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A comment on The discrete-time physics hiding inside our continuous-time world. Parent comment

Re:The discrete-time physics hiding inside our continuous-ti... by toolslive on Monday April 15, 2019 @11:22AM (#19665965)
> Sure seems like the universe doesn't seem to care much about our math.

Well, some mathematical truths are so universal even the universe can't escape them. the incompleteness theorems [0] come to mind.

Regarding the article, I think most physicists consider the continuous models they use to attack the problems at hand a hack to make the mathematics consumable. I don't think they consider the universe itself to be non-discrete.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_...

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Re:The discrete-time physics hiding inside our continuous-ti... by krastanov on Monday April 15, 2019 @12:16PM (#19666435)
I am a physics in academia and no, most physicists do not think that (especially given that most physicists are not quantum foundations physicists, and even then). It is an interesting question, and if I am forced to guess on its answer I would even agree with you, but good science would be to not speculate the way you imply.
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Re:The discrete-time physics hiding inside our continuous-ti... by tromp on Monday April 15, 2019 @11:34AM (#19666057)
Perhaps those who expect quantum computers to scale to millions of qubits do. The amplitudes involved seem to defy discreteness...
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Re:The discrete-time physics hiding inside our continuous-ti... by krastanov on Monday April 15, 2019 @12:26PM (#19666544)
There are workarounds for that: for instance, do not use such a poorly conditioned basis to describe the system. In particular, problems in physics that appear only in one particular basis are probably human-created notation issues, not something fundamental, as physics should be basis independent.
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Re:The discrete-time physics hiding inside our continuous-ti... by j7ake on Monday April 15, 2019 @12:14PM (#19666421)
Could you give examples on how the incompleteness theorem explains physical phenomena? I would be curious.
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Re:The discrete-time physics hiding inside our continuous-ti... by krastanov on Monday April 15, 2019 @12:19PM (#19666470)
I would suggest Aaronson's "NP-complete problems and physical reality" for this type of thinking (public PDF on his academic page). It is short and has a ton of examples. I really like the style, but it is not a common view among working physicists (yet? It is just not particularly practical for the moment).
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