Timeline of the far future

Post by [deleted] » Mon, May 07, 2012, 6:18 PM UTC

Symmetry wrote: post #78

majmun wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is simply not possible (maybe in star trek), because self-aware brain requires certain kind of environment to exist into. so if there is brain there is organized environment. probability that boltzman brain exist is 0%. probability that self-aware brain in an orginized environment exists : 100% probability that Bible exists in a some unimaginable place far far away: unknown. Anyway what is the point of this (Bol…

Brains, per se, don't require any sort of environment. If your head was somehow teleported into interstellar space it would take tens of milliseconds for the nerve impulses indicating that everything was not all right to be acquired and processed, and your consciousness would probably last for seconds beyond that. The horror of the Boltzman Brain idea is that the vast majority of the conscious beings that will ever e…

Post by aneth » Mon, May 07, 2012, 6:35 PM UTC

Symmetry wrote: post #76

aneth wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your assumption is infinite time and complete entropy, yes it's correct. It's also why some level of common sense (e.g. Occam's razor) should be applied before such silliness is seriously proposed. I don't think Boltzmann assumes infinite time and entropy, just enough for the completely random emergence of sentient life that thinks (perhaps falsely) that it lives in a universe populated by similar beings who creat…

Occam's razor says that we should give more credence to the simpler theory, not the more commonsensical one, and I assure you that statistical mechanics is elegant in its simplicity. I hope you don't also go around telling biologists that its absurd that we're descended from Apes, or astronomers that its absurd that the Earth goes around the sun? How about atomic thoery (which Boltzman was an important proponent of)?…

Post by [deleted] » Mon, May 07, 2012, 7:06 PM UTC

Symmetry wrote: post #78

majmun wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is simply not possible (maybe in star trek), because self-aware brain requires certain kind of environment to exist into. so if there is brain there is organized environment. probability that boltzman brain exist is 0%. probability that self-aware brain in an orginized environment exists : 100% probability that Bible exists in a some unimaginable place far far away: unknown. Anyway what is the point of this (Bol…

Brains, per se, don't require any sort of environment. If your head was somehow teleported into interstellar space it would take tens of milliseconds for the nerve impulses indicating that everything was not all right to be acquired and processed, and your consciousness would probably last for seconds beyond that. The horror of the Boltzman Brain idea is that the vast majority of the conscious beings that will ever e…

Post by charlieok » Mon, May 07, 2012, 9:04 PM UTC

Post by Symmetry » Mon, May 07, 2012, 9:30 PM UTC

aneth wrote: post #83

Symmetry wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Occam's razor says that we should give more credence to the simpler theory, not the more commonsensical one, and I assure you that statistical mechanics is elegant in its simplicity. I hope you don't also go around telling biologists that its absurd that we're descended from Apes, or astronomers that its absurd that the Earth goes around the sun? How about atomic thoery (which Boltzman was an important proponent of)?…

> Occam's razor says that we should give more credence to the simpler theory, not the more commonsensical one Yes, and I find Occam's razor itself to be common sense, which is what my point was. If a theory seems to reflect more closely observable reality, I would bias my investigations toward that theory over one the projects something non-sensical. > I hope you don't also go around telling biologists that its absur…