Building A Theory Of Everything | Stephen Wolfram | Escaped Sapiens #70
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Published 2024-06-25
Stephen's attempt to derive all of the laws of nature (including gravitation, statistical mechanics, and general relativity) rests on two key ideas:
1. The idea of computational irreducibility. In physics we usually deal with systems for which we are able to predict the state of the system at a later time as long as the initial conditions are known. For example, the trajectory of a bullet can be calculated at any point along its path. There are, however, complicated systems like cellular automata where there isn't a closed formula that lets you calculate the state of the system at some arbitrary later point. Instead you are forced to compute the development of the system one step at a time if you want to know how it evolves. Such systems are 'computationally irreducible'.
2. The idea of computational boundedness. This is the idea that we have finite computing power in our brains. There are many complex systems that scale so fast that our bounded computing power isn't enough follow every element of the system (e.g. we can't visualize the motion of the billions of cells in our own bodies, and so instead we develop an aggregated model of ourselves).
Starting with these two ideas, Stephen asks what a world with computational irreducibility would look like to a computationally bounded creature living in that world. He then builds a computational model based on hypergraphs (which you can think of as a kind of cellular automata), and from there attempts to re-derive all the laws of nature. This is an extraordinarily ambitious project, that lies somewhat outside of mainstream approaches to physics. The claim is, however, that significant progress has been made, and that this approach really is able to derive interesting aspects of the physical world. This conversation explores the key ideas behind the program.
► For more information about Stephen's work see:
www.stephenwolfram.com
www.wolframphysics.org
►Thumbnail source images can be found here:
company.wolfram.com/press-center/stephen-wolfram/
www.wolframphysics.org/visual-gallery/
►Follow Stephen on X: @stephen_wolfram
These conversations are supported by the Andrea von Braun foundation (www.avbstiftung.de/), as an exploration of the rich, exciting, connected, scientifically literate, and (most importantly) sustainable future of humanity. This interview is one of a series of interviews that explores the impact of economics on sustainability and the environment. The Andrea von Braun Foundation has provided me with full creative freedom with their support. As such, the views expressed in these episodes are my own and those of my guests.
A big thank you to anonymous for letting me use their space as a temporary studio.
Menu:
0:00 - Stephen Wolfram.
1:11 - Computational Irreducibility.
17:10 - What is fundamental?
18:50 -The ruliad.
22:50 - Does space and time depend on the observer?
24:50 - Stephen's two key ideas.
27:10 - What are space and time?
29:20 - What is the universe?
30:50 - What rules does the universe follow?
41:00 - Why does space exist?
44:00 - What is a hypergraph?
51:24 - Do black holes singularities exist?
54:40 - Deriving quantum mechanics.
1:02:20 - What is energy?
1:10:40 - What are particles?
1:20:50 - Impact of deregulation.
1:24:08 - Particle Pair Production.
1:32:15 - The space of concepts
1:39:42 - Was AI inevitable?
1:48:05 - Can AI solve science?
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All Comments (21)
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I have to commend the interviewer for letting the guest finish his thoughts. That's all too rare these days. 😎👍
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I do not think Mr Wolfram explain what he is doing were well. Ok he start with graph and then what? He never say
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I have listened to Waffleram many times.He has cleverly figured out something that he never fully explains .Is anyone else hoping he delivers an amazing treasure but cannot convey it . Am I always missing something 😢? If they are derivable ,please open up and derive them fully
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I am an endocrinologist from india enthusiast about fundamentalphysics ..i have been listening to Mr Wolfrum as i find his explanation for reality very logical...but this interview beats everything else .well done.please say hi and an endocrinologist from india is willto work for Mr wolfrum with out any pay 😊
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7:58 : ".....and it turns out this interplay between the computational irreducibility of underlying systems and our computational boundedness as observers of those systems, that seems to be the key thing that basically leads us to the laws of physics that we have". This statement confuses me too much, please explain!
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Thank you!
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Very interesting!
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Let's build particle physics out of cellular automata!
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Great interview, thanks ! Just listened a second time, this might be the first theory of everything Ive heard that includes the Platonic Realm as an actual structural support. I like it !
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Thsnk you!
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I had one question for Stephen Wolfram: is there a limit to how much spacetime can be curved due to the presence of mass? If this were so, there would be an upper limit on the "size" of the black hole (the apparent mass inferred via its gravitational effects), since any additional mass accretion would no longer be able to increase the gravity due to the black hole. I don't think we have found an upper limit to the size of black holes - not yet anyways.
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His theory aligned with Donald Hoffman simulation theory, it was funny to watch wolfram do several U-Turns in their recent talk 😅
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Is the output to input Inflation ?
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Is hypergraph a particular type of hype?
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Too many words, what Stephen has to say is that for nonlinear chaotic systems, we cannot make predictions when the Lyapunov exponent is high
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Is a ruliad some kind of number wheel?
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Why do the math laws need to come from anything? They are 1 of all possible sets of laws
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Is there a reason why pauli exclusion can not be extended with "no two fermions can be compressed to a volume that would be their event horizon"? If it is that a black hole made from two femions would be equlivent to two fermions existing in the same quantum state, and prohibited by quantum dynamics. Then maybe the event horizon is a mathmatical thing that isn't real and exist in our universe, as tachyons being mathmatical things with immaginary mass and don't exist in our universe.
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Only 7 mins in. CIR sounds like nonlinearity, the source of chaotic time evolutions of surprisingly simple systems of coupled equations. You can't just "plug in 1000,000" and get the right answer here also. Looking forward to hearing how CIR is new and interesting.
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A lot of yapping and tongue wagging by Wolfram, but nothing really explained. I understand chaos and probability theories with a mixture of the laws of physics but beyond that, this computational irreducibility is gobbledygook.
