Posted: Jun 29, 2010 11:25 pm
The problem with the OP and the arguments so far is that Kolmogorov infomation is not the appropriate metric to use when describing the (Christian) universe in terms of information theory.
Why?
Because they propose that the universe and Man were both created perfect and that there was something called a 'Fall' whereby imperfection was introduced. This is directly analogous to Shannon information which considers the effect of noise on the transmission of a message.
If the message is god's plan for the universe then sin and the resulting imperfection is noise. Christians believe that, in the end, god's plan will inevitably come to pass which strongly implies that god designed the system to factor in the effect of noise; either by encoding redundancy in his message or by ensuring that noise did not actually affect any important facet of the message.
In the first instance, god is sending multiple redundant messages through the system with 100% certainty that at least one of them will arrive intact. Mathematically according to Shannon, that means that god is sending an infinite number of messages which, of course, means that god has developed an infinite number of permutations on his message which all reduce the recipients uncertainty by the same amount. While each message contains no more information than each other one, bootstrapping the system up a level shows that god must be able to calculate all states of the system simultaneously in order to be able to formulate his infinite number of messages. Therefore, god is more complex than any single state of the system.
In the second instance, god calculates all possible effects of all possible noise signals on his singular message and encodes the message such that transmission is achieved with 100% fidelity regardless of degradation. Again, god is able to encompass all states of the system at once and is thus more complex than any singular system state.
Conclusion: a hypothetical god must be more complicated than the system he instantiates.
Why?
Because they propose that the universe and Man were both created perfect and that there was something called a 'Fall' whereby imperfection was introduced. This is directly analogous to Shannon information which considers the effect of noise on the transmission of a message.
If the message is god's plan for the universe then sin and the resulting imperfection is noise. Christians believe that, in the end, god's plan will inevitably come to pass which strongly implies that god designed the system to factor in the effect of noise; either by encoding redundancy in his message or by ensuring that noise did not actually affect any important facet of the message.
In the first instance, god is sending multiple redundant messages through the system with 100% certainty that at least one of them will arrive intact. Mathematically according to Shannon, that means that god is sending an infinite number of messages which, of course, means that god has developed an infinite number of permutations on his message which all reduce the recipients uncertainty by the same amount. While each message contains no more information than each other one, bootstrapping the system up a level shows that god must be able to calculate all states of the system simultaneously in order to be able to formulate his infinite number of messages. Therefore, god is more complex than any single state of the system.
In the second instance, god calculates all possible effects of all possible noise signals on his singular message and encodes the message such that transmission is achieved with 100% fidelity regardless of degradation. Again, god is able to encompass all states of the system at once and is thus more complex than any singular system state.
Conclusion: a hypothetical god must be more complicated than the system he instantiates.