“If a thing can’t go on forever, it will eventually stop”
For example, a glass of water does not contain an infinite number of smaller drops of water because dividing a molecule into two drops makes no sense.
Growth has its limits (e.g., see Wealth = Measurement + Leverage) because we need market to communicate efficiently, and market needs redundancy (e.g., see Rothbard—specifically, pp. 606-616). Here Rothbard meets Daniel Everett and Scott Aaronson.develop
Size has limits. In neurobiology, energy-constrained systems prune and optimize to thrive; they do not simply expand (source).
To be more precise, you cannot invoke infinity which goes against the laws of physics—infinity as concept does exist and does explain things. There’s qualitative difference in infinities, aside from quantitative difference as implied with Infinity Hotel.revisit
Next:
Counter-examples?
- Li Lu’s Iron Law of Civilization 3.0, especially in light of Murray Rothbard’s argument for why market needs redundancychallenge
- 10-2g1h The best explanation of anything eventually involves universality, and therefore infinity. The reach of explanations cannot be limited by fiat.
- → This is true because proper epistemology has to account for the fact that knowledge creation is positive-sum and never-ending.
- <> 3-1c2e3 Infinite semiosis - ‘There is no beginning or end to symbols because it is recursive’develop
Infinity as concept:
- 1-1a4c1 Emergence is another beginning of infinity. Knowledge is based on and consists of emergent phenomena.
- 1-2f1a Error-correction is the beginning of infinity. All jumps to universality occur in digital systems.
- 5-3a Knowledge via new explanations is inherently creative and its effects are positive-sum, because it begets new problems to be solved
9-2b6 Infinity per se is never enough
- 10-2g1i Universality and infinity are necessary condition for the growth of knowledge, but not sufficient
E.g.,
- Moore’s Law—James R. Powell calculated that, due to the uncertainty principle alone, Moore’s Law will be obsolete by 2036: “Moore’s law has been a reliable predictor of the pace of electronic technology advancement; however, quantum physics may provide the ultimate limit to this mathematical model.” (link)
- <> 3-1d6c Amara’s law modified - we underestimate the importance of consistency in the short-run, but overestimate in the long-rundevelop
- <> 12-1e0 Everything changes and nothing is universal (except for our fallibility)
- <> Scott Aaronson
- <> Somewhat similar to how volatility becomes the spread at tick-level (see this note)
Time is also limited for us
- 4-1a4b6a0.4 Bill Gates - ‘No matter how much money you have, you can’t buy more time. There are only 24 hours in everyone’s day’ (Time ≠ Money)
- RUL3 - Bounded commitment - choose one best thing available, commit for predetermined time period, then revisit. Similar to balancing depth-first vs breadth-first in search algorithms. Think of your time as quantifiable resource like capital.