Re:In the Beginning, There Was Computation
by scottaino on Tuesday September 03, 2024 @02:04PM
(#41437441)
Do you have any references or further readings about finite vs. infinite number of laws? Sounds interesting.
Re:In the Beginning, There Was Computation
by LegionMammal978 on Tuesday September 03, 2024 @04:36PM
(#41438940)
Nothing in particular, sorry. The closest would be the idea of a recursively axiomatizable theory in mathematics, which is one that can be fully evaluated, enumerated, etc. using a finite algorithm. Usually, such a theory is presented as a finite list of axioms and axiom schemata: a theory that is not recursively axiomatizable could not be presented in such a simple way.
Re:In the Beginning, There Was Computation
by andoando on Tuesday September 03, 2024 @02:21PM
(#41437583)
Even if there is an infinite scale, wouldnt it be computational given infinite amount of time/energy. I.e each step itself is still a computational process.
Re:In the Beginning, There Was Computation
by LegionMammal978 on Tuesday September 03, 2024 @04:26PM
(#41438872)
Suppose that infinitely many independent laws are active simultaneously in some region of spacetime. Then we can perform as many computational steps as we want, but our simulation will never proceed: it will just get bogged down in law after law for all eternity, assuming we have some way to enumerate them in the first place.
Alternatively, the natural laws might simply contain an infinite amount of information, which could never be stuffed into a finite algorithm. E.g., if the ratio between the electron mass and one of the quark masses is an uncomputable real number. Or if there are infinitely many laws, governing deeper and deeper structure ad infinitum past the subatomic level. The latter has some philosophical arguments against it (why would we apparently be near the top of the infinite structure?), but the former is consistent with the apparent continuum that physical constants reside in.