4 ms·

1: why? 2: why? 3: why? Your answer feels dismissive and yet at the same time naive.

• 0-_-0 6y ago
  1. Due to entropy our universe won't contain "all possible things" 2. It's the definition of "incompressible" 3. It's the fundamental principle of algorithmic information theory
  • plutonorm 6y ago
    Ok I see what you mean. I agree. But you have also misunderstood what I was saying wrt 'universe' Consider that this universe could be an instance of the structure that is formed by the algorithm that you are talking about. Consider that all possible alternate structures may also exist. Now consider that there exist 'Garden states' that are unreachable because they are incompressible. So might it not be possible to be conscious in a universe that has no generating function? The mathematical structure representing this universe exist in the abstract, timeless and static. Your life is a slice through this giant structure. Infinitely many of those structures exist, is there one out there that contains conscious beings that believe they inhabit an orderly universe but they actually inhabit one where the starting state of their universe was a garden state, containing a vast un-generatable structure that has informed the evolution of the universe from afar. But then it would still have a minimal function. Bugger. What if that universe there existed a capricious demon that used the information in the initial state to... Nope that doesn't work either. Ok you win :(