Arthur C. Clarke 1/9 ART MATRIX - LIGHTLINK
http://www.lightlink.com/theproof 25 Fairview Square
Ithaca, NY 14850 USA
(607) 277-8913 Fax
(607) 277-0959 Voice
(607) 227-5465 Cell
homer@lightlink.com E-mail
jes@lightlink.com E-mail
07/14/06 12:59am
Dear Revered Sir,
This is Homer Smith and Jane Staller from Art Matrix.
We are the fractal people that you so kindly mentioned in your
book involving the Mandelbrot Set. We are now running Lightlink
Internet out of Ithaca NY. No money in fractals, but competing
against Time Warner and Verizon for broadband internet out of our
homes isn't easy either. At least we are still here.
I also need to thank you for the utterly beautiful music of Rohan
DeLivra, we used it multiple times in the video which now exists on
DVD.
I remember back in 1985 you made a comment to me that you hoped
to see the year 2001, and I trust you have done so with flying colors,
and are still alive and well.
It saddens me the terrible tragedy that befell Sri Lanka this
last year, but I know you will be pushing to enhance the scientific
knowledge of our world, and to motivate people to spend their
attention on matters of importance rather than religious bigotry and
war with each other.
If I might presume on you, I have a matter of some import that I
wish to publish to the world, but having spent 30 years on it and seen
great resistence in the average mind to the material, including
trained scientists, it has occured to me that you might be the one to
first share this with.
Your healthy skepticism of pseudo science and other new age
crystal gazing nonsense, along with your strong background in actual
science indicates to me you might be very interested in this.
This material will go into broad public issue within the year or
so, I intend to get it into the hands of all the great people of the
planet, in the hopes that someone, somewhere will be able to
understand it and help me know whether it is nonsense or not.
However I would be greatly honored to have you preview it and
give me your considered opinion which I would value greatly, before I
make a fool out of myself on a planetary scale.
The subject matter under review is about consciousness, in
particular consciousness's capacity for perfect certainty of its own
existence, a matter which is skipped over or ignored in all of the
scientific literature that I have come across in my life time.
Scientists seem to think they can find the Ultimate Theory of
Everything by mathematics and space time mechanics alone, but I tend
to think that "Love and Shame can not of Force and Mass be made."
It is this process of perfect certainty that runs into real trouble
when one tries to explain it with space time mechanics.
A machine is defined as any system of parts interacting via cause
and effect across a spacetime distance.
The paper I wish to publish is essentially a proof (that everyone
will agree with) that perfect certainty can not be had by a machine, not
even of its own existence.
Machines learn by being an effect, they change state as a result of
some alleged exterior cause. From this change in state they then
compute back to the possible nature of that cause.
Its all theory and forever must remain so, no matter how well the
theory 'works'.
Since effects do not prove cause, a machine that can learn only by
being an effect, can never learn with perfect certainty if there even
was a cause!
Further, "present state does not prove prior state," thus a machine
can't even tell with perfect certainty that it has changed state, so it
can't tell if it has been an effect or not. A machine can be built to
trust that it has changed state, and can trust that all effects are
caused, but only if it has been told to do so, and trust is not
continuously reverifiable perfect certainty, which is the hallmark of
conscious self awareness.
Specifically a machine can not be certain of distance, time, change
in state, cause or the existence of itself or anything else. Those are
the big 5, but the last one existence, covers everything!
Thus one concludes that a machine can't be certain of anything.
Since consciousness IS capable of perfect certainties of various
kinds (which many will not agree with) including certainty of its own
existence and personal agency, one is forced to conclude that
consciousness is not a space time machine nor merely a process in one,
such as the body or its brain.
A formal statement of the proof, namely that a machine can't be
certain of anything, is at the end of this letter.
The ramifications of this simple line of thought are astounding.
The idea that machines can not be certain of anything is well
known, but the idea that consciousness can be perfectly certain of some
things, well, it would seem that many people aren't certain they exist
or that they can see two different colors.
Difference implies existence.
You can't BE different and not BE.
I trust they are merely sleep walking while they work. :)
The white paper I would send you covers this thing from beginning
to end, it is very easy to understand, any 5th grader could comprehend
it and teach it to every other kid in his class in no time.
Its the physics PhD's that I worry about.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Homer Wilson Smith homer@lightlink.com, 607 227 5465
Jane Elizabeth Staller jes@lightlink.com, 607 227 5466
(Our hours are 2pm to 2am EST every day.)
THE MACHINE CERTAINTY THEOREM (THE "PROOF").
"Learning implies Learning with Certainty or Learning with Not
Certainty.
Learning across a space time distance implies Learning by Being
an Effect.
Learning by Being an Effect implies not Learning with Certainty.
Learning with Certainty, therefore,
implies Learning, but
not by Being an Effect, and
not across a space time distance.
"Learning, Certainty, Causality and Consciousness"
Copyright (C) 2006 Homer W. Smith
Yours in good faith,
Homer Wilson Smith Jane Elizabeth Staller
homer@lightlink.com jes@lightlink.com
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Homer Wilson Smith The Paths of Lovers Art Matrix - Lightlink
(607) 277-0959 KC2ITF Cross Internet Access, Ithaca NY
homer@lightlink.com In the Line of Duty http://www.lightlink.com
Fri Aug 10 01:02:10 EDT 2007
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Homer Wilson Smith Clean Air, Clear Water, Art Matrix - Lightlink
(607) 277-0959 A Green Earth, and Peace, Internet, Ithaca NY
homer@lightlink.com Is that too much to ask? http://www.lightlink.com
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