X-Message-Number: 9247 Date: Fri, 06 Mar 1998 07:43:28 -0800 From: Peter Merel <> Subject: Angels and Pins Mike Perry writes, I should apologise that I've so far not examined Thomas's super-Turing reference, but I think Mike's quick summary is very useful. The idea of making finite specifications of (transfinite) Cantor sets is quite credible to me. I only wonder whether there are implicit assumptions made about the ability to search those sets in finite time. Ah well, when time allows. >Basically, the "digital business" amounts to a claim that all >significant events happen in discrete jumps, and events involving finite >constructs such as you and me have finite descriptions and form a >denumerable set, rather than being like the real numbers which occupy >a larger, nondenumerable set. (It leads to the conclusion that a >universal resurrection ought to be possible in principle, in a >universe that supports the immortality of some sentient beings.) This raises the same question in my mind that Tipler's stuff does. If, as we've experimentally verified, there are non-local correlations binding together all the parts of the universe, then how can we have a finite description of some finite part? Peter Merel. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=9247