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1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Multiverse, Information theory, turing machines, doomsday, and Immortality May 26, 2008
This book covers a diverse range of topics that may be of interest to info-lifers or Infodels. It takes the idea of the anthropic principle and developes the idea of the multiverse and using information theory to explain that an ensemble of universes with every random configuration carries no information and is essentially nothing. We would (using anthropic reasoning) as conscious observers find ourselves only in a highly ordered subset of the ensemble. The book goes on to describe the implications of such a world with regard to the simulation argument, personal immortality and the doomsday argument. His Borgesian worldview is backed up by mathematical and philosophical arguments. Definitely a good read for infolifers of a mathematical platonist bent.
8 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Standish's Theory of Nothing a must-read Aug 08, 2007
There's some very important and fascinating work going on these days in the intersection of algorithmic information theory, computer science, physics, and cosmology that may very well be leading us to a much deeper understanding of the world. The long-sought "Theory of Everything" may in fact turn out to be much simpler and more beautiful than previous attempts at such a thing might have lead us to believe. Over the last several years a mailing list, the Everything List, has been home to much discussion and debate among researchers from a variety of disciplines who are individually and collectively converging on a common understanding of the way things may actually work at the deepest level.
Dr. Russell Standish is one of these researchers, and has contributed significant and novel insights in this field. In authoring this book, Dr. Standish has served a different and much needed purpose. The book is an excellent and very approachable introduction to the subject at hand; it skillfully navigates the territory between expert and layman. It provides a very concise yet thorough overview of several years of discussion and debate on the aforementioned mailing list, and in doing so sets the stage for Standish to present his own startling and compelling conjecture about the ultimate nature of the universe in which we live.
This book may well be the vehicle by which these ideas become well-known and generally understood by the scientifically-literate public. As such it may be one of the most important popular science publications of our time.
If you only ever choose to read one book on the topics of algorithmic information theory, quantum mechanics, cosmology, eschatology, the nature of mind / consciousness / experience, the Simulation Hypothesis, ontology, scientific philosophy, or mathematical reasoning - make it this one.
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