Re:Constructor Theory Solves the Riddle of Life
by AnimalMuppet on Thursday July 16, 2015 @06:50PM
(#9900352)
If you can build a constructor for it, it's possible. OK, I'm fine with that. If you know it's impossible, then you can't build a constructor for it. Also fine.
But where it sounds like this is going is: If you don't know it's impossible, then it must be possible to build a constructor for it. That assumes that everything that we don't currently know is impossible must be possible. That's... quite an assumption.
Worse, that assumption is swept under the rug rather than explicitly stated.
Or I could be misjudging their position...
Re:Constructor Theory Solves the Riddle of Life
by contravariant on Thursday July 16, 2015 @07:11PM
(#9900429)
I think there's also a (again silent) assumption that a constructor can be constructed, which is again non-trivial, and actually seems to be false. And if it is false then that seems like a major flaw, at least I don't really see how a non-constructable constructor is more convenient than the physical laws it is supposed to represent.
I also suspect you'll encounter something like the halting problem when trying to figure out which constructors aren't constructable. At worst you'll encounter constructors where this question is unanswerable (e.g. can you construct a constructor, which constructs all constructable constructors that can't construct themselves?).
>In constructor theory, physical laws are formulated only in terms of which tasks are possible (with arbitrarily high accuracy, reliability, and repeatability), and which are impossible, and why – as opposed to what happens, and what does not happen, given dynamical laws and initial conditions. A task is impossible if there is a law of physics that forbids it. Otherwise, it is possible – which means that a constructor for that task – an object that causes the task to occur and retains the ability to cause it again – can be approximated arbitrarily well in reality.
This seems to be false, as there is no physical law preventing entropy from decreasing but there is a physical law which prevents the existence of a 'constructor' capable of decreasing entropy.
>Moreover, it is a fundamental idea of constructor theory that any transformation that is not forbidden by the laws of physics can be achieved given the requisite knowledge. There is no third possibility: either the laws of physics forbid it, or it is achievable.
Either they are saying something is achievable if and only if there is a constructor for it, which is false (see previous point), or they are claiming something is achievable if and only if the laws of physics don't forbid it, which makes this 'fundamental idea' vacuous.