Intelligent Life? New Ruskin College 090904
www.NewRuskinCollege.com
Lecture Notes: 09-09-04
In A New Kind of Science, Dr. Wolfram asks if it would even be possible to recognize a message from another (or an) intelligent life form? Not, could we understand it, decipher it, but could we even recognize it?
I hadn’t thought to question the idea. Maybe I couldn’t, . . . but . . . scientists? Someone smart like that? What? They have formulas and stuff? No?
This idea of his is connected with “computational equivalence.” This relates to the “intelligent design” theory. The theory that the world is so complex it appears to be the result of “intelligent design.” But just so, he questions if we could sort out a signal from an intelligent life form just because it would be surrounded by so much else that appears intelligent by design.
The principle of “computational equivalence” holds that at some point, a very early point, even very simple systems develop patterns that make them appear to be “equivalent” to much more complex, intelligent systems, and they are, both of them, “equivalent.”
At first you might think, for example, that 11 dimensions are not enough to explain all the variety of the universe, and yet Dr. Wolfram’s automata begin to generate complex systems with even fewer rules. As they are allowed to run, and the universe has been running for a long time, they generate ever more complex systems and become indistinguishable from “intelligent” systems that have been “designed,” i.e. they are “computationally equivalent.”
full text at www.NewRuskinCollege.com
Lecture Notes: 09-09-04
In A New Kind of Science, Dr. Wolfram asks if it would even be possible to recognize a message from another (or an) intelligent life form? Not, could we understand it, decipher it, but could we even recognize it?
I hadn’t thought to question the idea. Maybe I couldn’t, . . . but . . . scientists? Someone smart like that? What? They have formulas and stuff? No?
This idea of his is connected with “computational equivalence.” This relates to the “intelligent design” theory. The theory that the world is so complex it appears to be the result of “intelligent design.” But just so, he questions if we could sort out a signal from an intelligent life form just because it would be surrounded by so much else that appears intelligent by design.
The principle of “computational equivalence” holds that at some point, a very early point, even very simple systems develop patterns that make them appear to be “equivalent” to much more complex, intelligent systems, and they are, both of them, “equivalent.”
At first you might think, for example, that 11 dimensions are not enough to explain all the variety of the universe, and yet Dr. Wolfram’s automata begin to generate complex systems with even fewer rules. As they are allowed to run, and the universe has been running for a long time, they generate ever more complex systems and become indistinguishable from “intelligent” systems that have been “designed,” i.e. they are “computationally equivalent.”
full text at www.NewRuskinCollege.com
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