Stephen Wolfram: Computing a theory of everything TED Video April 2010

[rhody]

Thought you might like this...

This TED talk (http://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_wolfram_computing_a_theory_of_everything.h tml?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2010-04-27&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email) by Stephen Wolfram is about 20 minutes long, but the most interesting parts are from 14:10 or so to about 17:30.

Summary:

14:10 Somewhere out in the computational Universe we might find our physical Universe.
14:50 Universe behaves like some kind of Network.
15:10 He shows to the public (for the first time, a graphic representing candidate Universes) based on his models.

15:45 States that the Universe is: full of computational irreducibility.

16:00 Claims he has produced candidate Universes that produce the standard models representation of gravity, special relativity, general relativity, and hints of quantum mechanics (does not mention QED or QCD Theory) however.

16:45 Issues a challenge that by the end of the decade he believes a correct Theory of the Universe can be achieved.

17:20 Computation is destined to be the defining idea of our future.

Rhody...

[rhody]

Thought you might like this...

This TED talk (http://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_wolfram_computing_a_theory_of_everything.h tml?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2010-04-27&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email) by Stephen Wolfram is about 20 minutes long, but the most interesting parts are from 14:10 or so to about 17:30.

Summary:

14:10 Somewhere out in the computational Universe we might find our physical Universe.
14:50 Universe behaves like some kind of Network.
15:10 He shows to the public (for the first time, a graphic representing candidate Universes) based on his models.

15:45 States that the Universe is: full of computational irreducibility.

16:00 Claims he has produced candidate Universes that produce the standard models representation of gravity, special relativity, general relativity, and hints of quantum mechanics (does not mention QED, QCD, weak nuclear force, radioactive decay) however.

16:45 Issues a challenge that by the end of the decade he believes a correct Theory of the Universe can be achieved.

17:20 Computation is destined to be the defining idea of our future.

Rhody...

I had some time to digest what he said last evening. If these statements were made by anyone except Stephen Wolfram, I would have dismissed them as being outright crackpottery. That being said, it seems he is a devotee of the "emergent thinking" train of thought that has become popular in the last five years of so with a small but seemingly growing number of physicists.

Does anyone have anything to say about coming up with a compete Theory of the Universe in the next decade ? Thats a pretty bold audacious statement. I should qualify that, one that agrees with the Standard Model and all of the tests that make it what we believe true to date.

Note: I edited my summary above, 16:00 for theories his models does not address.

Rhody...