![]() In part III, for the physics/computation/information theory aspects, we’ll turn to Seth Lloyd’s Programming the Universe and Charles Seife’s Decoding the Universe. In this first part, for the mathematical foundations, I’ll talk about Gregory Chaitin’s Meta Math!: The Quest for Omega. ![]() I’ll talk about three books that develop this approach in an accessible manner, and about one formidable one that I think confuses the issues in pointless distracting ways. The debate has relevance even further afield, to questions about the nature of consciousness. Not only must they reconstruct centuries of physics built on top of calculus (a fundamentally continuous sort of math) but to finish the job at a satisfying level, take on continuum mathematics itself and reconstruct it in discrete terms. ![]() Proponents of this view - called digital physics or nearly-equivalently, digital philosophy- take on not one but two terrifying tasks. Among the more radical suggestions for fixing physics is to get away from continuous models altogether and ask if the universe is fundamentally a discrete entity in some way. In a previous article, I reviewed some of the troubles ailing superstring theory, as chronicled by two prominent and articulate discontents. ![]()
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