AI and cognitive psychology rant (getting more and more OT - tell me if I should shut up)

[robert]

anton at vredegoor.doge.nl (Anton Vredegoor) wrote in message news:<bnm0pv$a39$1 at news.hccnet.nl>...
> mis6 at pitt.edu (Michele Simionato) wrote:
> 
> >A good rule of the thumb is "never believe anything you read and you don't
> >understand". Sometimes, you should not believe even what you think you
> >understand ...
> 
> In Scientific American (I think it was the may 2003 issue) I read
> something about parallel universes. One idea goes like this (adapted
> to make it fit my brain).
> 
> Suppose you're sitting in a chair in the middle of a virtual 2X2X2
> cube. Next imagine a cube filled with protons (or some even smaller
> particles) as tightly as possible. The difference between this cube
> and the cube you are sitting in is that in your cube some of the
> protons are absent. The cubes could possibly be represented by Python
> long integers [1], where the full cube would be a long with all bits
> set to one and different cubes would have some zero bits at
> corresponding positions.
> 
> There can not be more different cubes than 2**(number of protons per
> cube) so in an infinite universe (or even in a big enough universe) at
> some distance from you a cube identical to the one you are occupying
> would exist, or else one would need a very good reason why the cube
> you are occupying is unique.
> 
> Anton
> 
> [1] How many protons would fit inside a 2x2x2 meter cube is left as an
> exercise for the readers

<G>
are we allowed to assume that the protons will compress into true cubes,
or that they remain true spheres?
</G>

(no, i'm not about to do the arithmetic)
robert