The Last Theory

In the previous excerpt from my conversation with Stephen Wolfram, I asked him how I can remain a single, coherent, persistent consciousness in a branching universe.In this excerpt, we went deeper into this question. As a conscious observer, I have a single thread of experience. So if the universe branches into many timelines, why don't I branch into many versions of me?Stephen's answer touched on many profound aspects of the Wolfram model.He started with the failure of the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics to consider the possibility that different branches of history can merge, in other words, come back together again. This failure is rooted in assumption that the universe is continuous; as soon as we start thinking of the universe as discrete, such merging seems not only possible, but inevitable.He went on to consider the concept of causal invariance, the idea that it doesn't matter which of countless similar paths you take through the multiway graph, you end up in the same place. In the Ruliad, he said, causal invariance is inevitable.Then we got to the core of the concept of the observer. According to Stephen Wolfram, an observer equivalences many different states and experiences the aggregate of these states.I did not expect Stephen's next move, to apply the concept of aggregation not just to observers, but to the universe itself.He made the profound proposal that in the Wolfram model of physics, in addition to the computation of the hypergraph through the application of rules, there's a process of aggregation of possible paths through the multiway graph to weave the future.—Stephen WolframStephen WolframThe Wolfram Physics ProjectWolfram InstituteWolfram Institute Community DiscordConcepts mentioned by StephenMany Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanicsComputational irreducibilityCausal invarianceThe RuliadSequentializationEquivalencing—The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

When the universe branches, we branch with it.Those branches don't remain forever apart. They come back together.So we, as conscious observers, are rescued from splitting into an immense number ever-so-slightly different versions of ourselves.When the branches of the universe – and the versions of ourselves – come back together, we don't worry that the many paths we took to get there are ever-so-slightly different.We equivalence all those different paths. We treat all those ever-so-slightly different branches of history as if they were more-or-less the same.I asked Stephen Wolfram about this strangest of consequences of a branching universe.Through all this splitting and coming-back-together, how can I remain a single, coherent, persistent consciousness?Stephen's answer takes us through branchial space to quantum computing, the maximum entanglement speed and the elementary length.—Stephen WolframStephen WolframThe Wolfram Physics ProjectWolfram InstituteWolfram Institute Community DiscordConcepts mentioned by StephenEquivalencing or coarse-grainingBranchial spaceCoherence timeInfrageometryGeneral relativityQuantum mechanicsStatistical mechanicsQuantum computingDecoherence timeEuclidean geometryRiemannian geometryCategory theoryMaximum entanglement speedElementary time and lengthPeople mentioned by StephenEuclidAlbert Einstein—The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

The causal graph is at the core of Wolfram Physics.It's crucial to the derivations of Special Relativity, General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics.And if that's not enough to convince you that you need to know about the causal graph, how about this:The causal graph is a reflection of the nature of causality, the nature of objectivity, the nature of reality itself.—Einstein's train thought experimentWhat is the multiway graph? video ⋅ podcast ⋅ articleWhat precisely is causal invariance? video ⋅ podcast ⋅ articleCausality ain't what you think it is video ⋅ podcast ⋅ article—The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Is everything that's ever going to happen in the universe already determined?Or does something else – maybe randomness, maybe free will – play a role?Stephen Wolfram's answer to this question is straightforward: the ruliad is fully determined.But there's a twist. The ruliad is determined, but how we observe the evolution of the universe depends on where we are in the ruliad.In a fascinating introduction to the role of the observer in the Wolfram model, Stephen touches on some of the deepest philosophical questions in physics, finishing on one of the deepest: is there an objective reality?—Stephen WolframStephen WolframThe Wolfram Physics ProjectWolfram InstituteWolfram Institute Community Discord—The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Hypergraphs can have any number of dimensions. They can be 2-dimensional, 3-dimensional, 4.81-dimensional or, in the limit, ∞-dimensional.So how does the three-dimensional space we observe emerge from the hypergraph-based Wolfram model?Why is space three-dimensional?Stephen Wolfram's surprising answer to this questions goes deep into space, time, computation and, crucially, our nature as observers.—Stephen WolframStephen WolframThe Wolfram Physics ProjectWolfram InstituteWolfram Institute Community DiscordPeople mentioned by StephenEuclidHermann Minkowski—The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Stephen Wolfram reveals that his first major wow along the path towards a fundamental theory of physics was his realization that General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics are the same theory, played out in different kinds of space.Many other dominos have fallen along the way, from the derivation of Einstein's equations to applications of the ruliad beyond physics.But the aspect of Wolfram Physics that Stephen Wolfram himself finds maybe the most compelling is this mirroring of the two pillars of twentieth century physics.Perhaps General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics aren't as incompatible as they've so long seemed.In this first excerpt from my conversation with Stephen Wolfram, he tells the story of how he came to apply hypergraphs and hypergraph rewriting rules to the universe itself, and arrived at the first traces of a path towards what might be the last theory of physics.—Stephen WolframStephen WolframThe Wolfram Physics ProjectWolfram InstituteWolfram Institute Community DiscordPeople mentioned by StephenMax PiskunovJonathan Gorard—The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

It feels like everyone has their pet Theory of Everything these days.So why should you take my preferred Theory of Everything seriously?Well, give me 5 minutes, and I'll give you 5 reasons why I find Wolfram Physics more compelling than anything else that's happened in physics in my lifetime......and maybe you'll want to take it seriously too.—The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Here's a question.Why does the universe exist?Why is there something rather than nothing?One of Stephen Wolfram's boldest claims is that he has the answer.Let me know whether you're convinced by his argument!—Ideas:Wolfram PhysicsMathematical PlatonismOccam's RazorThe Last TheoryPeople:Stephen WolframJonathan Gorard—The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Do you know what causality is?If you do, let me know, because I'm not sure.I've never come across a conception of causality that makes sense to me.After all, our universe seems to follow simple equations like Einstein's equations, and there's no mention of causality in these equations.It makes me think that there's no such thing as causality.Unless...Well, here's the thing.I'm no longer sure that our universe does follow these continuous equations.I'm beginning to think that at the smallest scale, our universe might evolve through discrete computations.If that turns out to be true, it allows for a limited conception of causalityafter all.It's causality, Jim, but not as we know it.—References:Even the Catholic Church now concedes that the Earth orbits the Sun.Einstein's equations tell you everything you need to know about how the Sun, the Earth and the various other conglomerations of matter in the vicinity warp space and time in such a way that the Earth follows its slightly wobbly elliptical orbit around the Sun.I tend to think that history is just one thing after another.—The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Causal invariance is a crucial concept in Wolfram Physics.It's how we get special relativity from the Wolfram model.It's how we get quantum mechanics from the Wolfram model.So what precisely is causal invariance?This question will take us deep into the multiway graph, to an even deeper question: what is causality?—What is the multiway graph? video ⋅ podcast ⋅ article—The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

I've heard from many of you that you'd like the whole of my conversation with Jonathan Gorard in a single podcast.So here it is, the complete first interview.These three hours are a brilliant exposition of Wolfram Physics from a figure whose contributions to the project are second to none.—Jonathan GorardJonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics ProjectJonathan Gorard on TwitterThe Centre for Applied CompositionalityThe Wolfram Physics ProjectJonathan's seminal papersSome Relativistic and Gravitational Properties of the Wolfram Model; also published in Complex SystemsSome Quantum Mechanical Properties of the Wolfram ModelStephen Wolfram's writingsAnnouncement of the Wolfram Physics ProjectA New Kind of ScienceA project to find the Fundamental Theory of PhysicsA complete list of links to the research, concepts and people mentioned by Jonathan is hereImagesCalabi–Yau manifold by Andrew J. Hanson, Indiana University, who allows use with attributionFeynman diagram by Joel Holdsworth, public domainJohn von Neumann – Los Alamos National LaboratoryStanisław Ulam – Los Alamos National LaboratoryWolf-Rayet nebula – Nebula surrounding the Wolf-Rayet star WR124 in the constellation Sagittarius. (Produced with the Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2, Hubble Space Telescope.) – NASA – NSSDCA Photo Gallery – Yves Grosdidier (University of Montreal and Observatoire de Strasbourg), Anthony Moffat (Universitie de Montreal), Gilles Joncas (Universite Laval), Agnes Acker (Observatoire de Strasbourg) – Public domainStele from Retortillo by Emilio Gómez Fernández licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0Spinning and chargend black hole with accretion disk by Simon Tyran, Vienna (Симон Тыран) licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0Альфред Грэй в Греции by AlionaKo licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0Crab Nebula, as seen by Herschel and Hubble – courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech – credit: ESA/Herschel/PACS/MESS Key Programme Supernova Remnant Team; NASA, ESA and Allison Loll/Jeff Hester (Arizona State University) – reproduced under JPL Image Use PolicyFor images from the Los Alamos National Laboratory: Unless otherwise indicated, this information has been authored by an employee or employees of the Triad National Security, LLC, operator of the Los Alamos National Laboratory with the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. Government has rights to use, reproduce, and distribute this information. The public may copy and use this information without charge, provided that this Notice and any statement of authorship are reproduced on all copies. Neither the Government nor Triad makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any liability or responsibility for the use of this information.—The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

You like Stephen Wolfram, right?I mean, if he's to be believed, he has reinvented physics, not to mention philosophy.How could you not like such a thinker?Well... it turns out that there are plenty of people who don't like Stephen Wolfram... or his physics... or his philosophy.Here are four criticisms of Stephen Wolfram I regularly hear......and here's why these criticisms, though they hint at uncomfortable truths, nonetheless miss the mark.—Stephen Wolfram:Stephen WolframStephen Wolfram's web siteTimelineTED talksList of podcast appearancesList of video appearancesStephen Wolfram's claims:He has a path to the fundamental theory of physicsHe has an answer to the question: what is an observer?He has an answer to the question: what is consciousness?He has an answer to the question: why does the universe exist?He seems surprised at how little discussion there has been of his answer to the question: why does the universe exist?Some of the things Stephen Wolfram created:1987 Wolfram Research1988 Mathematica2009 Wolfram Alpha2014 Wolfram Language2020 Wolfram PhysicsOther people involved in the Wolfram Physics Project:Jonathan GorardMax PiskunovOther people mentioned in this episode:Freeman Dyson – quoteSean Carroll – quote – Mindscape podcast – episode #155 with Stephen WolframKatie Mack – quoteAdam Mastroianni – The rise and fall of peer reviewFather Strickland – quoteBrilliant people of the past:Leonardo da VinciGregor MendelNikola TeslaAristotleGalileo GalileiIsaac NewtonAlbert EinsteinMax BornPaul DiracWerner HeisenbergErwin SchrödingerWolfgang PauliOther episodes of The Last Theory mentioned:Why has there been no progress in physics since 1973? – article ⋅ podcast ⋅ videoPeer review is suffocating science – article ⋅ podcast ⋅ videoReference:Wolfram Research now has over 800 employeesImages:Freeman Dyson 2005 by ioerror licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0—The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

In this final excerpt from our conversation in October 2022, Jonathan Gorard explains how ideas from Wolfram Physics can be applied in fields beyond physics, including biology, chemistry and mathematics.He describes the concept of compositionality, and digs deeper into why the hypergraph is able to model so much of our universe.—Jonathan GorardJonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics ProjectJonathan Gorard on TwitterThe Centre for Applied CompositionalityThe Wolfram Physics ProjectConcepts mentioned by Jonathan:General RelativityQuantum MechanicsCausal graphsSpace-like separationMultiway systemPhase spaceSchrödinger equationHilbert spaceKronecker productMulticomputationCompositionalityApplied category theorySymmetric monoidal categoryPartial differential equationsZermelo–Fraenkel set theoryUniversal Turing machineComputational universalityCellular automatonOntologyPeople mentioned by Jonathan:Rudolph CarnapVienna Circle—The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

You know who Stephen Wolfram is, right?Whether you love him or, you know, don't love him, there's no denying that Stephen Wolfram has founded a host of fascinating projects... most of them named Wolfram-something-or-other.What are all these Wolfram-branded projects?Who is Stephen Wolfram?—Some of the things Stephen Wolfram created:1987 Wolfram Research1988 Mathematica2009 Wolfram Alpha2014 Wolfram Language2020 Wolfram Physicsnot to mention:Wolfram CloudWolfram OneWolfram NotebooksWolfram PlayerWolfram ScriptWolfram EngineWolfram FoundationMore about Stephen Wolfram:Stephen Wolfram's web siteTimelineStephen Wolfram's education:University of OxfordCalifornia Institute of TechnologySome of Stephen Wolfram's special subjects:particle physicscellular automataSome of Stephen Wolfram's books:A New Kind Of ScienceA project to find the Fundamental Theory of PhysicsOther people involved in the Wolfram Physics Project:Jonathan GorardMax PiskunovReference:Wolfram Research now has over 800 employeesImage:Animation. 1200 iterations of the ‘Rule 110' Automata by Mr. Heretic licenced under CC BY-SA 3.0Some of my own projects:things made thinkable – visualization of nuclides – tap the binding energy button bottom right to show the binding energy per nucleonOpen Web Mind – subscribe to the newsletter or YouTube channel for more on shared human intelligence—The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

I asked Jonathan Gorard the question I'm asked the most: can the Wolfram model make testable predictions about reality, predictions that differ from those of general relativity and quantum mechanics, predictions that might prove that Wolfram Physics is right?Jonathan showed how the Wolfram model might shed light on some of the most mysterious phenomena of our universe, from black hole inspirals to quantum entanglement.He focused on four areas where the class of theories encompassed by the Wolfram model might predict observable phenomena:1. Cosmological consequences of global dimension change2. Astrophysical consequences of local dimension change3. Discretization effects during extreme astrophysical events4. Quantum mechanical effects such as maximum entanglement speedThese dozen minutes of my conversation with Jonathan were dense with insights into Wolfram Physics, a true pleasure to revisit!—Jonathan GorardJonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics ProjectJonathan Gorard at Cardiff UniversityJonathan Gorard on TwitterThe Centre for Applied CompositionalityThe Wolfram Physics ProjectConcepts mentioned by JonathanCategory errorCausally connectedCosmological inflationLambda-CDM cosmologyHorizon problemFlatness problemMagnetic monopole problemCosmic microwave backgroundCosmic neutrino backgroundInflaton scalar fieldhttps://lasttheory.com/channel/055-where-is-the-evidence-for-wolfram-physicsQuintessent scalar fieldDecoupling timeRecombination timeLensing effectsLIGO – Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave ObservatoryBlack hole inspiralCausal edge densityWeyl curvatureQuadrupole momentEntanglement structureBranchial graphQuantum information theoryMargolis Leviton boundPeople mentioned by Jonathan:Alan GuthAndrei LindeStephen WolframXerxes ArsiwallaAbdus Salam—The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

The Open Web Mind is a protocol for shared human intelligence, based on the knowledge hypergraph.Take a look at this quick introduction for subscribers to The Last Theory, then jump to the 2-minute trailer on the new channel.And if you haven't done so already, make sure to subscribe to the new Open Web Mind channel, podcast and newsletter.If you're interested in Wolfram Physics, I think you'll find Open Web Mind fascinating!—The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

How big are electrons compared to the hypergraph?Is one electron formed of 10 nodes, or 10100 nodes?And if it's 10100 nodes, might it prove impossible to simulate an electron on any computer we can possibly imagine?When I asked Jonathan Gorard this question, he took us on a tour of the scales of the universe, from the Planck scale to the Hubble scale.He revealed how the Wolfram Physics Project's early estimate of the scale of the hypergraph was based on a tower of rickety assumptions.And he explained how the Wolfram model might connect with particle physics regardless of the disparities of scale.—Jonathan Gorard Jonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics Project Jonathan Gorard at Cardiff University Jonathan Gorard on Twitter The Centre for Applied Compositionality The Wolfram Physics Project Concepts mentioned by Jonathan Planck scale Hubble scale General relativity Fluid mechanics Quantum mechanics Quantum Field Theory Scattering amplitudes —The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

What if you're inside a universe, and you want to measure the curvature of space?It's important because getting a measure of the curvature of the hypergraph takes us one step further in Jonathan Gorard's derivation of General Relativity from Wolfram Physics.Einstein's equations relate the curvature of space to the presence of matter. So if we're going to prove that Einstein's equations follow from the Wolfram model, we're going to need that measure of the curvature of the hypergraph.Once again, a two-dimensional crab comes to the rescue, given us a way to measure the curvature of a universe from inside that universe.—See Stephen Wolfram's announcement, under Curvature in Space & Einstein's Equations, also included as the introduction to his book A project to find the Fundamental Theory of Physics, page 20, for more on measuring the curvature of spaceConcepts: Cosine power series expansion Polynomial regression analysis Ricci scalar curvature —The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

In this excerpt from my conversation with Jonathan Gorard, he proposes that particles in Wolfram Physics might be persistent topological obstructions in the hypergraph.He starts with a toy model in which elementary particles are non-planar tangles moving and interacting in an otherwise planar hypergraph.But he doesn't stop there.He explains that there's an infinite variety of hypergraphs that give rise to such persistent topological obstructions.These localized tangles behave in ways that look a lot like particle physics.—Jonathan Gorard Jonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics Project Jonathan Gorard at Cardiff University Jonathan Gorard on Twitter The Centre for Applied Compositionality The Wolfram Physics Project Concepts mentioned by Jonathan Utility graph Kuratowski's theorem Wagner's theorem Complete graphs – including K_5 Complete bipartite graphs – including K_3,3 Robertson-Seymour Theorem Graph minor Forbidden minor characterization Image:Feynman diagram Feynmann Diagram Gluon Radiation by Joel Holdsworth, public domain—The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

What if you're inside a universe, and you want to know whether space is curved?The reason I'm asking is that according to Einstein's general theory of relativity, our universe is curved, by the presence of matter.If Wolfram Physics is to be a true model of our universe, then the space represented by the hypergraph must also be curved by the presence of matter.Which means that determining whether space is curved is crucial to Jonathan Gorard's derivation of Einstein's equations from the Wolfram model.Fortunately, there's a way to find out that's so simple that even a crab or a space frog could do it.Here's how to tell if your universe curved.—Dimensionality: How to measure the dimensionality of the universe Are Wolfram's graphs three‑dimensional? What are dimensions in Wolfram's universe? Space-time:Space‑time is deadEuclidean geometry: Euclid parallel lines never meet —The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

I asked Jonathan Gorard what it felt like when he realized that general relativity can be derived from the hypergraph.His answer took us in an unexpected direction.If the Wolfram model is to be an accurate model of our universe, then it must give us the Einstein equations.But what if any old model with any old rules can give us the Einstein equations?What if general relativity isn't so special?This is one of the shorter excerpts from my conversation with Jonathan, but it's a fascinating one.It takes us to one of the most powerful aspects of the Wolfram model: its ability to answer questions about why our universe is the way it is, questions that were once in the realm of philosophy but may now be within the scope of physics.—Jonathan Gorard Jonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics Project Jonathan Gorard at Cardiff University Jonathan Gorard on Twitter The Centre for Applied Compositionality The Wolfram Physics Project Concepts mentioned by Jonathan Einstein field equations Riemannian manifold Einstein–Hilbert action Causal invariance Ergodicity —The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

In my exploration of Wolfram Physics, I've come across one objection more than any other.Over and over again, people have told me that the Wolfram model must be rejected because it makes no predictions.I could respond by saying that Wolfram Physics does make predictions. It predicts Einstein's equations. It predicts Schrödinger's equation.But it's true that it doesn't make any predictions that differ from those of general relativity and quantum mechanics. At least, not yet.So here's my more robust response to the objection: all scientific theories make no predictions when they're first formulated.If we dismiss any new theory solely because it doesn't make any predictions, then we'd dismiss all new theories.It's time for academics to learn the lessons of the history of science, and open their minds to bold, new ideas, like Wolfram Physics.—Ideas: Tycho Brahe The paths of the planets are elliptical according to Johannes Kepler Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton Astronomers' test of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity Against Method by Paul Feyerabend The Newtonian Casino by Thomas Bass Ancient astronomies: Egyptian astronomy Babylonian astronomy Inca astronomy Images: Paul Feyerabend Berkeley by Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend reproduced with permission—The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Here's a masterclass from Jonathan Gorard.One of the most compelling results to come out of the Wolfram Physics is Jonathan's derivation of the Einstein equations from the hypergraph.Whenever I hear anyone criticize the Wolfram model for bearing no relation to reality, I tell them this: Jonathan Gorard has proved that general relativity can be derived from the hypergraph.In this excerpt from our conversation, Jonathan describes how making just three reasonable assumptions – causal invariance, asymptotic dimension preservation and weak ergodicity – allowed him to derive the vacuum Einstein equations from the Wolfram model.In other words, the structure of space-time in the absence of matter more or less falls out of the hypergraph.And making one further assumption – that particles can be treated as localized topological obstructions – allowed Jonathan to derive the non-vacuum Einstein equations from the Wolfram model.In other words, the structure of space-time in the presence of matter, too, falls out of the hypergraph.It's difficult to overstate the importance of this result.At the very least, we can say that the Wolfram model is consistent with general relativity.To state it more strongly: we no longer need to take general relativity as a given; instead, we can derive it from Wolfram Physics.—Jonathan's seminal paper on how to derive general relativity Some Relativistic and Gravitational Properties of the Wolfram Model; also published in Complex Systems Jonathan Gorard Jonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics Project Jonathan Gorard at Cardiff University Jonathan Gorard on Twitter The Centre for Applied Compositionality The Wolfram Physics Project People mentioned by JonathanAlfred GrayResearch mentioned by Jonathan The volume of a small geodesic ball of a Riemannian manifold by Alfred Gray Tubes by Alfred Gray Concepts mentioned by Jonathan Hausdorff dimension Geodesic balls, tubes & cones Ricci scalar curvature Ricci curvature tensor Einstein equations Einstein–Hilbert action Relativistic Lagrangian density Causal graph Tensor rank Trace From A Project to find the Fundamental Theory of Physics by Stephen Wolfram: Dimension Curvature Images Spinning and chargend black hole with accretion disk by Simon Tyran, Vienna (Симон Тыран) licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Альфред Грэй в Греции by AlionaKo licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 —The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Here's the first of two crucial excerpts from my conversation with Jonathan Gorard.The core idea of Wolfram Physics is that we can model the universe as a hypergraph. If we want this idea to be taken seriously, we're going to have to derive physics from the hypergraph.The twin pillars of physics, as we know it, are quantum mechanics and general relativity.In this episode, Jonathan explains how quantum mechanics can be derived from the Wolfram model, indeed, how quantum mechanics unexpectedly fell out of the model.It's a fascinating story.We start with the role of the observer. According to Jonathan, it turns out not to be necessary to narrow our focus to only causally invariant rules.Why not? Because macroscopic observers like ourselves impose causal invariance through our coarse-graining of the hypergraph. In other words, by squinting at the universe, seeing only its large-scale features and glossing over the finer details, we reduce multiple paths through the multiway graph to a single timeline, and, in the process, impose causal invariance.Jonathan goes on to explain that this coarse-graining can be modelled with completion rules. These are fake rules, similar to the true rules of Wolfram Physics, but posited solely to model the coarse-graining of the hypergraph by the observer.And here's the thing. According to Jonathan, these completion rules are formally equivalent to the collapse of the wavefunction in quantum mechanics. In other words, we finally have an explanation for how the observer causes the collapse of the wavefunction, reducing Schrödinger's half live, half dead cat to one that's either dead or alive.If Jonathan's right, then this is a true breakthrough, not just in quantum mechanics, but in the philosophy of physics.In the next episode, we'll move on to the other pillar of physics: Jonathan will explain how to derive general relativity from the hypergraph.There's much more to explain about each of these derivations, but we're finally getting to the crux of Wolfram Physics, the question of whether it can, after all, model our universe.—Jonathan's seminal paper on how to derive quantum mechanicsSome Quantum Mechanical Properties of the Wolfram ModelJonathan Gorard Jonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics Project Jonathan Gorard at Cardiff University Jonathan Gorard on Twitter The Centre for Applied Compositionality The Wolfram Physics Project Concepts mentioned by Jonathan Causal invariance Computational irreducibility Celestial mechanics Molecular dynamics Space-like separation Heisenberg's uncertainty principle Heisenberg's microscope experiment Quantum entanglement Bell's inequalities Multiway system Coarse-graining Schrödinger equation Unitary operator Hermitian operator Conjugate transpose operation Time reversal Wavefunction collapse Quantum interference Quantum tunnelling Stephen Wolfram's books A New Kind of Science A project to find the Fundamental Theory of Physics —The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch hereKootenay Village Ventures Inc.

You know peer review, right?It's the way academics check each other's research papers.It ensures that only the good ones are published and prevents the bad ones from getting through.Right?Wrong.Peer review does precisely the opposite of what you think it does.It prevents the good papers from being published, and ensures that only the bad ones get through.Peer review is suffocating science.If we want to reverse the stagnation of science over the last 50 years, then we've got to get rid of peer review.—I highly recommend you read Adam Mastroianni's splendid article The rise and fall of peer reviewI first heard Adam's ideas about peer review in his conversation Adam Mastroianni on Peer Review and the Academic Kitchen with Russ Roberts on EconTalkWhy has there been no progress in physics since 1973? article audio video Scientific papers: The journal Nature began to require peer review in 1973 Millions of academic articles are published every year Some scientists simply make stuff up Fraudulent studies make it into respectable journals like Science, Nature and The Lancet Physicists: Isaac Newton Albert Einstein's four papers published in 1905 Max Planck's principle that science progresses one funeral at a time The Wolfram Physics Project: Stephen Wolfram Jonathan Gorard My projects: The Last Theory Open Web Mind Image of Adam Mastroianni by permission from Adam Mastroianni—The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch hereThe full article is hereKootenay Village Ventures Inc.

“Sorry, this is now getting very metaphysical,” says Jonathan Gorard part way through this excerpt from our conversation.We start by talking about applying more than one rule to the hypergraph to create rulial multiway systems.This takes us part way towards applying every possible rule, in other words, towards the ruliad.We move on to the idea of measuring the complexity of a structure in terms of the minimum amount of information needed to express it.Jonathan applies this idea to the ruliad, pointing out that it takes almost no information to express, since it encompasses all possible rules.Since he believes, however, that there is some content to the universe – that it is not a tautalogy – this leads Jonathan to reject the idea of the ruliad.We dig into why he has this intuition is that the universe is not a tautalogy.Jonathan invokes theologians like John Duns Scotus, who promulgated the idea the the world is neither completely reducible nor completely irreducible.He follows the scholastics in steering a middle path, suggesting that there's enough content in the universe that it's interesting, but not so much content that we can't write down well-defined laws of nature.This brings us, for the first time, to the role of the observer in the Wolfram model.Again, Jonathan steers a middle path between placing the computational burden entirely on the universe and placing the computational burden entirely on the observer.I find this 9-minute exposition fascinating. It gets to the heart of some of the philosophical differences between Jonathan Gorard and Stephen Wolfram, and to the nature of the universe and our role as observers.—Jonathan Gorard Jonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics Project Jonathan Gorard at Cardiff University Jonathan Gorard on Twitter The Centre for Applied Compositionality The Wolfram Physics Project People mentioned by Jonathan John Duns Scotus Xerxes D. Arsiwalla Hatem Elshatlawy Research mentioned by Jonathan Homotopies in Multiway (Non-Deterministic) Rewriting Systems as n-Fold Categories by Xerxes D. Arsiwalla, Jonathan Gorard, Hatem Elshatlawy Pregeometric Spaces from Wolfram Model Rewriting Systems as Homotopy Types by Xerxes D. Arsiwalla, Jonathan Gorard Concepts mentioned by Jonathan Rulial Multiway System ∞-category ∞-groupoid (∞,1)-topos Grothendieck's homotopy hypothesis Algorithmic complexity theory Algorithmic information theory Kolmogorov complexity Einstein field equations Curvature invariant Qualia —The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

It's pretty easy to see how three-dimensional space might arise from Wolfram Physics.The hypergraph kinda looks like space, and, for some rules, it kinda looks like it's three-dimensional.But our universe isn't just empty three-dimensional space.It's mostly empty space, but there are also particles moving through that space: photons, neutrinos, electrons, quarks.Sometimes, these particles interact, annihilating each other and producing new particles.If Wolfram Physics is to be a successful model of our universe, it must, of course, model these elementary particles and their interactions.So where are the particles in the hypergraph?What is a particle in Wolfram's universe?—Animations: Thanks to Alan Dewar for permission to use his excellent implementation of Conway's Game of Life for many of the animations in the video Thanks also to Chris Rowett for permission to use his Life Viewer, a beautiful implementation of Conway's Game of Life, which I used for the greyship animation in the video and image in the thumbnail Another implementation of Conway's Game of Life, which reproduces the Life Lexicon from ConwayLife.com, is at playgameoflife.com Sources:Talking of ConwayLife.com, that's another incredible resource for information on Conway's Game of LifeTools:I created an RLE to text converter to convert Run Length Encoded patterns to plain text formatImages:  John H Conway 2005 by Thane Plambeck licensed under CC BY 2.0 Sounds: Crickets choir by Serg Childed licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 —The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

In the early days of the Wolfram Physics Project, Stephen Wolfram seemed to be seeking a single rule that, when applied to the hypergraph, could generate our universe.More recently, however, Wolfram has promoted the idea of the ruliad, the application of every possible rule to the hypergraph.So I asked Jonathan Gorard, who was instrumental in the founding of the Wolfram Physics Project, whether all rules might be applied to generate our universe, or whether he was searching for one rule to rule them all.—Stephen Wolfram's 2010 TED talk in which he said he was committed “to see if within this decade we can finally hold in our hands the rule for our universe”.Jonathan Gorard Jonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics Project Jonathan Gorard at Cardiff University Jonathan Gorard on Twitter The Centre for Applied Compositionality The Wolfram Physics Project Concepts mentioned by Jonathan Equivalence class Congruence class Lagrangian mechanics Hamiltonian mechanics Teleology Ontology Axiomatic view of mathematics – top-down Constructivist view of mathematics – bottom-up Domain of discourse Intuitionism Algorithmic information theory —The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

John von Neumann might be the most important figure in Wolfram Physics prehistory.Whenever any of the most important prerequisites to Wolfram Physics were happening – quantum mechanics, Gödel's theorem, Turing machines, electronic computers, cellular automata – John von Neumann always seemed to be there.How did John von Neumann always come to be in the right place at the right time to contribute to some of the most significant developments in physics, mathematics and computation history?For this, another high-budget, big-hair episode of The Last Theory, I flew all the way to Budapest, where John von Neumann was born, to point to a plaque and get some answers.—I took inspiration and information for this episode from Ananyo Bhattacharya's biography of John von Neumann: The Man from the Future Buy it in the US Buy it in the UK Buy it in Canada Buy it in Australia People John von Neumann Albert Einstein Erwin Schrödinger Werner Heisenberg Kurt Gödel Alan Turing Seth Neddermeyer J. Presper Eckert John Mauchly Stephen Wolfram Jonathan Gorard Max Piskunov Stanisław Ulam Father Strickland Concepts Hilbert space Gödel's incompleteness theorems Universal Turing machine Turing's proof Von Neumann architecture The Manhattan Project Cellular automata Computers IAS machine ENIAC EDVAC IBM 701 Images Image of John von Neumann from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which rather pointlessly requires that this rather ponderous statement be reproduced here: “Unless otherwise indicated, this information has been authored by an employee or employees of the Los Alamos National Security, LLC (LANS), operator of the Los Alamos National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC52-06NA25396 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. Government has rights to use, reproduce, and distribute this information. The public may copy and use this information without charge, provided that this Notice and any statement of authorship are reproduced on all copies. Neither the Government nor LANS makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any liability or responsibility for the use of this information.” Turing Machine Model Davey 2012 by Rocky Acosta licensed under CC BY 3.0 Animation. 1200 iterations of the ‘Rule 110' Automata by Mr. Heretic licenced under  CC BY-SA 3.0 Bundesarchiv Bild183-R57262, Werner Heisenberg by an unknown author (Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R57262) licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 DE Turing in 1935 by Tomipelegrin licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Gospers glider gun by Lucas Vieira licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 —The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web MindI release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

The Wolfram model allows an infinite number of rules.Some of these rules generate interesting universes that are complex and connected, some of these rules generate plausible universes that look a little like our own, and others... go nowhere.In this excerpt from my conversation with Jonathan Gorard, I ask him how to find rules of Wolfram Physics that are both interesting and plausible.—Jonathan Gorard Jonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics Project Jonathan Gorard at Cardiff University Jonathan Gorard on Twitter The Centre for Applied Compositionality The Wolfram Physics Project The paper referred to by Jonathan Algorithmic Causal Sets and the Wolfram Model by Jonathan GorardConcepts mentioned by Jonathan Causal invariance Manifold Causal graph Space-like separation Causal cone Dimensionality Curvature Discrete differential operators Discrete Laplacian —I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

The twentieth century was a truly exciting time in physics.From 1905 to 1973, we made extraordinary progress probing the mysteries of the universe: special relativity, general relativity, quantum mechanics, the structure of the atom, the structure of the nucleus, enumerating the elementary particles.Then, in 1973, this extraordinary progress... stopped.I mean, where are the fundamental discoveries in the last 50 years equal to general relativity or quantum mechanics?Why has there been no progress in physics since 1973?For this high-budget, big-hair episode of The Last Theory, I flew all the way to Oxford to tell you why progress stopped, and why it's set to start again: why progress in physics might be about to accelerate in the early twenty-first century in a way we haven't seen since those heady days of the early twentieth century.—Eric Weinstein's claims that there has been no progress in physics since 1973: BigThink The Joe Rogan Experience Lord Kelvin— I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Causal invariance is a crucial characteristic for any rule of Wolfram Physics.According to Wolfram MathWorld, if a rule is causally invariant, then “no matter which evolution is chosen for a system, the history is the same, in the sense that the same events occur and they have the same causal relationships.”Causal invariance is one of the assumptions Jonathan Gorard needs to make to derive the equations of General Relativity from the hypergraph. That's how crucial it is! Given that not every rule of Wolfram Physics is causally invariant, I asked Jonathan how we find the ones that are.Here, in another excerpt from our recent conversation, is his answer: how to find causally invariant rules.—Jonathan Gorard Jonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics Project Jonathan Gorard at Cardiff University Jonathan Gorard on Twitter The Centre for Applied Compositionality The Wolfram Physics Project People and concepts mentioned by Jonathan Stephen Wolfram Max Piskunov Causal invariance Wolfram Function Repository Wolfram Engine Wolfram Mathematica Wolfram Programming Lab CausalInvariantQ TotalCausalInvariantQ Associative Commutative Automated theorem proving Undecidable problem —I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Now that I've introduced you to the different kinds of edges that might make up a hypergraph – unary, binary and ternary edges, as well as loops and self-loops – we can have some fun.Some of rules in the Wolfram model give rise to fascinating universes.Today, I'm going to show you a few rules that seem to fabricate space itself in much the same way as knitting needles might fabricate a blanket.And if you think that knitting is a far-fetched analogy, just wait until you see my animations!–I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Dugan Hammock creates beautiful animations of three-dimensional cross-sections through four-dimensional spaces.But his animations aren't mere mathematical abstractions. He has also applied his geometrical skills to animating the hypergraph of Wolfram Physics, in such a way that it doesn't jump from frame to frame.In this second part of my recent conversation with Dugan, we talk about his extending spring-electrical embedding into an additional time dimension......and we show some of the beautifully smooth animations that come out of it.—Dugan Hammock Dugan Hammock's videos on YouTube Dugan Hammock on Twitter Dugan Hammock at The Wolfram Physics Project Plotting the evolution of a Wolfram Model in 3-dimensions Temporally coherent animations of the evolution of Wolfram Models  People and concepts mentioned by Dugan Coulomb's law Hooke's law Spring-electrical embedding Charles Pooh —I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Causal invariance is one of the most important concepts in the Wolfram model... and one of the most difficult to capture.So I really wanted to hear Jonathan Gorard's take on it.In this excerpt from our conversation, Jonathan addresses the differences between causal invariance and confluence.Causal invariance means that regardless of the order in which a rule is applied to the hypergraph, the same events occur, with the same causal relationships between them.Confluence, on the other hand, is the coming-together of different branches of the multiway graph.Jonathan explores different ways we might determine whether two nodes, two edges or two hypergraphs are the same, and explains that if we identify nodes and edges according to their causal histories, then causal invariance and confluence become the same idea.I've found myself listening to Jonathan's explanation of causal invariance over and over to make sense of it, but it's one of the areas where I'm convinced Jonathan has a unique contribution to make.—Jonathan Gorard  • Jonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics Project  • Jonathan Gorard at Cardiff University  • Jonathan Gorard on Twitter  • The Centre for Applied Compositionality  • The Wolfram Physics ProjectConcepts mentioned by Jonathan  • Causal invariance  • Multiway system  • Causal structure  • Causal Set Theory  • Directed acyclic graph  • Isomorphic  • Space-like separation  • Simultaneity and simultaneity surfaces in relativity  • Lorentz invariance  • Poincaré invariance  • Conformal invariance  • Diffeomorphism invariance  • General covariance  • Confluence  • Church-Rosser Property—I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

So many of the most complex and most promising graphs and hypergraphs of Wolfram Physics involve loops and self-loops.They can play a crucial role in the evolution of graphs and hypergraphs... which means that they might play a crucial role in the evolution of the universe itself.Loops and self-loops matter, because including them in our models reduces the number of arbitrary assumptions we need to make in Wolfram Physics, making it more complete.–I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Dugan Hammock lives in the fourth dimension.As Jonathan Gorard mentioned in our recent conversation on How to draw the hypergraph in Wolfram Physics, Dugan has worked on plotting the evolution of the hypergraph over time.We get into that in the second part of our conversation, but in this first part, I get to know Dugan as a mathematician and artist.Enjoy his amazing animations of three-dimensional cross-sections through four-dimensional hypershapes!—Dugan Hammock Dugan Hammock's videos on YouTube Dugan Hammock on Twitter Dugan Hammock at The Wolfram Physics Project Plotting the evolution of a Wolfram Model in 3-dimensions Temporally coherent animations of the evolution of Wolfram Models  People mentioned by Dugan Max Cooper George K. Francis William Thurston —I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Computational irreducibility means that there are no shortcuts when we apply rules to the hypergraph.I used to think that our existing theories of physics, such as general relativity and quantum mechanics, were examples of computational reducibility: shortcuts that allow us to make higher-level generalizations about how the application of rules to the hypergraph gives rise to our universe.Jonathan Gorard used to think this, too.But it turns out that over the last couple of years, he has changed his mind on this quite radically.General relativity and quantum mechanics, he now thinks, aren't examples of computational reducibility, they're consequences of computational irreducibility.I truly appreciated this part of our conversation, because it radically changed my mind, too, about this crucial concept in Wolfram Physics.—Jonathan Gorard Jonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics Project Jonathan Gorard at Cardiff University Jonathan Gorard on Twitter The Centre for Applied Compositionality The Wolfram Physics Project Concepts mentioned by Jonathan Computational reducibility Computational irreducibility General relativity Quantum mechanics Fluid mechanics Continuum mechanics Solid mechanics Partition function Boltzmann equation Molecular chaos assumption Ergodicity Distribution function Chapman-Enskog expansion Stress tensor Navier-Stokes equations Euler equations —I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

There are two questions about Wolfram Physics I'm asked a lot:What's beyond the hypergraph?And what's between the nodes and edges of the hypergraph?There's a simple answer to this question.Nothing.There's nothing beyond the hypergraph.There's nothing beyond the universe.But it's not a very effective answer.So here's a deeper response to the age-old question:What's beyond the universe?–I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

The hypergraph is the universe.So if we want to see the universe, we need only draw the hypergraph.The question is: how?The nodes and edges of the hypergraph are determined by the rules of Wolfram Physics. But how we draw those nodes and edges is not determined.The drawing of the hypergraph is not the universe, it's just a way of visualizing the universe.So I asked Jonathan Gorard how we might decide where to position the nodes and edges when we draw the hypergraph, so that we can see what's really going on in Wolfram Physics.—Jonathan Gorard Jonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics Project Jonathan Gorard at Cardiff University Jonathan Gorard on Twitter The Centre for Applied Compositionality The Wolfram Physics Project People mentioned by Jonathan Charles Pooh Dugan Hammock Plotting the evolution of a Wolfram Model in 3-dimensions by Dugan Hammock Temporally coherent animations of the evolution of Wolfram Models by Dugan Hammock Concepts mentioned by Jonathan Spring electrical embedding Spring embedding Layered embedding Causal graphs Coulomb's law Hooke's law —I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

What is the Big Bang in Wolfram Physics?There's a straightforward answer to that question.It's the point in the evolution of the universe where the hypergraph goes from nothing to something.It's the start of the explosion that eventually yields the uncountable particles, planets, stars and galaxies of our universe.So that's pretty straightforward, isn't it?Well, yes, except that there's one phrase above that demands further explanation: nothing to something.How does the universe go from nothing to something?–I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Here's a slightly technical question:Does Wolfram Physics really need hypergraphs?Or could it based on graphs instead?Jonathan Gorard shares some interesting insights into the evolution of Stephen Wolfram's model for a fundamental theory of physics.Wolfram started with trivalent graphs, in which each edge joins two nodes, and each node has three edges.But when he ran into issues implementing simulations using these simple graphs, he solved the problem by graduating to hypergraphs, in which each hyperedge can join any number of nodes, and each node can have any number of hyperedges.Here's how hypergraphs, rather than graphs, came to be the basis of Wolfram Physics.—Jonathan Gorard Jonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics Project Jonathan Gorard at Cardiff University Jonathan Gorard on Twitter The Centre for Applied Compositionality The Wolfram Physics Project Concepts mentioned by Jonathan Trivalent networks (a.k.a. cubic graphs) Mathematica —I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

I've been blown away by your response to The Last Theory in 2022.How am I going to thank you for reading, listening, watching and subscribing?Well, by bringing you more Wolfram Physics in the New Year, that's how.Here are 7 directions I want to take The Last Theory in 2023.—I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Wolfram Physics is based on hypergraphs.Why?What is it about hypergraphs that might make them a better model of the universe than, say, strings of characters, or cellular automata, or Turing machines?When I asked Jonathan Gorard this question, he gave an answer that was deeply insightful.It's such a core question, so fundamental to why we should take the Wolfram model seriously, that I've listened to Jonathan's answer over and over.—Jonathan Gorard Jonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics Project Jonathan Gorard at Cardiff University Jonathan Gorard on Twitter The Centre for Applied Compositionality The Wolfram Physics Project People and Concepts mentioned by Jonathan Roger Penrose Rafael Sorkin Tommaso Bolognesi Causal Set Theory Hasse diagram Riemannian distance Strings (of characters) Cellular automata Turing machines Lorentz invariance General covariance —I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

For the last few hundred years, all our theories of physics have been mathematical.If Stephen Wolfram is right, from now on, our most fundamental theories of physics may be computational.This shift from mathematics to computation feels to me like a scientific revolution.Recently, I asked Jonathan Gorard, who was instrumental in the founding of The Wolfram Physics Project, whether it feels to him, too, like a scientific revolution.“I think so,” he said. “I mean, it's a strong statement, but I don't think it'll end up being too inaccurate.”(If you want to check out that part of our conversation, you can listen here or watch here.)Here's why, in my mind, Wolfram Physics is the next scientific revolution.–I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Jonathan Gorard admits that it was a risk, for his academic career, to work on the Wolfram Physics project.In this third excerpt from my recent conversation with Jonathan, I asked him how he thought about that risk and why he decided to take it.He told me that the opportunity to work with Stephen Wolfram on this new model is a bit like being given an opportunity to work with von Neumann and Ulam on cellular automata, or with Turing, Church and Gödel on computational models, back in the early twentieth century.So I asked Jonathan whether he thought, as I do, that the reframing physics in terms of computation feels like we're in a scientific revolution, as important as the reframing of physics in terms of mathematics several hundred years ago.“It's a strong statement,” he replied, “but I don't think it'll end up being too inaccurate.”For me, the opportunity to talk to Jonathan about Wolfram Physics feels a bit like being given an opportunity to interview Dirac, Heisenberg, Pauli or Schrödinger back in the early days of quantum mechanics.These are exciting times.—Jonathan Gorard Jonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics Project Jonathan Gorard at Cardiff University Jonathan Gorard on Twitter The Centre for Applied Compositionality The Wolfram Physics Project People and Concepts mentioned by Jonathan John von Neumann Stanislaw Ulam Alan Turing Alonzo Church Kurt Gödel Quantum information theory Undecidability Irreducibility Manojna Namuduri Xerxes D. Arsiwalla ZX-Calculus and Extended Hypergraph Rewriting Systems I: A Multiway Approach to Categorical Quantum Information Theory – Jonathan Gorard, Manojna Namuduri, Xerxes D. Arsiwalla ZX-Calculus and Extended Wolfram Model Systems II: Fast Diagrammatic Reasoning with an Application to Quantum Circuit Simplification – Jonathan Gorard, Manojna Namuduri, Xerxes D. Arsiwalla Image credits John von Neumann – Los Alamos National Laboratory Stanisław Ulam – Los Alamos National Laboratory For images from the Los Alamos National Laboratory: Unless otherwise indicated, this information has been authored by an employee or employees of the Triad National Security, LLC, operator of the Los Alamos National Laboratory with the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. Government has rights to use, reproduce, and distribute this information. The public may copy and use this information without charge, provided that this Notice and any statement of authorship are reproduced on all copies. Neither the Government nor Triad makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any liability or responsibility for the use of this information.I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

In Episode 15: Where to apply Wolfram's rules? (listen to the audio ⋅ watch the video ⋅ read the article) I introduced a radical idea.When we're applying a rule to a graph in Wolfram Physics, there are generally many possible places in the graph we could apply the rule, giving us many possible next states of the universe.Here's the radical idea: rather than choose one of these possible universes, we choose not to choose. Instead, we keep each of them in mind.The trouble is, if we choose not to choose, the number of possible universes we have to keep in mind gets extremely large extremely quickly.To help us visualize all these possible universes, we're going to need the multiway graph.It's a crucial idea in Wolfram Physics.The multiway graph will allow us to derive aspects of quantum mechanics from Wolfram Physics.It'll lead us to a concept of the observer that promises to resolve issues related to the collapse of the wavefunction that have plagued quantum mechanics ever since Schrödinger put his metaphorical cat into a metaphorical cage.And maybe, just maybe, it'll lead us to a model of consciousness itself.–I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

This is the second of a series of excerpts from my recent conversation with Jonathan Gorard, who was instrumental in the founding of The Wolfram Physics Project.I asked Jonathan why he found the computational approach to physics so compelling.In his answer, he broached a wide range of fascinating topics in the philosophy of science: how we moved from a clockwork paradigm in the age of clockwork to a computational paradigm in the age of computation; how saying that the universe is computational is different from saying that the universe is a computer; how our adoption of mathematics as the basis for physics has biased us to think of space-time as continuous; how the history of science might have been different had Turing been born before Newton; how the Wolfram Model can be thought of as a way of building a constructivist foundation for physics. This led us to discuss a couple of the deeper questions of Wolfram Physics: is it possible to know whether the universe is continuous or discrete? does the hypergraph really exist? —Jonathan Gorard Jonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics Project Jonathan Gorard at Cardiff University Jonathan Gorard on Twitter The Centre for Applied Compositionality The Wolfram Physics Project People and Concepts mentioned by Jonathan Isaac Newton René Descartes Democritus John Locke Bishop Berkeley Corpuscularianism Atomism Alan Turing Turing machines Lambda calculus Recursively Enumerable Functions Constructivism L. E. J. Brouwer David Hilbert Intuitionism—I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

In my conversation with Jonathan Gorard about the founding of the Wolfram Physics Project, I said that I don't like String Theory.Now, I'll admit, I don't really understand String Theory.It's highly mathematical. And I'm not much of a mathematician. Actually, that's an understatement. I'm not a mathematician at all.So if there's a problem in the relationship between String Theory and me, it might not be String Theory, it might be me.Sadly, admitting that I might be part of the problem doesn't change anything between us. I still don't like String Theory.Here's why.–I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

In 2019, Jonathan Gorard and Max Piskunov goaded Stephen Wolfram into pursuing his ideas for a new kind of science.This led to the announcement of The Wolfram Physics Project in 2020.Last week, I talked to Jonathan Gorard about the revolutionary ideas that have come out of the project.In this first excerpt from our conversation, Jonathan talks about his instrumental role in the founding of The Wolfram Physics Project.We cover why the time was right in 2020... and why it had been wrong in 2002 when Stephen Wolfram published his book A New Kind of Science.We talk about how Wolfram Physics might take over from string theory, why Jonathan likes string theory... and why he doesn't.It was a true pleasure to talk to Jonathan about what might prove a pivotal moment in the history of science.—Jonathan Gorard Jonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics Project Jonathan Gorard at Cardiff University People and Projects The Centre for Applied Compositionality The Wolfram Physics Project Stephen Wolfram's announcement of the project Max Piskunov SetReplace on GitHub Concepts mentioned by Jonathan Irreducibility Undecidability Universality Current algebra Regge theory Gauge theory Standard Model String theory Poincaré group Mirror symmetry Calabi–Yau manifold K3 surface —Images Calabi–Yau manifold CalabiYau5 by Andrew J. Hanson, Indiana University, who allows use with attribution Feynman diagram Feynmann Diagram Gluon Radiation by Joel Holdsworth, public domain —I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Wolfram Physics models the universe as a hypergraph.Maybe I'm just seeing things, but it seems to me that hypergraphs are everywhere: physics, chemistry, biology, neurology, ecology, sociology, technology.What I want to know is:Why?Why are hypergraphs everywhere?—Molecular structure Styrene-butadiene chain2 by Guido Raos, professor of chemistry, Politecnico di Milano, Italy licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0Metabolic pathway BRENDA pyrimidine metabolism by BRENDA – The Comprehensive Enzyme Information System licensed under CC BY 4.0Brain image Neurons & glia by The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) licensed under CC BY 2.0Pelagic food web An in situ perspective of a deep pelagic food web by C. Anela Choy, Steven H. D. Haddock and Bruce H. Robison licensed under CC BY 4.0Social graph Partitions in my social graph by Matt Biddulph licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0Internet map Internet map by Matt Britt licensed under CC BY 2.5Feynman diagram Paarbildung by Ivan Baev licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0—I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.