X-Message-Number: 20293
From: "mike99" <>
Subject: Re: Then a Miracle Happens? (Message #20288)
Date: Sat, 12 Oct 2002 15:03:31 -0600

> From: Mike Perry <> [concerning a new quantum computing
claim for solving previously unsolvable problems]:
. . . {the new quantum computing}
> ...claim goes farther, inasmuch as some problems not solvable at all, in
any
> amount of time, would now become solvable. One interesting possibility
> would be to circumvent the Godel limitations on consistency proofs. To
> decide the consistency of some mathematical theory you consider a
> (classical) Turing machine that starts enumerating all provable
> statements
> within the theory and halts iff it finds a contradiction (that is, proves
> both P and not-P for some statement P). Then use your oracle quantum
> computer to decide if that machine ever halts.

Would this new kind of quantum computing oracle disprove Chaitin's proof
that no such oracle, or even an oracle-about-oracles (unto the nth level),
is possible? According to my (very limited) understanding, Chaitin's proof
showed that even within mathematics all we could achieve is islands of
certainty within various subdisciplines (e.g., geometry, number theory,
etc.) without there necessarily being even a theoretical possibility that
any, much less all, of these can ever be subsumed within some larger,
overarching mathematical theory.


> On a more practical level,
> perhaps an oracle machine could more quickly determine the information
> content of a cryopreserved patient, for a reanimation scenario. I
> could see
> this becoming a nontrivial issue; the brain is complicated enough in its
> own right. Extracting the necessary information, at least in cases of
> substantial damage, could be computationally difficult, even if
> there is no
> deliberate "encryption."

If this all takes place within a multiworlds ensemble of universes, how can
we be sure that we are only using the other universes computationally
without those computations being tainted/biased/skewed by the existence of
nearly-parallel individual instances of the cryopreserved person in those
other universes? Or am I barking up the wrong tree here?

Regards,
Michael LaTorra




Member:
Extropy Institute: www.extropy.org
World Transhumanist Association: www.transhumanism.org
Alcor Life Extension Foundation: www.alcor.org
Society for Technical Communication: www.stc.org

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