X-Message-Number: 20306 Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2002 23:44:06 -0700 From: Mike Perry <> Subject: Re: Then a Miracle Happens? From Mike LaTorra, #20293: > > From: Mike Perry <> [concerning a new quantum computing >claim for solving previously unsolvable problems]: >. . . {the new quantum computing} > > ...claim goes farther, inasmuch as some problems not solvable at all, in >any > > amount of time, would now become solvable. One interesting possibility > > would be to circumvent the Godel limitations on consistency proofs... > >Would this new kind of quantum computing oracle disprove Chaitin's proof >that no such oracle, or even an oracle-about-oracles (unto the nth level), >is possible? According to my (very limited) understanding, Chaitin's proof >showed that even within mathematics all we could achieve is islands of >certainty within various subdisciplines (e.g., geometry, number theory, >etc.) without there necessarily being even a theoretical possibility that >any, much less all, of these can ever be subsumed within some larger, >overarching mathematical theory. > I am not very informed on all this either; my rough understanding is that Chaitin's result in effect says "you can't get a 20-pound theorem from 10-pound axioms." How that would be affected by a quantum oracle remains to be seen, perhaps is heavily case-dependent. > > On a more practical level, > > perhaps an oracle machine could more quickly determine the information > > content of a cryopreserved patient, for a reanimation scenario. I > > could see > > this becoming a nontrivial issue; the brain is complicated enough in its > > own right. Extracting the necessary information, at least in cases of > > substantial damage, could be computationally difficult, even if > > there is no > > deliberate "encryption." > >If this all takes place within a multiworlds ensemble of universes, how can >we be sure that we are only using the other universes computationally >without those computations being tainted/biased/skewed by the existence of >nearly-parallel individual instances of the cryopreserved person in those >other universes? Or am I barking up the wrong tree here? My guess is that in fact there will be (must be) your nearly-parallel instances, but probably not preclude the desired results, assuming, always, that the quantum oracle is possible at all. Mike Perry Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=20306