If there is an afterlife...

[Rhizomorph13]

Good one Syn, but today is opposite day... or is it? Is my kudos genuine or just a ruse to trick you into thinking that I liked your post but when you sit smuggly, basking in my praise I will then declare, nah, just kidding.

[Rayaan]

Define:

1. Higher dimension
2. Heaven
3. Digital physics

Google is your friend.

The universe is an information processing system to about the same extent as a pile of rocks in a washing machine is Rayaan...

That's not a good comparison because the universal computation is actually much more powerful and beautiful than a pile of rocks in a washing machine.

And i fucking hate this bastardised definition and use of information.

What's the bastardized definition that you're talking about?

The only 'information' is the way the elementary particles and force carriers are positioned relative to each other. Again that is 'information' in the same way the distance and angle between my washing-machine rocks are at any given moment. We could even find a way to control the direction a predesignated face of the rock is pointing and do computations with it.

That's a part of the definition but not the whole thing, because you didn't take into consideration the fact that the position and velocity of the rocks will change from one moment to the next inside the washing machine according to the laws of physics. The washing machine is the computer, the rocks are the input, and the laws of physics are the program. In this sense, by merely existing and evolving in time, any physical system, whether it's a washing machine or not, transforms or processes that information in a systematic fashion. That's what it means to process the information.

Also, information is more fundamental than matter and energy because energy is the ability for physical systems to do work whereas information is telling the physical systems what to do. Hence Wheeler's phrase "it from bit," which he summarizes the meaning in the following words:

"It from bit. Otherwise put, every 'it' - every particle, every field of force, even the space-time continuum itself - derives its function, its meaning, its very existence entirely - even if in some contexts indirectly - from the apparatus-elicited answers to yes-or-no questions, binary choices, bits. 'It from bit' symbolizes the idea that every item of the physical world has at bottom - a very deep bottom, in most instances - an immaterial source and explanation; that which we call reality arises in the last analysis from the posing of yes–no questions and the registering of equipment-evoked responses; in short, that all things physical are information-theoretic in origin and that this is a participatory universe." (John Archibald Wheeler 1990: 5)

Him quoting Seth Lloyd isn't a bad start.

Thanks, but wasn't that an argument-from-authority fallacy again (as you told me before several times)? ... or ... did I just get better at it somehow?

[Violet]

I don't get it either. Do most people believe they were somewhere before they were born? Why, all of sudden, do we go somewhere when we die?

A painting unpainted cannot be hung upon the wall of the museum, nor may linger beyond its physical destruction.

Why must we always have existed in order to be born? Why would a pre-tangible existence have any sort of impact upon where we go from birth? Wouldn't it be a bit redundant to be born twice?

---

Google is your friend.

Google is Chuck's friend? Can I be google's friend too? I want a lot of money, I do.

That's not a good comparison because the universal computation is actually much more powerful and beautiful than a pile of rocks in a washing machine.

Always power and beauty, but never left-ankleic? Bad dancing can be a nigh undefeatable force.

Thanks, but wasn't that an argument-from-authority fallacy again (as you told me before several times)? ... or ... did I just get better at it somehow?

Oh if you listen to some people: everything is a fallacy. Perhaps it would be wiser to embrace wrongness!

[Edwardo Piet]

If there's an afterlife then I've got 5 heads and 70 fucking brains.

[Rhizomorph13]

If there's an afterlife then I've got 5 heads and 70 fucking brains.

Let's hope those brains use protection and lube.

[Edwardo Piet]

I don't fuck my brains whether I have 70 or just the usual, one.

[Violet]

I don't fuck my brains whether I have 70 or just the usual, one.

You said you had five heads... what else did you intend to do with them?

Maybe the afterlife with 70 brains and 5 heads requires you to mindfuck yourself, perhaps because of some god's fetish

I base these postulations on the fact that if it can be eaten: it is a fetish.

[Darwinian]

Can one person have 70 brains if it is considered that the person resides in a single brain. Would that not be 70 persons?

[Violet]

Can one person have 70 brains if it is considered that the person resides in a single brain. Would that not be 70 persons?

Perhaps the 70 brains is a non-literal way of saying 1 brain in 70 pieces.

[downbeatplumb]

Can one person have 70 brains if it is considered that the person resides in a single brain. Would that not be 70 persons?

A colony as an individual like the borg maybe?

Could you classify an ant or bee colony as individuals?