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I agree with you here, at least in the sense that the system is definitely not physical. You didn't answer my question, though. Is it real?
by practal 3y ago
I agree with you here, at least in the sense that the system is definitely not physical. You didn't answer my question, though. Is it real?
- simonh 3y agoAll information that exists is physical, encoded in a physical substrate. Beads in an abacus, holes in a punched card, distributions of charge in a computer memory. Hypothetical information that is not encoded physically cannot be causal. A book or computer program that have not been written can have no effects. Only information that exists in a physical encoding can be causal, by virtue of it’s physicality.
- practal 3y agoNot sure where you are going with this. What is causality? Is there a non-mathematical way of making it precise? And if I have found some way to make it precise, does it matter if I write it down here in this HN comment, or on a piece of paper, or just think it? Is the mathematical content different depending on how it is expressed in physical reality?