... but that's different to what I've argued here. I'm not claiming the states are physical objects, but just the existing of the pattern, even if temporary or intangible, would feel real to the humans/actors inside it.
... but that's different to what I've argued here. I'm not claiming the states are physical objects, but just the existing of the pattern, even if temporary or intangible, would feel real to the humans/actors inside it.
If you are trying to prove the existence of this universe by requiring the existence of another universe, then it's turtles all the way down.
How do you define "existing" of a pattern? Does it exist inside a physical thing? If so, then how does that physical container come into existence? And if it exists only conceptually, then how is it possible for concepts to exist? In the universe that I know, concepts only exist in the minds of human beings, and perhaps in some other animals. To me, it seems rather unlikely (and a bit anthropocentric or egocentric) that concepts are something truly universal.
For me, it helped to meditate a lot on what it'd be like to be a rock. The rock does not have memory, no sensory input, and therefore most likely no concept of time, space, logic, nor mathematics. It makes you wonder whether the rock exists at all. In any case, it probably doesn't care as much about it as we humans do. There might be a hint there.
And also
> Kick at the rock, Sam Johnson, break your bones: But cloudy, cloudy is the stuff of stones.
-- Richard Wilbur, from ["Epistemology"](https://web.archive.org/web/20211109141828/https://www.poetr...)
Hmm... calculation device? I thought the premise here is that actually doing the calculation is not necessary - a tenet you invoke in order to say say elsewhere [1] that the computational complexity does not matter, as the notionally simulated universe exists anyway.
But if that were so, would it not do away with the distinction between simulating and simulated universes, creating the situation where every possible universe exists in every extant universe?
That's a lot of universes.