Skip to main content

Brain Box

Brain Box - A Thought Experiment (I think).

Imagine a box.
Inside the box are all the constituents of a brain. Yes, everything that's needed to make a brain, even your brain, is in the box.
This box is wired up to a clever machine.
This clever machine can randomise the contents of the box: where each particle is, what it's doing, how much energy it has and so on.
The box is capable of putting the contents of the box into every state possible.
Rather like an old film has frames, the box randomises the contents of the box then pauses for a micro second in this state before moving on to the next randomised state.

One of the states the box could be put into would be identical to the current state of your brain.

So, here's the question. How do you know you're not in the box?

And what if the box was expanded to hold all matter in the universe?




Labels:
Location: Richmond DL10, UK

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Proof(?) of a finite universe

I've been down this road a few years ago but a conversation with a graphic designer displaying work for his Masters made me think, rinse and repeat: My computer screen has 1366 x 768 pixel. That's 1,049,088 pixels Each pixel can display 32,000 colours. So, the number of unique pictures my computer screen is capable of displaying is 32,000 1,049,088 That's 32,000 to the power 1,049,088 - which is a HUGE number of images. That huge number of images would include all text already written and to be written, all galaxies, all people's faces past, present and future. Any image of any action, every molecule or animal .. anything. But however huge that number is, it's finite. The number of possible images in our universe would appear to be finite. Unless you increase the resolution of your computer that is ... Just a thought.
Post a Comment
Read more

The mug

The Head Gardener's Mug The mug was bought in a Scope charity shop. £1. It's enamelled tin, quite large and embraces tea stains. When I bought it, I said to the lady taking my £1 coin, "I chose this one because I like to put ideas into people's heads and watch them grow." After a long pause, I added, "The ideas, not their heads." After another long pause, I added, "You're right. That makes me sound like a tw .. prat. But it's what I do. I try to be funny with new people. In the .. err .. hope it makes them like me?" She broke eye contact, popped my £1 coin into the till and, in the best traditions of sitcoms across the multiverse, asked, "How's that working out for you?" She was right of course; it isn't working out for me. Anyway: the next posting is a thought experiment, I think, about a brain in a box.
Post a Comment
Read more