Review of the book “The Opportunity in Physics, Computer Science and Philosophy”

At the heart of his considerations are two basic aspects: On the one hand, Hill constantly relies on symmetry between humans and computers. He sees this in terms of organs/brain/body/nervous system as well as program content/thought/signals in nerve tracts and neurons. However, the innumerable comparisons between both systems at different levels rarely lead to actual results (not to mention the fact that they are highly controversial from the point of view of neuroscience, psychology and epistemology), but they do lead to fillers and classification errors such as »evolution It is nature’s software development for us. We humans are software that can build software ourselves. “

Hill’s second basic theoretical concept attempts to transfer the theory of the “three worlds” (the external material world, the world of consciousness and the contents of the world of thought), primarily advocated by Karl Popper, into its system of categories: phenomena of a rigid world that develops from itself (world 1), Everything that arises from a scheme (World 2), and everything that arises as content of opinion and thought (World 3). According to Huhl, chance primarily affects worlds 1 and 2; He sees World 3 as this defines him – and thus joins the ancient and ever-renewing conflict over free will.

It is not always easy to properly understand the author’s theoretical derivation and ultimately the opinions that follow him (for example, a rather strict determinism regarding free will). This is due to the style of the book as well as its structure and presentation. Hehl writes in a very associative way – while reading, one is often unsure where an idea, quote, or even the image he inserts comes from and how it relates to the text. He constantly makes expeditions to point out interesting marginal phenomena or fundamentals, making consistent argument impossible. Instead of one, Hehl often provides lists of points with terms and quotes. In some cases, this gives the impression that everything possible related to the topic is added together.