Re: Analog or Digital

From: Alex Green (dralexgreen_at_yahoo.co.uk)
Date: 08/02/04 

Date: 2 Aug 2004 06:13:12 -0700

achillesofpersis@hotmail.com (Sina Tootoonian) wrote in message news:<b72135f.0407291203.633894ba@posting.google.com>...
> Hello everyone,
>
> I'm not sure if this is the correct newsgroup for my question, so if
> it is not, please let me know.
>
> I've read a lot of talk about whether the universe is fundamentally
> analog or digital, but this seems like a moot point to me: the
> universe is digital, or more accurately, discrete. We may be able to
> calculate pi to as many digits as required, but in nature it is
> trunctuated to a certain size. Energy is quantized. In light of this,
> I don't really understand the argument that digital systems cannot
> perfectly emulate analog systems in practice.
>
> Any light that you can shed on this issue would be greatly
> appreciated.
>

The main problem here is observation. If the universe is digital then
there is only measurement (the transfer of a particular state to an
encoded state), observation seems to be impossible. You seem to be
reworking Bostrom's 'Simulation Argument' when you write "I don't
really understand the argument that digital systems cannot perfectly
emulate analog systems in practice" see:

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~lka/strongai.htm

For a discussion.

Best Wishes

Alex Green