X-Message-Number: 20871
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 21:19:41 -0500
From: Francois <>
Subject: Information in the Universe

All the discussions about quantum mechanics (which I find quite interesting)
have brought a question to my mind. Maybe someone can shed some light on it.
I have read about a speculation in physics that once information is created,
it can never be destroyed. It is always, in principle, possible to recover
any information, however scambled it may have become. I understand of course
that possible "in principle" does not always translate to possible "in
practice". Still, it could mean that permanent death is ABSOLUTELY
impossible in our universe. A sufficiently advanced technology would always
be able to recover all the information defining us as individuals and use it
to perfectly recreate those individuals, even after an arbitrarly long time.
It would also make cryonics a moot point. Wait long enough and you will be
revived, whatever happenned to your body after your death. Just how firmly
is that speculation about information established in modern physics, and
does it state that information recovery is always possible in principle
only, or in practice also? Btw, my take on copies vs originals is this: a
perfect copy is not a copy. It IS the original. So if you have two objects
which are perfect copies of each other, then you don't have a copy and an
original, you have two originals.

Francois
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No lifespan shorter than eternity is acceptable
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