Game Universes 2 – The Perfect Circle Universe
In the last Thought Experiment we looked at Glove Universe and asked, what can we say of this Game Universe? The answer was not much of interest, either within the game or without. This thought experiment is exactly the same as with the Glove Universe, except that it will have less parts and thus even less to say.
Imagine a universe that is just a Perfect Circle.
No different on the inside or out, but a circle, perfect in its simplicity.
And now let’s play the Game with this as our new “board”, for clarity we will add to the True, False and Meaningless lists:
- True(Perfect Circle Universes)
- The proportion of the area of the circle is Pi times the radius squared.
- The Circle contains one point that is equidistant from all other points
- False(Perfect Circle Universe)
- The circle contains points arranged as a perfect corner.
- Meaningless (Perfect Circle Universe)
- The king is dead.
These Three Lists, when complete, would be every possible statement, not just about this Perfect Circle Universe but all possible Universes.
Conclusion
We saw in Experiment One how our lists could differ because there were contingent truths in the Glove Universe. But it seems here, that there cannot be any Truths that are contingent. If there were there would be an imperfection in the Perfect Circle Universe and thus it would be against the Stipulation, we would be breaking the rules of the game.
What this means, then, is that the Three Lists for the perfect Circle will, unlike the Glove Universe, be identical.
It can be no other way.
Hopefully now you are starting to see how True, false and Meaningless applky to these game universes as well as getting some idea of the bounds of the thought experiments themselves.
In the next Experiment we are going to Stipulate a Game Universe with not only No Contingent Truths, but hardly any Necessary Truths too! On paper this might seem even more boring than this experiment but, in thought, at least, I hope it will start to give some insights that will prove deeply useful later on in these Game Universe experiments.
Without doubt you probably cannot wait until this next experiment comes along, so riveting it will be. But patience is a virtue so in the meantime here are some questions to ponder about this Perfect Circle Universe:
1) Which would be Longest of the True, False or Meaningless Lists for the Perfect Circle Universe?
2) In the Perfect Circle Universe, does it make sense to have Pie? Remembering the perfect circle is all there is, by Stipulation.
3) Is there space between the points of the Perfect Circle Universe? Perhaps that is what space is in this Perfect Circle Universe; the distance forced between any points on the circumference by the Necessary geometric truths?
4) Is the Perfect Circle the same universe if it’s stipulated on a sheet of paper or an inflated balloon?
- Care is suggested here because it’s easy to smuggle Truths into universes, and when you imply there is a container space for the perfect universe that is what you are doing.
- If it cannot be stated in the Game Universe it cannot be True of the Game Universe.
Enjoy!
