JoshuaZ comments on Poll: What value extra copies? - Less Wrong

5 [deleted] 22 June 2010 12:15PM

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Comment author: JoshuaZ 25 June 2010 12:41:10PM 3 points [-]

1) An uploaded copy running in a simulation is Turing-complete

That is not what Turing complete means. Roughly speaking, something is Turing complete if it can simulate any valid Turing machine. What you are talking about is simply that the state change in question is determined by input data and state. This says nothing about Turing completness of the class of simulations, or even whether the class of simulations can be simulated on Turing machines.. For example, if the physical laws of the universe actually require real numbers then you might need a Blum-Shub-Smale machine to model the simulation.

Comment author: [deleted] 25 June 2010 04:48:34PM 0 points [-]

Oops, I should have said Turing-equivalent. I tend to treat the two concepts as the same because they are the same from a practical perspective. I've updated the post.