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My argument against simulation is similar in thst certain algorithms for modeling physical processes can only run in exponential time. Protein folding is a goo
by narrator 9y ago
My argument against simulation is similar in thst certain algorithms for modeling physical processes can only run in exponential time. Protein folding is a good example. How could a computer simulation perform exponential time operations efficiently? It wouldn't work no matter how big a computer was made because the complexity would explode very quickly while reality can do it in real-time.
- craigsmansion 9y ago> How could a computer simulation perform exponential time operations efficiently? Assume P=NP. P currently not being NP is exactly the kind of thing someone would build into a simulation to prevent stack overflows. (I don't believe in simulation because: why would anyone that advanced bother?)
- mcguire 9y agoVery interesting idea! It's not immediately clear, however, that "P!=NP" is something that you could build into a simulation. (The demonstration that the lowest possible complexity of comparison-based sorting is O(n log n) comes to mind as a related example.)
- mjburgess 9y agoThat's another good way of illustrating the problem, however this is still just a symptom of the underlying problem. Models do not have the causal structure of the thing they model. The reason the model would require near infinite time to run is that its modelling a causal event, it isnt an instance of the same causal event. When electrical fields oscillate they model a bridge. No amount of activity would ever make them "solid". All "real" stuff is infinite. This form of infinity is really about saying that our descriptions cannot capture the "full depth" of the world. The world itself has no "depth". Models, rather, are simply partial descriptions of it. To turn a model into the thing its modelling via increasing its descriptive power quickly introduces infinities: its impossible. To make a model "accurate" in this sense, you must actually just make another example of the target. Ie., build that bridge.
- adrianN 9y agoQuantum computers can solve protein folding efficiently.
- ziotom78 9y ago"Can" or "could in principle"?
- adrianN 9y ago"Can" as in quantum chemistry is one of the best applications for quantum computers.
- ziotom78 9y agoSorry for the naivety, I am not an expert of quantum computing, therefore I asked. I am quite interested in the topic, might you give me some references, please?
- adrianN 9y agoGoogling for "quantum chemistry computers" yields a number of interesting results, e.g. https://www.chemistryworld.com/feature/quantum-chemistry-on-quantum-computers/3007680.article https://www.chemistryworld.com/feature/quantum-chemistry-on-... https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603794/chemists-are-first-in-line-for-quantum-computings-benefits/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603794/chemists-are-first... Or if you like something by Feynman: http://doc.cat-v.org/feynman/simulating-physics/simulating-physics-with-computers.pdf http://doc.cat-v.org/feynman/simulating-physics/simulating-p...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- xaedes 9y agoThere is no need for the simulated time to be equally "fast" (whatever THAT means) as fhe real one. it is annoying and impractical for us observing the simulation from the outside, but it wouldn't make any difference from the view of the simulation (under assumption of a closed system simulation)