4 ms·
Yes, an external reference clock is needed. If a computer chugs along doing { counter++; } at 1 clock cycle per clock cycle for 13.7 billion clock cycles, it
by explaininjs 3y ago
Yes, an external reference clock is needed.
If a computer chugs along doing { counter++; } at 1 clock cycle per clock cycle for 13.7 billion clock cycles, it will think 13.7 billion clock cycles have passed when counter is 13.7 billion.
On the other hand, if a computer chugs along at one clock cycle per clock cycle for 1 clock cycle, and reads &counter and sees 13.7 billion, it will think 13.7 billion clock cycles have passed.
Either way it's perfectly capable of introspecting it's source code and logically stepping back until the memory location was 0 to see how many clock cycles would have been required to reach it's current state, but that sort of reasoning is completely devoid of meaning without both perfect knowledge of what the true start state was, and a guarantee that no external influences have occurred.
Here in reality, we know neither the our start state nor our isolation level, but the hubris of many is too string to not at least try finding some logical step-back functions and iterating them until they don't know how to go any further, then proudly proclaiming that "The Start". (after all - how could it not be The Start, look, I can iterate the inverse of my step-backward function from then to now and it matches! QED!)
- jMyles 3y agoI agree with you 100% on your assessment of what can be known, but I think I disagree nearly as strongly on your assessment of the humanity that springs from attempting to know it. To exist in the state you describe - with neither start state nor isolation level measurable in any tamper-proof way - and to yet still dedicate one's life to observing and pondering the complexity of the resulting cosmos is, to my eye, laudable and beautiful. Where you see hubris, I see humility. Everyone who attempts to expand the corpus of human understanding of cosmology knows that the endgame is somewhere short of perfection. And yet they are inspired to carry on. It seems to me that matters of state, economics, medicine, technology, and many other fields will benefit from a similar disposition.
- explaininjs 3y agoI think the hubris comes in when folks assume that because that answer is presented by Science/Observation rather than Religion/Philosophy, it's somehow guaranteed to be "more accurate", when in reality both are guesses with equally unknowable error bars.
- fooker 3y agoThis reminds me of old computer games that started to run faster on newer computers, because of strong assumptions about clock speeds! For a hypothetical entity inside the game, nothing would have changed. https://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/List_of_CPU_speed_sensitive_games https://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/List_of_CPU_speed_sensi...