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Max Tegmark, MIT

Why I think that we live in a mathematical object. Max Tegmark, MIT. But can we understand all this in terms of a fundamental “theory of everything”?. gr-qc/9704009. 0704.0646 [gr-qc]. Can we describe reality purely mathematically?. Do you yearn for a TOE with an intuitive interpretation?.

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Max Tegmark, MIT

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  1. Why I think that we live in a mathematical object Max Tegmark, MIT

  2. But can we understand all this in terms of a fundamental “theory of everything”? gr-qc/9704009 0704.0646 [gr-qc] Can we describe reality purely mathematically?

  3. Do you yearn for a TOE with an intuitive interpretation?

  4. Opposition is good, in the dialectic spirit Do you yearn for a TOE with an intuitive interpretation?

  5. Thus spake the bards: Opposition is good, in the dialectic spirit Do you yearn for a TOE with an intuitive interpretation? Forget it! “It’s all just the equations”

  6. External Reality Hypothesis (ERH): There exists an external physical reality completely independent of us humans. Mathematical Universe Hypothesis (MUH): Or external physical reality is a mathematical structure.

  7. External Reality Hypothesis (ERH): There exists an external physical reality completely independent of us humans.

  8. External Reality Hypothesis (ERH): There exists an external physical reality completely independent of us humans.

  9. External Reality Hypothesis (ERH): There exists an external physical reality completely independent of us humans. TOE

  10. External Reality Hypothesis (ERH): There exists an external physical reality completely independent of us humans. TOE For this description of the external physical reality to be complete, it must be devoid of human “baggage”.

  11. External Reality Hypothesis (ERH): There exists an external physical reality completely independent of us humans. TOE We humans have a common understanding of words like“object”, “experiment”, “observation”, “cause”, “particle”, “string”, but computers don’t!

  12. Big Bang Zoom

  13. Big Bang Zoom Tegmark & Wheeler 2001, quant-ph/0101077 Less baggage More baggage

  14. Big Bang Zoom A mathematical structure:abstract entities with relations between them Tegmark 1997, gr-qc/9704009, Ann. Phys, 270, 151

  15. External Reality Hypothesis (ERH): There exists an external physical reality completely independent of us humans. Mathematical Universe Hypothesis (MUH): Or external physical reality is a mathematical structure.

  16. Phenomenology implications

  17. Big Bang Zoom Tegmark 1997, gr-qc/9704009, Ann. Phys, 270, 151

  18. Big Bang Zoom Tegmark 1997, gr-qc/9704009, Ann. Phys, 270, 151 Frog’s view: Bird’s view:

  19. Emergence implications

  20. Is it really possible to derive “physics from scratch”, i.e., frog’s view from bird’s view? • How would physics emerge from the mathematical structure? • Promising 1st steps: automorphism group, symmetries, irracs & irreps, etc. • Gödel completeness/Church-Turing computability may help explain why the laws of our universe are so simple.

  21. Parallel universe implications

  22. It’s inevitable This isn’t science!

  23. Why not? Makes sense! I hate it!

  24. Party on!

  25. If our frog’s view of our observable universe… …requires more bits to describe than… …the bird’s view of our mathematical structure… 103 bits? 10100 bits? …then we’re in a multiverse! So if you’re looking for a simple mathematical TOE, you’re looking for a multiverse theory.

  26. Big Bang Zoom Where are the parallel universes? Far away in space Infinitely far away in space Elsewhere in Hilbert space Elsewhere in “math space”

  27. Big Bang Zoom What are the 4 multiverse levels like? 10100 bits? Same effective laws of physics, different initial conditions Same fundamental laws of physics, different effective laws (“bylaws”) Nothing qualitatively new Different fundamental laws of physics 103 bits? 102 bits? 0 bits! The bigger the multiverse, the simpler the theory.

  28. More MUH support

  29. We’re not taking this guy seriously enough!

  30. The strongest form of the anthropic principle: “The Universe must be such that we like it.”

  31. The strongest form of the anthropic principle: “The Universe must be such that we like it.”

  32. 0704.0646 [gr-qc]

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