>world really is continuous, it can be simulated on a computer to an
>arbitrary level of precision. If the 50th decimal place of any physical
>parameter in your brain is essential to your consciousness, you could not
>survive, as you would be instantly destroyed by thermal noise.

Even if the brain itself does not have an explicit mechanism to access
these infinities, if they exist in the brain's environment, they could
affect brain function. Is your consciousness destroyed by hanging upside
down? No, of course not. But is your consciousness affected by hanging
upside down? Probably. You are unlikely to perform as well on an iq test
while hanging upside down for example. How about if I were to slowly
adjust your angle relative to gravity until you are at 180 degrees. At
what point would your mind "change"?

Any arbitrary decimal approximation of the continuum loses an infinite set
of possible values that are no longer accessible. Moreover, those lost
values are uncountably infinite so you are losing *amost all* of the
possible values you had to begin with.

>Human understanding of irrational numbers does not depend on writing out an
>infinite non-repeating decimal.

Yes. We have the mental capacity to mathematically manipulate infinity and
discern bona fide truths about infinity without resorting to infinite
numbers of decimals or infinite memory. On the other hand, I don't think a
computer has any concept of infinity distinguishable from a stack overflow
error.

>A random number generator could be used for unpredictability.

There isn't any deterministic way of achieving randomness thus random
numbers generated by computer are pseudorandom and patterns do show up
upon statistical analysis. Furthermore, irrational behavior need not be
unpredictable behavior' although it often is.

Stuart LaForge








More information about the extropy-chat mailing list