> > This brings a question to mind: are there any qualitative properties
> >> of systems that are provably _not_ representable in terms of bits?
>
Bruce wrote:
>
> But why would you want to *prove* such a thing? Proof is a matter of
> internal/formal reasoning - you can't *prove* anything about the natural
> world. With respect to this one has to look at evidence - this is not
> clear cut but is much more informative.
Fair enough, but you can prove some propositions about the natural world to
be false. What I was trying to get at is what are the phenomena about
natural/social systems that make people feel uncomfortable about 'bit
flipping' approaches. Since I am not (at least consciously) a 'bit flipping'
advocate, but quite happy to see pretty patterns emerge on the screen, I
dont really have an axe to grind - I am just wondering about the limits to
teapproach and the areas people feel it is inadequate to deal with -
oh yes, and let us for the sake of argument give the bit flippers as much
memory as they want for christmas, see what they can do and then take it
away the next year and see what they can no longer do... (mean experiment
:-)
Alan Penn
Reader in Architectural and Urban Computing
The Bartlett
University College London
Gower Street
London WC1E 6BT
+44 20 2679 5919
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