The Last Theory Channel #008 - Where's the computer that runs the universe?

The Last Theory

Episode #008

28 April 2022

Where’s the computer
that runs the universe?

Listen to the audio ⋅ Read the article

Notes

I’ve been running simulations of our universe, according to Stephen Wolfram’s computational theory of physics.

Where’s the computer that runs these simulations?

Well, it’s right here. This a low-powered laptop in my hand is literally the computer that runs these universes.

It’s natural to ask a follow-up question.

If Wolfram’s right and the real universe evolves computationally in the same way as these simulated universes, where’s the computer that runs the universe?

—

The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web Mind

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Quotes

“Try timing the fall of a stone with a sundial”

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“By analogy with their world, the Ancient Greeks might have imagined someone – God, or a pantheon of gods – or something – a force, or a purpose – moving a stone downwards when it’s dropped”

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“Try executing C++ code with a quill, a pot of ink & a piece of paper”

last theory.com

“By analogy with their world, Renaissance scholars might have imagined someone – God, or a cloister of monks – or something – an abacus, or a book of logarithmic tables – calculating the motion of a ball when it rolls down a ramp”

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“By analogy with our world, we might imagine someone – God, or a shared workspace of software developers – or something – a computer, or a server farm – executing the algorithms of Wolfram Physics”

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“Maybe we humans are just a little too quick to answer questions about our universe by analogy with our world”

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