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solipsist comments on Open thread, Oct. 19 - Oct. 25, 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: MrMind 19 October 2015 06:59AM

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Comment author: cousin_it 21 October 2015 12:56:00PM *  4 points [-]

Thanks to Turing completeness, there might be many possible worlds whose basic physics are much simpler than ours, but that can still support evolution and complex computations. Why aren't we in such a world? Some possible answers:

1) Luck

2) Our world has simple physics, but we haven't figured it out

3) Anthropic probabilities aren't weighted by simplicity

4) Evolution requires complex physics

5) Conscious observers require complex physics

Anything else? Any guesses which one is right?

Comment author: solipsist 05 December 2015 06:03:58PM *  2 points [-]

Other answers I've considered:

o) Simpler universes are more likely, but complicated universes vastly outnumber simple ones. It's rare to be at the mode, even though the mode is the most common place to be.

p) Beings in simple universes don't ask this question because their universe is simple. We are asking this question, therefore we are not in a simple universe.

2') You don't spend time pondering questions you can quickly answer. If you discover yourself thinking about a philosophy problem, you should expect to be on the stupider end of entities capable of thinking about that problem.