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

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