Re: This week's fun papers

From: Emlyn (pentacle) (pentacle@enternet.com.au)
Date: Sun Apr 16 2000 - 06:58:19 MDT


> Hmm, let Suc(X) be the greatest entity the entity X can create. Then
> we have the interesting question of there is an upper bound on the
> series Suc(Suc(Suc(...(human)...))) - and perhaps even more relevant,
> if we let Y_k(X) denote the k-th greatest entity that can be
> constructed, if there is a series Y_k1(Y_k2(Y_k3(...(human)...))) with
> greater upper bound than the first one (i.e., just going for the
> maximum traps you in some kind of local maximum in the space of
> possible entities). Actually, I expect that the problem of climbing
> the toposophical ladders without getting trapped is likely
> undecidable. Thats why we need societies - they are pools of different
> approaches.

I sure there is a simpler way you could have said that, Anders, but having
said that I have no suggestions about what that might be. But thanks for
this post; makes me feel better in a week in which I've been making too many
mistakes (maybe they're not mistakes, their just hidden paths to global
maximum).

Emlyn (I'll take the low road)



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