When I first started looking at Stephen Wolfram’s latest proposal to solve physics, I was somewhat disappointed. I was rather fond of his previous “New Kind of Science” based on the structural rigidity of cellular automata. However, I am now intrigued by his latest ideas, based on the looser but more flexible basis of networks.
And once you have pithy statements with space, time, energy, and matter (as momenta), you catch my attention:
- Energy is flux of causal edges
- through Spacelike hypersurfaces
- Momentum is flux of causal edges
- through Timelike hypersurfaces
I confess I haven’t read much about the project yet, but it seems to be using rewriting rules, perhaps similar to the notion of rewriting in Wolfram’s previous framework, cellular automata. Of course, cellular automata and also rewriting rule systems can be computationally universal or Turing complete.
Another idea might be to try some sort of computational metaphysics between nodes like the pi-calculus (or some other process calculus). After all, you have to support quantum entanglement! However if you can encode everything with simpler structures then do it!
Further Reading:
https://www.wolframphysics.org/
https://www.wired.com/story/stephen-wolfram-invites-you-to-solve-physics/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_physics
Cellular automata:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_automaton
Note this quote for future reference:
The primary classifications of cellular automata, as outlined by Wolfram, are numbered one to four. They are, in order, automata in which patterns generally stabilize into homogeneity, automata in which patterns evolve into mostly stable or oscillating structures, automata in which patterns evolve in a seemingly chaotic fashion, and automata in which patterns become extremely complex and may last for a long time, with stable local structures. This last class are thought to be computationally universal, or capable of simulating a Turing machine.
Rewriting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewriting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-Thue_system
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