What counts as “something in the universe that uniquely specifies a number”? I take it a particle’s coordinate written out in inches in trinary doesn’t count (why?), even if the universe is continuous. But the contents of a PC’s memory—if Nature assumes a certain voltage means 1 and another means 0 - do count for some reason. Okaaay, let’s pick a border case: a computer calculating successive digits of pi. Will it make every possible world with its conscious inhabitants suddenly spring into subjective life if we wait long enough? Should a span of digits count if it specifies a world when inverted? What if its square specifies a world? How about an off-by-one error? We could go on.
Those aren’t just nitpicks; most any rule you can think up is going to have the same problems. I confess to seeing no logical way out except to say that all “abstract” concepts like numbers or algorithms must be either equally real or equally unreal for purposes of creating “real” things like subjective experience.
Gotcha.
What counts as “something in the universe that uniquely specifies a number”? I take it a particle’s coordinate written out in inches in trinary doesn’t count (why?), even if the universe is continuous. But the contents of a PC’s memory—if Nature assumes a certain voltage means 1 and another means 0 - do count for some reason. Okaaay, let’s pick a border case: a computer calculating successive digits of pi. Will it make every possible world with its conscious inhabitants suddenly spring into subjective life if we wait long enough? Should a span of digits count if it specifies a world when inverted? What if its square specifies a world? How about an off-by-one error? We could go on.
Those aren’t just nitpicks; most any rule you can think up is going to have the same problems. I confess to seeing no logical way out except to say that all “abstract” concepts like numbers or algorithms must be either equally real or equally unreal for purposes of creating “real” things like subjective experience.