Re: Infinite universe

From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Sun Apr 27 2003 - 18:32:54 MDT


Ben Goertzel wrote:
>
> I was just reacting to the notion that the integers as a whole are "simpler"
> than individual large integers. While this statement reflects a deep
> mathematical fact, it's also a bit of a play on words, as the mathematical
> notion of simplicity involved is somewhat counterintuitive, and it not the
> only interesting mathematical notion fo simplicity...

But, continuing through from the original thread of discussion, my point
is that assuming the existence of other universes can render the
description "simpler" in that sense which Occam's Razor requires. We do
not suppose that objects stop existing even if they should happen to
accelerate out of our hubble bubble and become theoretically unobservable,
because to make this assumption would complicate the laws of physics.

-- 
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://intelligence.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence


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