From: Peter de Blanc (peter@spaceandgames.com)
Date: Wed Jan 30 2008 - 23:30:33 MST
On Wed, 2008-01-30 at 22:43 -0500, Thomas McCabe wrote:
> How simple? 10 bits? 100 bits? 1000 bits? I have no idea what the
> Kolmogorov complexity of intelligent life in general is. For large
> enough selection pressures to produce general intelligence, you need
> (http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/11/no-evolution-fo.html):
I don't think it makes sense to ask about the Kolmogorov complexity of
intelligent life. The idea of Solomonoff Induction is to ask about the
Kolmogorov complexity of your theory of everything. 'Intelligent Life'
is a high-level phenomenon within the universe.
Let's say Alf and Beth are journeying to a foreign land. "Do you think
they'll have paintings?" Alf asks.
"Paintings!" says Beth. "Why would you expect to find something so
complex? I think we'll find some polynomials, or maybe an exponential
function."
Alf says, "I think that the universe is probably simple; maybe not very
much more complex than some polynomials. A painting looks complex if you
are only looking at the painting, but if you look at the whole universe,
you see that the universe is simple, and the universe contains the
painting."
It seems to me like you expect your experience of the universe to be
close to the fundamental computations of reality, but the most popular
theory is that you are living inside a simulation in your own head, a
machine composed of millions of different kinds of molecules. We're so
far from the fundamental computations of reality that it took us 200,000
years to find out about quantum mechanics.
> Yes, these are very difficult questions to answer precisely. I can't
> answer them myself. Giving a rigorous mathematical proof/disproof of
> God's existence seems to be very difficult, no matter how you go about
> it; if it were easy someone would have done it already. Be aware that,
> by general societal standards, you are proposing a new religion here.
> And a solution to the First Cause problem.
Hahaha, is that supposed to scare me?
- Peter de Blanc
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