In flapjack, there's an episode about the West. Crazy, crazy things happen there that don't make any sense.

I think he's comparing the current discussion to that.

That book I was talking about? I found it's name. Permutation City.

I think this is something similar to what Sithdarth was talking about. At least more than antiverse flapjack.

So I had a thought the other day. Its been said that our concept of past and future is derived in no small part from thermodynamics. That is the second law of thermodynamics tells us that the future is the direction of increasing entropy. Now when we remember something we do so at the cost of greatly increasing the entropy of the universe. Well greatly compared to the decrease in entropy we introduce through adding the ordered information to our memories. Since entropy must increase to form memories we must always remember the past as the direction in which entropy decreases.

Anyways this got me thinking that there is a certain minimum amount of entropy for a given bit of information. That is to say every object carries all the information there is to know about it in it's structure and the entropy needed to create that object in those conditions is the absolute minimum. Now on the quantum level you can make copies of the state of a particle, i.e. its information via entanglement at this absolute minimum cost. However, actually storing the data in any conventional way would cause a far greater entropy increase. I contend that the only time information is erasable to the point of being able to revert a wave function is when that information was created at the minimum entropic cost. So anything that stores information in an entropically unfavorable way could be considered conscious at least as far as its effect on the universe.

Which begs the question of data storage in quantum computers. If quantum computers where to use entanglement to store and manipulate data and that data might be created at this entropic minimum. If so then as long as its not removed from the computer in an entropically unfavorable way if the computer were to observe something and then delete the results it would fail the consciousness test. Basically while a human mind in a really powerful normal computer might pass the test a human mind in a fully quantum computer might fail the test. That is regardless of their respective cognitive powers. I also wonder what would happen if the result of a quantum observation were say used to generate a random number that was then displayed after all data pertaining to the generation of the number was erased. Such a thing might revert the wave function used to generate the number and that effect could travel into the future changing the number in unexpected ways. Really any sort of calculation could be subject to the past interference if something wasn't done at the end of each processing cycle to ensure that all states used in the calculations stayed the way they were supposed to.

The basic point was that I was comparing current metaphysics to the flat world concept.

Sith, why don't you try posting these ponderances on the xkcd forums? They seem like the type to go over this kind of stuff with a fine tooth comb.

Because then he wouldn't have the satisfaction of being the guy who knows everything scientific here. :p