Anthropic Compression Principle (ACP)

[ste...@ridgway.com]

Hi,

 

I have written a draft manuscript developing a theory I call the Anthropic Compression Principle (ACP), and I thought some people here might find it interesting.

 

The core idea is that observer-moments are fundamental, that their measure should be weighted by algorithmic simplicity / generative support, and that the lawful physical world we observe is best understood as the simplest generative compression of experience rather than as an unexplained base from which consciousness somehow later emerges.

 

The project sits somewhere between anthropic reasoning, algorithmic information theory, philosophy of mind, and foundations of physics. It draws on ideas related to Bostrom’s SSSA, Solomonoff induction, UDASSA, Tegmark-style mathematical ontology, and some of the implementation / continuity issues explored in Greg Egan, though it is not identical to any of those.

 

This is a substantial draft rather than a finished formal theory, and I would be very interested in critical feedback, especially on:

• whether the central formal picture is coherent
• whether counting detector complexity really helps with arbitrary implementation worries
• whether the treatment of observer-moments and measure avoids naive copy-counting
• whether the relation to existing views is stated fairly
• whether the theory seems genuinely scientific in schematic form, or still too underdeveloped

 

The manuscript is attached below. I would be very grateful for any serious comments.

 

Regards – Steven Ridgway