Computational irreducibility means that there are no shortcuts when we apply rules to the hypergraph.

I used to think that our existing theories of physics, such as general relativity and quantum mechanics, were examples of computational reducibility: shortcuts that allow us to make higher-level generalizations about how the application of rules to the hypergraph gives rise to our universe.

Jonathan Gorard used to think this, too.

But it turns out that over the last couple of years, he has changed his mind on this quite radically.

General relativity and quantum mechanics, he now thinks, aren’t examples of computational reducibility, they’re consequences of computational irreducibility.

I truly appreciated this part of our conversation, because it radically changed my mind, too, about this crucial concept in Wolfram Physics.

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Jonathan Gorard

• Jonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics Project
• Jonathan Gorard at Cardiff University
• Jonathan Gorard on Twitter

• The Centre for Applied Compositionality
• The Wolfram Physics Project

Concepts mentioned by Jonathan

• Computational reducibility
• Computational irreducibility

• General relativity
• Quantum mechanics
• Fluid mechanics
• Continuum mechanics
• Solid mechanics

• Partition function
• Boltzmann equation
• Molecular chaos assumption
• Ergodicity
• Distribution function
• Chapman-Enskog expansion
• Stress tensor
• Navier-Stokes equations
• Euler equations

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