The Last Theory

There are two questions about Wolfram Physics I’m asked a lot:What’s beyond the hypergraph?And what’s between the nodes and edges of the hypergraph?There’s a simple answer to this question.Nothing.There’s nothing beyond the hypergraph.There’s nothing beyond the universe.But it’s not a very effective answer.So here’s a deeper response to the age-old question:What’s beyond the universe?–I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

The hypergraph is the universe.So if we want to see the universe, we need only draw the hypergraph.The question is: how?The nodes and edges of the hypergraph are determined by the rules of Wolfram Physics. But how we draw those nodes and edges is not determined.The drawing of the hypergraph is not the universe, it’s just a way of visualizing the universe.So I asked Jonathan Gorard how we might decide where to position the nodes and edges when we draw the hypergraph, so that we can see what’s really going on in Wolfram Physics.—Jonathan GorardJonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics ProjectJonathan Gorard at Cardiff UniversityJonathan Gorard on TwitterThe Centre for Applied CompositionalityThe Wolfram Physics ProjectPeople mentioned by JonathanCharles PoohDugan HammockPlotting the evolution of a Wolfram Model in 3-dimensions by Dugan HammockTemporally coherent animations of the evolution of Wolfram Models by Dugan HammockConcepts mentioned by JonathanSpring electrical embeddingSpring embeddingLayered embeddingCausal graphsCoulomb’s lawHooke’s law—I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

What is the Big Bang in Wolfram Physics?There’s a straightforward answer to that question.It’s the point in the evolution of the universe where the hypergraph goes from nothing to something.It’s the start of the explosion that eventually yields the uncountable particles, planets, stars and galaxies of our universe.So that’s pretty straightforward, isn’t it?Well, yes, except that there’s one phrase above that demands further explanation: nothing to something.How does the universe go from nothing to something?–I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Here’s a slightly technical question:Does Wolfram Physics really need hypergraphs?Or could it based on graphs instead?Jonathan Gorard shares some interesting insights into the evolution of Stephen Wolfram’s model for a fundamental theory of physics.Wolfram started with trivalent graphs, in which each edge joins two nodes, and each node has three edges.But when he ran into issues implementing simulations using these simple graphs, he solved the problem by graduating to hypergraphs, in which each hyperedge can join any number of nodes, and each node can have any number of hyperedges.Here’s how hypergraphs, rather than graphs, came to be the basis of Wolfram Physics.—Jonathan GorardJonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics ProjectJonathan Gorard at Cardiff UniversityJonathan Gorard on TwitterThe Centre for Applied CompositionalityThe Wolfram Physics ProjectConcepts mentioned by JonathanTrivalent networks (a.k.a. cubic graphs)Mathematica—I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

I’ve been blown away by your response to The Last Theory in 2022.How am I going to thank you for reading, listening, watching and subscribing?Well, by bringing you more Wolfram Physics in the New Year, that’s how.Here are 7 directions I want to take The Last Theory in 2023.—I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Wolfram Physics is based on hypergraphs.Why?What is it about hypergraphs that might make them a better model of the universe than, say, strings of characters, or cellular automata, or Turing machines?When I asked Jonathan Gorard this question, he gave an answer that was deeply insightful.It’s such a core question, so fundamental to why we should take the Wolfram model seriously, that I’ve listened to Jonathan’s answer over and over.—Jonathan GorardJonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics ProjectJonathan Gorard at Cardiff UniversityJonathan Gorard on TwitterThe Centre for Applied CompositionalityThe Wolfram Physics ProjectPeople and Concepts mentioned by JonathanRoger PenroseRafael SorkinTommaso BolognesiCausal Set TheoryHasse diagramRiemannian distanceStrings (of characters)Cellular automataTuring machinesLorentz invarianceGeneral covariance—I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

For the last few hundred years, all our theories of physics have been mathematical.If Stephen Wolfram is right, from now on, our most fundamental theories of physics may be computational.This shift from mathematics to computation feels to me like a scientific revolution.Recently, I asked Jonathan Gorard, who was instrumental in the founding of The Wolfram Physics Project, whether it feels to him, too, like a scientific revolution.“I think so,” he said. “I mean, it’s a strong statement, but I don’t think it’ll end up being too inaccurate.”(If you want to check out that part of our conversation, you can listen here or watch here.)Here’s why, in my mind, Wolfram Physics is the next scientific revolution.–I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Jonathan Gorard admits that it was a risk, for his academic career, to work on the Wolfram Physics project.In this third excerpt from my recent conversation with Jonathan, I asked him how he thought about that risk and why he decided to take it.He told me that the opportunity to work with Stephen Wolfram on this new model is a bit like being given an opportunity to work with von Neumann and Ulam on cellular automata, or with Turing, Church and Gödel on computational models, back in the early twentieth century.So I asked Jonathan whether he thought, as I do, that the reframing physics in terms of computation feels like we’re in a scientific revolution, as important as the reframing of physics in terms of mathematics several hundred years ago.“It’s a strong statement,” he replied, “but I don’t think it’ll end up being too inaccurate.”For me, the opportunity to talk to Jonathan about Wolfram Physics feels a bit like being given an opportunity to interview Dirac, Heisenberg, Pauli or Schrödinger back in the early days of quantum mechanics.These are exciting times.—Jonathan GorardJonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics ProjectJonathan Gorard at Cardiff UniversityJonathan Gorard on TwitterThe Centre for Applied CompositionalityThe Wolfram Physics ProjectPeople and Concepts mentioned by JonathanJohn von NeumannStanislaw UlamAlan TuringAlonzo ChurchKurt GödelQuantum information theoryUndecidabilityIrreducibilityManojna NamuduriXerxes D. ArsiwallaZX-Calculus and Extended Hypergraph Rewriting Systems I: A Multiway Approach to Categorical Quantum Information Theory – Jonathan Gorard, Manojna Namuduri, Xerxes D. ArsiwallaZX-Calculus and Extended Wolfram Model Systems II: Fast Diagrammatic Reasoning with an Application to Quantum Circuit Simplification – Jonathan Gorard, Manojna Namuduri, Xerxes D. ArsiwallaImage creditsJohn von Neumann – Los Alamos National LaboratoryStanisław Ulam – Los Alamos National LaboratoryFor images from the Los Alamos National Laboratory: Unless otherwise indicated, this information has been authored by an employee or employees of the Triad National Security, LLC, operator of the Los Alamos National Laboratory with the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. Government has rights to use, reproduce, and distribute this information. The public may copy and use this information without charge, provided that this Notice and any statement of authorship are reproduced on all copies. Neither the Government nor Triad makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any liability or responsibility for the use of this information.I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

In Episode 15: Where to apply Wolfram’s rules? (listen to the audio ⋅ watch the video ⋅ read the article) I introduced a radical idea.When we’re applying a rule to a graph in Wolfram Physics, there are generally many possible places in the graph we could apply the rule, giving us many possible next states of the universe.Here’s the radical idea: rather than choose one of these possible universes, we choose not to choose. Instead, we keep each of them in mind.The trouble is, if we choose not to choose, the number of possible universes we have to keep in mind gets extremely large extremely quickly.To help us visualize all these possible universes, we’re going to need the multiway graph.It’s a crucial idea in Wolfram Physics.The multiway graph will allow us to derive aspects of quantum mechanics from Wolfram Physics.It’ll lead us to a concept of the observer that promises to resolve issues related to the collapse of the wavefunction that have plagued quantum mechanics ever since Schrödinger put his metaphorical cat into a metaphorical cage.And maybe, just maybe, it’ll lead us to a model of consciousness itself.–I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

This is the second of a series of excerpts from my recent conversation with Jonathan Gorard, who was instrumental in the founding of The Wolfram Physics Project.I asked Jonathan why he found the computational approach to physics so compelling.In his answer, he broached a wide range of fascinating topics in the philosophy of science:how we moved from a clockwork paradigm in the age of clockwork to a computational paradigm in the age of computation;how saying that the universe is computational is different from saying that the universe is a computer;how our adoption of mathematics as the basis for physics has biased us to think of space-time as continuous;how the history of science might have been different had Turing been born before Newton;how the Wolfram Model can be thought of as a way of building a constructivist foundation for physics.This led us to discuss a couple of the deeper questions of Wolfram Physics:is it possible to know whether the universe is continuous or discrete?does the hypergraph really exist?—Jonathan GorardJonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics ProjectJonathan Gorard at Cardiff UniversityJonathan Gorard on TwitterThe Centre for Applied CompositionalityThe Wolfram Physics ProjectPeople and Concepts mentioned by JonathanIsaac NewtonRené DescartesDemocritusJohn LockeBishop BerkeleyCorpuscularianismAtomismAlan TuringTuring machinesLambda calculusRecursively Enumerable FunctionsConstructivismL. E. J. BrouwerDavid HilbertIntuitionism—I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.