EPISTEMOLOGY_15_NOVEMBER_2022_COPY
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EPISTEMOLOGY
“The essential substrate which comprises each universe is immutably and limitlessly generative (i.e. unconditionally able to spawn indefinitely many phenomenally distinct patterns (and indefinitely many copies of each phenomenally distinct pattern)).” – karbytes
The following paragraphs briefly introduce some epistemological assumptions about what constitutes and what controls physical and virtual reality. This web page is an elaboration of the concepts which are discussed in the web pages of this website named NATURE and MULTIVERSE.
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The image below depicts a panpsychic worldview such that pure consciousness is assumed to be a ubiquitous, irreducible, indestructible, and limitlessly generative substrate into which all phenomena are projected (and all phenomena are fundamentally composed of pure consciousness).
The image below depicts a physical computer which is modeling the physical universe which that physical computer appears to itself to be inhabiting (and, if that simulated universe is sufficiently comprehensive, that simulated universe will contain a virtual copy of the physical computer which is running that simulation). It could be the case that what appears to be “base level” physical reality is actually a computer simulation which is either being rendered from “lower level” physical processes or else that “base level” reality has no “lower level” physical causes. In both directions of “levels” traversal, there can technically be limitlessly many layers of reality alternating between physical and virtual in a recursive manner (i.e. a computer simulating a computer simulating a computer simulating a computer ad infinitum or until a “base case” is reached).
An electronic digital computer is relatively physical (i.e. comprised of matter, space, and energy) while the software that machine runs is relatively abstract (i.e. virtual (taking place inside of a physical universe as a smaller subset universe)).
(A universe is a succession of phenomena which takes place inside of at least one space-time continuum).
It may be possible for a sufficiently complex physical information processing machine to generate a software simulation which is a mirror of every atom and subatomic component inside of that physical machine. Likewise, it may be possible for a sufficiently complex software simulation to model any physical system.
physical : abstract :: electronics : information
Hypothetically speaking, the subjective experience which one information processing agent, S, experiences can be verbatim replicated inside of the subjective experience which some other information processing agent, T, experiences (and vice versa such that T simulates the space-time continuum which S experiences (either simultaneously or else asynchronously in relation to T) and S simulates the space-time continuum which T experiences (either simultaneously or else asynchronously in relation to S)).
S.render(T.render(X)) may or may not be the same phenomenal pattern as is T.render(S.render(X)).
If X is the phenomenal pattern represented by S.render(T.render(Y)), then X may or may not represent the same phenomenal pattern which Y represents (and Y is presumably occurring before X is occurring such that Y is a function of X (yet it may be possible that X and Y are simultaneously occurring events)).
Panpsychism is the hypothesis that all of reality (i.e. the whole of nature) is contained within exactly one boundless mind (which means that pure nothingness is synonymous with pure consciousness (and that pure consciousness is the substrate into which all phenomena are projected)).
One notion of panpsychism (A) suggests that nature contains infinitely many unique phenomena (while excluding zero phenomena) simultaneously and unconditionally (and that nature contains infinitely many phenomenally identical instances of each unique pattern simultaneously and unconditionally)).
Some other notion of panpsychism (B) suggests that nature contains a nonnegative integer number of unique phenomena simultaneously (and that nature contains a nonnegative integer number of each phenomenally unique pattern).
If A is true, then nature is static (i.e. unchanging) because, according to A, nature cannot encompass more or else less phenomena than what nature already contains.
By contrast, if B is true, then, according to B, nature is dynamic (i.e. changing) because phenomena appear and disappear as time elapses (in relation to the most macroscopic timeline in existence (i.e. nature’s frame of reference)) rather than be instantiated unconditionally.
B suggests that nature can grow, shrink, and rearrange the positioning of its contents.
A suggests that nature has exactly one size and is arranged in exactly one configuration unconditionally (and that nature has neither a temporal beginning nor a temporal ending).
A suggests that, from nature’s timeless perspective, there is a phenomenal manifestation of each unique noumenon (and from the most macroscopic frame of reference, consciousness makes no distinction between a phenomenon and that phenomenon’s noumenal counterpart (and no distinction between a noumenon and that noumenon’s phenomenal counterparts)).
(It may be assumed that there exists exactly one ubiquitous noumenal template for each distinct phenomeon and that noumenal template “generates” a nonnegative integer number of (or else infinitely many) phenomenal objects which each appear to represent the same informational pattern which that noumenal template represents).
B suggests that, from nature’s perspective, not every (abstract) noumenon has a uniquely corresponding (physical) phenomenon.
A : B :: infinite : finite
Pantheism is the hypothesis that God (i.e. the one and only hypothetical creator and controller of all phenomena) is ubiquitous rather than located somewhere outside of nature.
Atheism is the hypothesis that nature was neither created by a metaphysical god nor is nature ever controlled by a metaphysical god (and that no metaphysical god existed prior to nature (which means that it is not necessary for nature to have a metaphysical creator nor a metaphysical controller in order for nature to exist)).
(The term metaphysical in the previous paragraph is an adjective which describes some noun as “existing outside of physical reality” and “not being limited by what scientists deem to be constraining laws of physics which control how matter and energy behaves in predictable and empirically measurable ways”).
Deism is the hypothesis that some metaphysical god caused pure nothingness to change from containing nothing but itself (i.e. pure noumena) to containing something other than itself (i.e. phenomena and noumena).
Theism is an extension of deism which suggests that some metaphysical god controls how phenomena evolve in addition to causing phenomena to appear or to disappear.
(Deists generally believe that some metaphysical god does not intervene in physical events after a physical universe is constructed by that god. By contrast, theists generally believe that some metaphysical god intervenes at least some the time in terms of how events flow in chronological succession along some space-time continuum which at least one frame of reference renders).
This web page was last updated on 01_NOVEMBER_2022. The content displayed on this web page is licensed as PUBLIC_DOMAIN intellectual property.
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This web page was last updated on 15_NOVEMBER_2022. The content displayed on this web page is licensed as PUBLIC_DOMAIN intellectual property.
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