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What If Time Really Exists? (2008)

arxiv.org

131–140 of 215 posts

Re: What If Time Really Exists? (2008)

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The simulation argument comes from the fact that there a quite a lot of physics effects that are both surprising, and look an awful lot like dirty hacks that a programmer might put it. Quantum physics looks a lot like lazy evaluation (State doesn't exist until "observed"). The speed of light seems like a hack to prevent an n squared problem of everything in the universe effecting everything at the same time.

> Quantum physics looks a lot like lazy evaluation (State doesn't exist until "observed"). This is a common misconception (¿among programmers?). Let's think about the double slit experiment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment In a classical word, you must simulate only one path. In a quantum word, you must simulate both. You don´t need some magical conscious observer to force the collapse of the wav…

> In a classical word, you must simulate only one path. In a quantum word, you must simulate both. You don´t need some magical conscious observer to force the collapse of the wave function. A CCD detector of a camera or a simple wall is enough to force that the "wave" collapse into a "particle" and the detector or wall gets a small spot where the "particle" hits it.

While the alternative seems a little too far out to be true, I have to ask, how do you know?

> So the idea that a quantum computers is better than the classical computer is opposed to the idea that quantum physics is some hack to reduce computational resources.

Keep in mind, not all operations in a computer take the same amount of time. If those qubits are entangled, you are going to get the state of all of them from a single "operation". Finally, we assume deterministic and stochastic computation take the same time, but that's only true for us because we perform stochastic computations deterministically - I'm pretty sure we could squeeze a lot more performance out of our silicon if we relaxed our accuracy constraints.

Additionally, if the universe is a computing system, the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics may be a way to work around paradoxes, i.e. Godel's incompleteness theorem.

Re: What If Time Really Exists? (2008)

#132

Between modern physics suggesting time and space may be illusions, leading technologists agreeing that we're almost certainly in a simulated reality, and many ancient traditions being certain that this is all an illusion, I may have to have to go ahead and take this seriously....

The simulation argument comes from the fact that there a quite a lot of physics effects that are both surprising, and look an awful lot like dirty hacks that a programmer might put it. Quantum physics looks a lot like lazy evaluation (State doesn't exist until "observed"). The speed of light seems like a hack to prevent an n squared problem of everything in the universe effecting everything at the same time.

The simulation argument comes from the fact that our brains are a simulation of our environment. And since they are a simulation we seem to feel as if this world is not real. The world is out there, but our world is in here. Some other people below get down to some of this stuff. We want things to be like this. But they are out there not in here.

Re: What If Time Really Exists? (2008)

#133

Between modern physics suggesting time and space may be illusions, leading technologists agreeing that we're almost certainly in a simulated reality, and many ancient traditions being certain that this is all an illusion, I may have to have to go ahead and take this seriously....

I wonder, which physics claims that space and time don't exist (how could it, "exists" is a metaphysical concept, physics only cares about mathematically describing the world and making predictions), and how do ancient traditions making claims work as an argument to anything (seeing as ancient traditions have made every claim form the world being in the back of a turtle to a middle-eastern bronze age carpenter being the son of the creator of the universe)?

Re: What If Time Really Exists? (2008)

#134

Between modern physics suggesting time and space may be illusions, leading technologists agreeing that we're almost certainly in a simulated reality, and many ancient traditions being certain that this is all an illusion, I may have to have to go ahead and take this seriously....

>leading technologists agreeing that we're almost certainly in a simulated reality Just to elaborate, this is really easy to show. Just take two pieces of paper, and scribble all over one of them for 10-15 minutes. Then crumple them up and throw them to the ground. The blank one will fall to the ground smoothly. But the one that has a lot of image information will tax the Universe's GPU, because it isn't able to comp…

Elon Musk thinks it's probably that we're in a simulation.

Odds are we're living in a simulation, says Elon Musk

http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/2/11837874/elon-musk-says-odd...

Re: What If Time Really Exists? (2008)

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The simulation argument comes from the fact that there a quite a lot of physics effects that are both surprising, and look an awful lot like dirty hacks that a programmer might put it. Quantum physics looks a lot like lazy evaluation (State doesn't exist until "observed"). The speed of light seems like a hack to prevent an n squared problem of everything in the universe effecting everything at the same time.

To me, it seems like evolution. Because when you get down "to the metal" of the universe, it's really just a bunch of dirty hacks that are thrown together and give off the illusion of uniformity and grace. The way things work at a macroscopic level seem so grand and ultimate, but on the microscopic level of all that it's utter chaos. Random acts of chemical bonding happened to create the life forms we interact with e…

[deleted]

Re: What If Time Really Exists? (2008)

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The simulation argument comes from the fact that there a quite a lot of physics effects that are both surprising, and look an awful lot like dirty hacks that a programmer might put it. Quantum physics looks a lot like lazy evaluation (State doesn't exist until "observed"). The speed of light seems like a hack to prevent an n squared problem of everything in the universe effecting everything at the same time.

To me, it seems like evolution. Because when you get down "to the metal" of the universe, it's really just a bunch of dirty hacks that are thrown together and give off the illusion of uniformity and grace. The way things work at a macroscopic level seem so grand and ultimate, but on the microscopic level of all that it's utter chaos. Random acts of chemical bonding happened to create the life forms we interact with e…

I'm curious, how can you be a "big believer" in something that is entirely made up with absolutely no evidence of any sort to back it up?

And how do you mean, dirty hacks. Our fundamental physics nowadays is quite elegant, I'd say, and still we have many questions still to be answered and much deeper to delve till we hit the "bare metal". We've only been in the universe-figuring-out business for real for about 200 years after all!

Re: What If Time Really Exists? (2008)

#138
post #7

Between modern physics suggesting time and space may be illusions, leading technologists agreeing that we're almost certainly in a simulated reality, and many ancient traditions being certain that this is all an illusion, I may have to have to go ahead and take this seriously....

What is ironic is the amount of blind faith required to accept some of these things that are so completely against everything we experience. It's very nearly a religion.

[deleted]

Re: What If Time Really Exists? (2008)

#139

Between modern physics suggesting time and space may be illusions, leading technologists agreeing that we're almost certainly in a simulated reality, and many ancient traditions being certain that this is all an illusion, I may have to have to go ahead and take this seriously....

>leading technologists agreeing that we're almost certainly in a simulated reality Just to elaborate, this is really easy to show. Just take two pieces of paper, and scribble all over one of them for 10-15 minutes. Then crumple them up and throw them to the ground. The blank one will fall to the ground smoothly. But the one that has a lot of image information will tax the Universe's GPU, because it isn't able to comp…

Drop two pieces of paper towards two high information constructs (massive bodies), and time will pass more slowly for the one approaching the more massive body. Oh, and for someone flying with the rotation of the earth, time passes more quickly than flying against it.

Physics is pretty weird.

Re: What If Time Really Exists? (2008)

#140
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is ironic is the amount of blind faith required to accept some of these things that are so completely against everything we experience. It's very nearly a religion.

Yup. Science has become somewhat like a religion for those who like to think logically. In the end, they can no more step out of their logical thinking than the zealots can step out of their faith based thinking. Both become dogmatic and a crutch...

I wonder, why so you think so? Why do you call an endeavor that seeks to provide an explanation and a model of reality consistent with empirical observatkons a religion, when it's precisely the opposite? Just because we are reaching strange and difficult conclusions that you may not like, that's no reason to dismiss it as zealotry.
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