A Universal Torning Machine Is Not Enough to Perform All the Physically Allowable Transformations

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

constructe theory might make the people wonder, why constructed, or what is that er. So this is term that was coined by von norman. He he was trying to find ways of saying that turing had devised its universal computer too limited. While a universal teering machine can simulate in its work space a ino anico system with cells self reproducing and undergoing natural selection and so on, it cannot itself be programmed to create a replica of itself.

Traditional physics works within the “Laplacian paradigm”: you give me the state of the universe (or some closed system), some equations of motion, then I use those equations to evolve the system through time. Constructor theory proposes an alternative paradigm: to think of physical systems in terms of counterfactuals — the set of rules governing what can and cannot happen. Originally proposed by David Deutsch, constructor theory has been developed by today’s guest, Chiara Marletto, and others. It might shed new light on quantum gravity and fundamental physics, as well as having applications to higher-level processes of thermodynamics and biology.

Support Mindscape on Patreon.

Chiara Marletto received her DPhil in physics from the University of Oxford. She is currently a research fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford. Her new book is The Science of Can and Can’t: A Physicist’s Journey Through the Land of Counterfactuals.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.