Do you think the limit of the map as its error goes to zero exists? Do you think we will ever be able to determine whether or not the limit exists? What name would you give that limit if it existed?
I’m just trying to get a better idea of what you believe about instrumentalism. Personally, I think that every map is a territory (mathematical realism) because among all the vacuous explanations for why we experience something instead of nothing it seems to be a simpler model. Instrumentalism, in this case, means trying to figure out the probability distribution of the territories/maps you are a member of, or in other words which map is most likely to predict the measurements I make?
I can see how mathematical realism is obviated by Occam’s Razor since it’s not necessary to explain any measurement, but it’s probably the best metaphysical idea I’ve ran into and it does lend some insight into the question of what to simulate (it doesn’t matter; every simulation already exists just as much as we do), what to care about (everything happens in some universe, so just try to optimize your own), immortality (some universes have infinite time and energy, and some of those universes will simulate us), and god/Omega (there exist beings in other universes that simulate our universe, but it doesn’t matter since our existence is independent of being simulated).
Do you think the limit of the map as its error goes to zero exists? Do you think we will ever be able to determine whether or not the limit exists? What name would you give that limit if it existed?
The equivalent language I prefer is more lay-person: will science ever explain everything we observe and predict everything we may ever observe? And my answer is: there is no way to tell at this point, and the answer[ability] is not relevant to anything we do. After a moment of thought you can see that this might not even be the right question to ask: some day we might be powerful enough and smart enough to create new physical laws, so even defining such a limit will be meaningless.
Even if the Universe’s fundamental nature can be changed without limit there would still be a current territory that hasn’t changed yet. The future territory would be different, but if we knew how to create new laws we could also probably predict what the new territory would be like.
If the fundamental nature of the universe just changes over time on its own, then your argument is a lot stronger.
Do you think the limit of the map as its error goes to zero exists? Do you think we will ever be able to determine whether or not the limit exists? What name would you give that limit if it existed?
I’m just trying to get a better idea of what you believe about instrumentalism. Personally, I think that every map is a territory (mathematical realism) because among all the vacuous explanations for why we experience something instead of nothing it seems to be a simpler model. Instrumentalism, in this case, means trying to figure out the probability distribution of the territories/maps you are a member of, or in other words which map is most likely to predict the measurements I make?
I can see how mathematical realism is obviated by Occam’s Razor since it’s not necessary to explain any measurement, but it’s probably the best metaphysical idea I’ve ran into and it does lend some insight into the question of what to simulate (it doesn’t matter; every simulation already exists just as much as we do), what to care about (everything happens in some universe, so just try to optimize your own), immortality (some universes have infinite time and energy, and some of those universes will simulate us), and god/Omega (there exist beings in other universes that simulate our universe, but it doesn’t matter since our existence is independent of being simulated).
The equivalent language I prefer is more lay-person: will science ever explain everything we observe and predict everything we may ever observe? And my answer is: there is no way to tell at this point, and the answer[ability] is not relevant to anything we do. After a moment of thought you can see that this might not even be the right question to ask: some day we might be powerful enough and smart enough to create new physical laws, so even defining such a limit will be meaningless.
Even if the Universe’s fundamental nature can be changed without limit there would still be a current territory that hasn’t changed yet. The future territory would be different, but if we knew how to create new laws we could also probably predict what the new territory would be like.
If the fundamental nature of the universe just changes over time on its own, then your argument is a lot stronger.