Re:Anil Seth Finds Consciousness in Life’s Push Against Entropy
by jtsiskin on Saturday October 02, 2021 @01:44AM
(#28726264)
…but why assume a system moves essentially randomly between states?
Re:Anil Seth Finds Consciousness in Life’s Push Against Entropy
by figure8 on Saturday October 02, 2021 @01:46PM
(#28730478)
Ergodicity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergodicity
Re:Anil Seth Finds Consciousness in Life’s Push Against Entropy
by PaulDavisThe1st on Saturday October 02, 2021 @01:38PM
(#28730414)
1. Occam's razor
2. got any other ideas? (remember, we're talking about large scale, statistical systems)
Re:Anil Seth Finds Consciousness in Life’s Push Against Entropy
by monkeycantype on Saturday October 02, 2021 @02:32AM
(#28726465)
I do get that. While I understand that some people firmly believe in a literal creator, in my case it's an anthropomorphisation of all that is unknowable and truly fundamental to the existence of our universe, just as the green woman with the spiky hat is an anthropomorphisation of liberty. The difference being that I stay open to the idea that the creator might be conscious because I have no way of disproving it, where I'd put put hundred dollars down that the green lady is a big chunk of metal with a slap of copper and asbestos over the top.
I don't know if other universes with different maths are possible. Greg Egan's books take my to the limit of my conceptual capacity, but I do think there are limits to what it is possible to know from within this universe, because everything needs to be built up from axioms from this universe. I agree with your explanation, right now while I'm sitting here in this universe, but if the celestial teapot turns up this afternoon and takes us both to perpetual motion machine universe, we might start to see things differently
If the number of states labelled ordered is substantially smaller than the number of states labelled disordered and a system moves essentially randomly between states, it is far more likely that it will spend most of its time in a disordered state.
Entropy is just the universe settling into a state that cannot be meaningfully differentiated from most other states; there are far more of these than differentiable states, and so it's overwhelmingly likely that the universe ends up there.