From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!crdgw1!uunet!trwacs!erwin Mon May 25 14:07:30 EDT 1992
Article 5879 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: erwin@trwacs.fp.trw.com (Harry Erwin)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Grounding: Real vs. Virtual (formerly "on meaning")
Keywords: symbol, analog, Turing Test, robotics
Message-ID: <601@trwacs.fp.trw.com>
Date: 24 May 92 12:41:40 GMT
References: <1992May23.152941.12033@psych.toronto.edu> <1992May23.170049.31825@mp.cs.niu.edu> <1992May24.042950.7982@psych.toronto.edu> <vn86tINN621@agate.berkeley.edu>
Organization: TRW Systems Division, Fairfax VA
Lines: 19

>Suppose that this universe that we inhabit is a computer simulation
>of the real universe.

The one problem we would encounter is that symbolic models belong to a
countable set. We might be able to use that to test the universe to see if
it's a model or not. Consider the following experiment: set up an analog
device to calculate a chaotic time series. Run it for a long time. If it
converges to a limit cycle, then we might be a symbolic model. In fact,
we can estimate the word size of the computer from the length of the limit
cycle.

Come to think of it, we'd have a problem with quantum mechanics. Huberman
and Hogg have shown that you cannot have chaos in an isolated quantum
system. Perhaps the universe is a computer simulation...

Cheers,
-- 
Harry Erwin
Internet: erwin@trwacs.fp.trw.com


