|
2011
Asimov Memorial Debate
[at 1:02:26]
Neil deGrasse Tyson: So you're
saying as you dig deeper, you find computer code writ in
the fabric of the cosmos.
James Gates: Into the equations that we want to
use to describe the cosmos, yes.
Pertinent
transcript excerpts here.
Prof. Gates elaborates in Symbols
of Power, Physics
World vol. 23 no. 6 (June 2010) 34-39. 
reprinted here
by permission.
"...the point is not that a mathematical
structure describes a universe, but that it is a
universe."
- Max Tegmark
"Mathematical
cosmos: Reality by numbers."
2621 New Scientist, 14 September 2007
DataEcologies
www.timesup.org/laboratory/DataEcologies
Reference Material,
including links to Recommended
Reading.
This page now features direct links to
further reading in physics and computers for liberal
arts majors. Topics include physics (digital and
otherwise), and faith.
Recently added works by Karl
Svozil.
Computational
Universes by Karl Svozil.
Do
we live in a computer simulation? Univ.Wash.
researchers say idea can be tested.
"[T]he UW team has suggested tests that can be performed
now, or in the near future, that are sensitive to
constraints imposed on future simulations by limited
resources."
New
York Times 14-Aug-2007:
Our Lives, Controlled from Some Guy's Couch
John Tierney reports on Nick Bostrom's
concept of living in a computer simulation.
Wired
magazine:
December 2002 issue on
theme of Science and Religion [Issue 10.12]
God
is the Machine Excellent survey of
Fredkin/Wolfram/Zuse thinking.
The
New Convergence Excellent survey of
intrusion of metaphysics into science, refusal of
religion to fade.
Did the Universe Just Happen?
Recently posted by The Atlantic, this is
the seminal interview with Fredkin by Robert Wright
(1988).
Technical
Papers of Interest.
For those of you from Missouri -- "show me."
Although the BottomLayer has been designed for the
generalist, many of you have been interested enough to
feel an urge to go to the data. I commend the
impulse, and so I will be posting papers that have
struck my fancy.
Book Review:
Rocks
of Ages
Stephen Jay Gould (MHRIP)
More than a book
review, this essay reveals the impulse. It is really
a sermon and a testimony.
Books Review:
A
World With A View
The Dancing Wu Li Masters
Gary Zukav
The Cosmic Code
Heinz Pagels
Quantum Reality
Nick Herbert
A review of three book-length surveys of
quantum reality.
Guest Columnist:
John Deutsch
I. Relationships Among Phenomena at a Unitary
Level (The Hierarchy of Time and the Golden Ratio in
h )
Intriguing mathematical
relationships appear when one "quantizes" the basic
units of time, space, energy and mass. h,
the quantum of action, may not be fundamental, but a
composite of two deeper quantities related to each other
by the Golden Ratio.
II. Calculating the neutrino mass
Mr. Deutsch derives a hypothetical
mass for the neutrino. |
