1. Life can exist in 3D.
2. A 2D or 1D computer can simulate life in 3D.
3. Therefore, life can exist in 2D or 1D.
2. A 2D or 1D computer can simulate life in 3D.
3. Therefore, life can exist in 2D or 1D.
To put it another way, "life" is basically a quine. As per the fixed-point theorem, all Turing-complete formal systems support (infinitely many) quines. Therefore, any universe whose laws of physics are powerful enough to support Turing-completeness, can support life.
(Of course you have to be careful with what you mean by "life" and "universe" and so forth. A 0-dimensional infinitesimal singularity capable of arbitrary computation can of course run Conway's Game Of Life all you want - but perhaps you'd prefer 'universe' to mean some kind of spatial construction with locality-preserving rules - in which case it's not even clear that our own universe counts!)
Can it? I'm not familiar with the limitations of lower dimensional computation, but it sounds like a fascinating subject.
Also Conway's Game of Life is a rabbit hole you could literally spend your whole life studying.
Can Life Exist in 2 and 1 Dimensions? Sure, if we're willing to define "life" generically enough. If not, then no.
[1] https://www.ics.uci.edu/~welling/teaching/271fall09/Turing-M...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_110
Atoms work on 3 dimensions, I believe, and 1D doesn't need to imply our physical 3D existence minus 2 dimensions. It can be a virtual 1D realm that runs on our own defined "physics".
The rules that define the "physics" in Rule 110 are:
|-----------------+---------------------------|
| current pattern | new state for center cell |
|-----------------+---------------------------|
| 111 | 0 |
| 110 | 1 |
| 101 | 1 |
| 100 | 0 |
| 011 | 1 |
| 010 | 1 |
| 001 | 1 |
| 000 | 0 |
|-----------------+---------------------------|Sure they do. Saying that people don't have control over anything is like saying "the light switches in my house don't control the lights because the switches can't do anything without a person flipping them". Just because there's no spontaneous self-generated action that a switch can perform by itself doesn't mean that the switch isn't controlling something.
Looking at this from a different angle, do you believe that a digital simulation of your brain would produce the same kind of subjective experience of consciousness within the computer that you yourself perceive? Is subjective experience simply a side effect of certain types of computation? That may be true, but if you believe that, you start to get into some profoundly bizarre implications about the nature of reality. Check out the novel "Permutation City" by Greg Egan for a great exploration of this topic.
I disagree with your interpretation of control. The word is human expression and shared between one another. So you can have a different understanding of the word than mine and neither of us can truly hold power over the word. As for me control doesn't exist in reality because the light bulb doesn't actually control the outcome of the light turning on or off. The beginning of all events is really what controlled the forces to make the force of the light switch going on or off.
> Looking at this from a different angle, do you believe that a digital simulation of your brain would produce the same kind of subjective experience of consciousness within the computer that you yourself perceive?
Yes, I'll take a look at the novel you recommended.
Even if a thought (an external force) occurred that truly wasn't deterministic. You still would be shaped by it and from all the preceding forces exerted upon you playing a part as well.
Furthermore, (non related) Quantum physics may just be local hidden variables and or another deterministic universe intertwined with our deterministic universe and making the results we're unable to measure appear random. Many people fear determinism and so they put so much faith into quantum physics without understanding how it doesn't change your outcome to be truly your own.
We very well may be in a universe that's different than another and that has you & I never conversing because a deterministic system (outside our universe) is making "random occurrences" (that aren't really random) just not measurable in our lifetimes; thus making one universe verge off from another in the deterministic outcomes. That doesn't give us a will that's our own.
Similar if we prayed to God for an event in our life to occur or not to happen. All the forces exerted upon us, up until us praying is what made the event occur and not even a God could have a will that's his/her own because any being is shaped by the events experienced. Simply, you cannot make a decision that wasn't effected by all the events (forces exerted upon you) that occurred against you in life. You're the product of what encompasses you and all the forces chain-back to the very beginning of life.
You're ignorant of understanding reality and similar to the majority of people because of religion. The society we live in has been shaped around assuming we have control by the roots of religion being ingrained for centuries. The great travesty I observe is ignorance born from assuming free will and it needs to be erased for humanity to not be evil. Currently many humans are in prison for being born into the life with a horrible outcome and without any control of not being influenced to be penalized unjustly by fate. The injustice is equivalent to the holocaust. Society is imperfect with how people develop by genetics & the environment being different. The scapegoat has been blaming victims and assuming they have free will.
>And if I believe that I have control (which itself isn't something I can control in your model) when in fact I don't, then why would that change anything about my life?
No matter at the end of the day, fate will decide how you end up being is true. Fate for me has made me converse how reality is with as many people and because I think it's the right thing to do; while understanding the preceding. I would be immoral if I didn't discuss it once in awhile and while knowing how against people are when it comes to understanding free will is an illusion because they've been conditioned their whole life to think the contrary.
>What positive effect would this revelation of lack of control have?
Understanding the collective unconscious is really the key. The evolution of humans (behaviour & interaction) is built by the foundation of what people share in their mind. I'm a firm believer that faith (the belief in something with no evidence) is evil because of what I've experienced in life by people that were very controlling; against lgbtq people. Thus, I find free will evil and the reason for what has occurred upon society because of it. Understanding why knowing free will is an illusion takes awhile to truly understand the benefit. Furthermore, I likely would have murdered the people who abused me if I didn't come to realize they had no control to how they became to be as persons. I'm grateful that fate was at least kind enough to me to not become a murderer. I'm disfigured forever as a visible transgender woman because of these people that had no control in reality. Luckily fate is going to allow me an exit soon.
Your definition of free will may be causing dissonance in this conversation because your will might be to forever assume you have choice. I'm not negating that people have a will or as we name volition. I'm writing we don't have a choice over our will in how it came to be and or what follows till our death; by determinism.
The universe is expanding and with infinite variables that can align again and or have an external force differ from another equal chain of forces. Yes we can have infinite worlds or phrased as events and that reoccur to a point where an interference of a unique force breaks the chain compared to another chain that didn't have such a force upon it. That has nothing to do with free will and even if we could check another universe. The variable of checking the universe would still be a force upon us and with the preceding forces fitting in the equation for what would follow.
(You need infinite 2D space for a complete model of a finite 3D space)