Re: seti@home is SORTA WORKING

Michael S. Lorrey (mike@lorrey.com)
Tue, 13 Jul 1999 01:59:01 -0400

Rob Harris Cen-IT wrote:
>
> They also have the computational capacity to simulate a variety
> of possible futures for any human situation and would likely be
> able to predict exactly how things will play out (within the limits
> of chaos theory).
>
> I was under the impression that chaos theory no more than acknowledged that
> there are some systems which have so many variables of such complexity that
> we cannot hope to predict them with current technology, e.g. the weather.
> But this does not mean that there are systems so complex that even the most
> advanced SI in the whole of eternity cannot track the variables. What I am
> saying is that I dont think there's an unmovable upper limit to the chaos
> that can be tracked. So sufficiently advanced SI's could predict future
> states of systems with 100% accuracy no problem, surely.

On the contrary, we've been able to map a number of chaotic systems to simple equations. Fractals are just one minor, early example.

Mike Lorrey