Live data from Hacker News

The limits of information (2014)

plus.maths.org

21–22 of 22 posts

Re: The limits of information (2014)

#21
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am pretty much back to normal except for the unsettling thoughts about alternate consciousnesses in the same being. Like you say, why wouldn't different parts of the brain have a will - the limbic system certainly has sway. Do you know if there have ever been experiments done to investigate whether alternate subconscious will can 'show itself conscious' by way of asking a person for a demonstration? Of course, this…

Since it's not entirely sure that we as a whole person have entirely free will (instead of a really elaborate after-the-fact-excuses machine), I'd think the concept of a "will" for individual systems needs to be very loosely defined to apply here. If you're interested in the science, I'd suggest starting from the Libet experiments (who essentially thinks his experiments show that the subconscious makes decisions, and…

Kurzgesagt[0] and CGP Grey[1] did a fun little 2-part intro into "split mindedness" i.e. the idea that we may have multiple consciousnesses(?) contending for control.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQVmkDUkZT4 [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfYbgdo8e-8

Re: The limits of information (2014)

#22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This makes me wonder how the information is stored in nature? Like how the characteristics of the particles and fields and all the interaction rules are are stored or embedded? If we know how much bits nature is taking to store some data and how it is storing, can we use this knowledge of structure to somehow compress the data and store it more optimally? Or is nature have most optimal storage ever?

Like how the characteristics of the particles and fields and all the interaction rules are are stored or embedded? That's an interest thought; I assume the storage is the particles. An electron acts like an electron because it's an electron. You'd have to change the particle itself to get it to act some other way. That said, we are already exploring some ways to store information like nature: https://en.wikipedia.org…

So that's where my question is. Can we store the complete information an electron carry optimally, like in a space smaller than the electron itself? This leads to the question: is this possible to save the current state of universe in a space smaller than universe without loosing any information?
Post reply on HN