Digital metaphysics

In Terrell Ward Bynum & James Moor (eds.), The Digital Phoenix: How Computers Are Changing Philosophy. Blackwell. pp. 117--134 (1998)
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Abstract

I discuss the view, increasingly common in physics, that the foundational level of our physical reality is a network of computing machines (so that our universe is ultimately like a cellular automaton). I discuss finitely extended and divided (discrete) space-time and discrete causality. I examine reasons for thinking that the foundational computational complexity of our universe is finite. I discuss the emergence of an ordered complexity hierarchy of levels of objects over the foundational level and I show how the special sciences study these emergent objects.

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Eric Steinhart
William Paterson University of New Jersey

Citations of this work

Against digital ontology.Luciano Floridi - 2009 - Synthese 168 (1):151 - 178.
An information continuum conjecture.Ken Herold - 2003 - Minds and Machines 13 (4):553-566.
Causation in a Virtual World: a Mechanistic Approach.Billy Wheeler - 2022 - Philosophy and Technology 35 (1):1-26.

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References found in this work

On the Plurality of Worlds.David K. Lewis - 1986 - Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell.
On the Plurality of Worlds.David Lewis - 1986 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 178 (3):388-390.
On the Plurality of Worlds.Allen Stairs - 1988 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 49 (2):333-352.

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