From: "scerir" <scerir@libero.it>
> First. A self-evolving system seems to require a "loop" and
> not a "tower of turtles, ad infinitum".
Yes, that's a point too often overlooked, and it indicates the circular logic
of reality...
existence is a closed loop system.
> Was St. Augustine saying that Christ was a
> simulation?
No, he was referring to the endless loop of meaning which equates "the word"
with "God."
God is the simulation, and the human brain is the simulator. This is, of
course, inconvenient for true believers.
> Does it mean that, according to Ockam, simulations are forbidden?
It means that, according to Ockam, the human brain creates a simulation that
it calls "God," and then fantasizes that this simulation is the simulator.
> At last, Leibniz also wrote: "although the whole of this life were
> said to be nothing but a dream and the physical world nothing but a
> phantasm, I should call this dream or phantasm real enough if, using
> reason well, we were never deceived by it."
The deception lies in likening life to a dream, and conflating the physical
world with "phantasm" while denying that this blatantly opposes reason (not to
mention rational sanity).
--- --- --- --- ---
Useless hypotheses, etc.:
consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing, cultural relativism, GAC, Cyc, Eliza, cryonics, individual
uniqueness, ego, human values, scientific relinquishment, malevolent AI,
non-sensory experience, SETI
We move into a better future in proportion as science displaces superstition.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:25 MDT