From: Robin Hanson (rhanson@gmu.edu)
Date: Mon Jun 02 2003 - 11:55:43 MDT
Hal Finney wrote:
> > Why simpler things should be more likely is a deep and difficult topic,
> > which I've read a bit on. But I just don't understand this argument.
> > Why must universe A have a higher probability that universe B if the
> > string describing A is a prefix for the string describing B?
>
>The idea is that the strings are self-delimiting, so that the part
>after the end doesn't count. Therefore, among all infinite strings, the
>fraction of them which correspond to a particular finite, self-delimited
>string of length n is equal to 2^-n.
Is the claim that it is impossible to define say a uniform distribution
over all self-delimited strings, or is it that we know the "true"
distribution over all infinite strings and that distribution implies the
feature you describe?
Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu
Assistant Professor of Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
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