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bogus comments on There just has to be something more, you know? - Less Wrong
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What's the difference?
(Obviously, you could have a simpler ruleset which failed to recognize all gliders/minds. But then you would be moving away from "Emergence!" and towards a simpler theory of "recognized instances".)
Remove the complicated glider-recognition algorithm and the things it's designed to recognize will still be there.
But you will be unable to exhibit them without adding the algorithm right back. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
It is perfectly possible for a Conway's-Life universe to contain a glider without containing anything that can identify a glider, either within it or within its fundamental physics (i.e. source code). Despite this, if the pattern
should appear in the grid on one particular generation, if no other live cells intrude, the pattern will appear again one square northwest from before four generations later.
Likewise, a tree falling in the forest with noone around will create acoustic vibrations, even if it creates no auditory experience.