Seth Lloyd - Search for Meaning

To search for meaning, God or something like God is often involved. But this need not be so. How can meaning be found, or purpose realized, without invoking supernatural forces?

[joshuanicholls]

Thank you, Seth. Now I can't sleep. :)

[VaidyanathanPurushothaman]

You are witnessing one of the possible realities as long as you don't realise that you are one of those created possibilities.

[ocnus.]

This is frightening and enlightening at the same time.

[David.C.Velasquez]

Seth Lloyd has been one of my favorites, ever since I first heard him interviewed many years ago now.

[matrix]

Seth does the best job at explaining quantum systems and how reality is constructed.

[mrwensveen]

The moment I clicked the link, I realized it reads "Seth Lloyd" and not "Sith Lord". Would've been an equally interesting interview, though...

[suncat]

Excellent interview, one of the best!

[RickDelmonico]

At every level of the fractal hierarchy, variation enters the system in different ways, so there is no scale invariance. All of the information is stored in the relationships of and in each level, in the computational geometry. The probability space (onion) where the fractal tree of information (our material reality) is growing, each layer gets progressively thinner, so that, like a fractal it never completely fills space, the space is not infinite. The boundary conditions display edge of criticality in each layer. The physical manifestation (the structure of our reality), could be thought of as a tree like structure, growing in this probability space. At the ends, the filaments are very fine, in fact infinitely fine. All of the information is stored as relationships and as the finest projections are created or computed you have the greatest number of possible outcomes, so that the earliest versions of this structure had few possible outcomes (less degrees of freedom). This structure could be called truth at it's core (in the beginning) and chaos in the fine hair-like projections (the end). The ever present now, is our position in the computational geometry. Buridan's ass, deception, metastability, dithering or self referential randomness. Fredkin's paradox and degrees of freedom. You are spirit. You are made of stuff but this stuff is something that cannot be regarded as real. The information is not the structure it is the relationships. The information contains no mass.

[twirlipofthemists]

The idea of a computational universe emerges in an era when computers are cool, like the clockwork universe of the 1700s did when clocks were cool, or the heat exchanger universe of the 1800s did when internal combustion was cool, or the universe with a mighty ruler did in the bronze age when kingdoms were cool, or like the cyclical universe did in the stone age when seasonal agriculture was cool, or like the animal spirit universe did when herding was cool... Coincidence?

And now the universe must be a simulation, in the era of video games.

I think that ought to be enough to give one pause, even if it isn't disproof.

Maybe it's true, IDK - but I doubt it, and I find it a little embarrassing.

[filipve]

Do you thread 1 and 0 as numbers or as bits?
and what if you "reduce" it even more in logical operators (1 = true ; 0 = false)
interesting the "duality" (2) seems to have a universal mechanism?

[davidwilkie]

Searching, observing, gathering interesting information etc, is as the Prof says not much to do with meaning that's usually a set of assumptions in the formula, "that assumption" means "this". GIGO

[TheGarrymoore]

During the Industrial revolution the Universe was a Machine....now it is a Computer....By the way...who is the programmer who made the program? Infinite regress waits on its wings.

[filipve]

Search for Meaning?
Why do people give the different answers for the same question?

[holgerjrgensen]

Life is Eternal, No one created Life, Life is creator, there fore, Life has No meaning, (no name)
meaning have to do with creation, (there must be a meaning with the madness)
for instance, what is the meaning with this video ?
getting 'closer to truth', or what, did You get any closer ?

[imalwaysright]

Haha, people probably searched for, "finding meaning" or "search for meaning" and was expecting God stuff but got this 😂

[nathanialblower]

Using the word “literally” figuratively is not the same thing as using the word “literally” to mean “figuratively”.

[anywallsocket]

I don't think it's fair to call the Universe a "computer", because we've simply extrapolated the notion to maximal extent. A computer is something that processes information, right? Yes well, what is information other than the components of our own understanding? To see my point (it's difficult to phrase), imagine living in a world like today, with computers, and being able to consider the Universe ANYTHING else. Like, you could say it's all "energy", or it's all "information", but that's again a way of phrasing, which itself doesn't really reveal much. The question becomes, what COULDN'T be considered a computer, by some abstract reference? I suggest one could consider anything a "computer", and that therefore it's not that the Universe IS a "computer" - whatever that might imply, it's that the word is sufficiently abstract to encompass any set of 'things doing things'. For instance, is a computer still a computer if the algorithm it's running is entirely random? Yes. Is a computer a computer if its memory is deletable or not deletable? Yes.

[Chrisplumbgas]

A very important question to try and answer for us . A collective answer would be nice but an answer each individual will ultimately have discern for themselves relative to his interaction with this world. Unfortunately suicide is on the rise . You need a reference point with a future destination point that is worth living for, of hope, where you are valued, loved, cared for, infinitely good, in complete bliss, and hope that transcends this life, to keep you motivated, because the reality of this physical world in the end is usually pain suffering and death. Jesus Christ answered the meaning of life.

[charlesbrightman]

1, 3, 6, 9. Now go find out what it really means.

[brigham]

They never even once mentioned Jesus! Imagine the nerve.