The Last Theory

In his General Theory of Relativity, Einstein combined the three dimensions of space with the one dimension of time in what we now know as Einstein’s equations.Ever since, physicists have thought of space and time as effectively the same thing: components of four-dimensional space-time.This might be the biggest blunder physicists have ever made.Stephen Wolfram, on page 22 of his book A project to find the Fundamental Theory of Physics, calls it the “one ‘wrong turn’ in the history of physics in the past century”.Space-time is dead.Here’s why... and how physicists got it so wrong for so long.I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

We’re used to thinking of space as continuous.A stone can be anywhere in space. It can be here. Or it can be an inch to the left. Or it can be half an inch further to the left. Or it can be an infinitesimal fraction of an inch even further to the left. Space is infinitely divisible.The graphs of Wolfram Physics, however, are discrete.If, as Stephen Wolfram proposes, the universe is a graph, then you can’t be just anywhere in space. It makes sense to think about a node of the graph as a position in space. It makes no sense to think about anywhere in between the nodes as positions in space. This space is not infinitely divisible.It’s as if a stone could be here in space, or here in space, but nowhere in between.So which is it?Has every physicist from Leucippus to Einstein been right to insist that space is continuous?Or is Wolfram right to up-end millennia of settled science and insist that space is discrete?I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

We humans have always been fond of invisible things.Poltergeists, fairies, unicorns, the Yeti, the Lost City of Atlantis.Just because you can’t see them, it doesn’t mean they aren’t there.Scientists, no less than any other humans, suffer from this fondness for invisible things.Phlogiston, miasma, ether, strings.Just because you can’t see them, scientists have insisted, it doesn’t mean they aren’t there.Beware these invisible things.As I explore Wolfram Physics, I’m aware of certain invisible things that we believe in now, but we’re going to have to let go, if Stephen Wolfram is right.And I’m also aware of the temptation to replace this old set of invisible things with a new set of invisible things.Here’s why we’d do well to resist.I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

We know what it means when we say that our universe is three-dimensional: it means that we can move in three orthogonal directions: left-right; up-down; forwards-backwards.But what would it mean to say that a universe is 2½-dimensional?Or 3.37-dimensional?Or 9-dimensional?When I measured the dimensionality one of Wolfram’s graphs, I found it to be at least 3.37-dimensional.If Stephen Wolfram is right, then our universe might not be uniformly three-dimensional.So maybe dimensionality isn’t quite what we think it is.What, exactly, are dimensions?I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Are Wolfram’s graphs three-dimensional?In Episode #009: How to measure the dimensionality of the universe – watch the video or read the article – I introduced a mathematically-minded crab, which was able to determine the dimensionality of its universe by measuring how much space it covered moving different distances in every possible direction.Now I’m going to use the same crabby method to determine the dimensionality of graphs generated by Wolfram Physics.I’m finally going to answer the question: how many dimensions are there in one of Wolfram’s universes?And the answer’s going to be unexpected.Here’s a hint: it’s not two and it’s not three.Today’s episode includes a lot of visuals, so I recommend you watch the video or read the article rather than listen to the audio.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Today’s episode includes a lot of visuals, so I recommend you watch the video or read the article rather than listen to the audio.In Episode #007: The expanse: dimension, separation & explosion – watch the video or read the article – I argued that the graphs of Wolfram Physics are going to have to be three-dimensional to be a true representation of our universe.But how can we tell whether these graphs are three-dimensional? Many of them are so convoluted that it’s difficult to tell whether they’re two-dimensional, three-dimensional or somewhere in between.I’m going to make the question even more difficult. We’ve been looking at graphs from the outside, from a God’s-eye view.In reality, though, we’re not outside the graph. Remember, we’re hoping that the graphs of Wolfram Physics will prove to be a true representation of our universe, and we can’t be outside our own universe.How could we tell whether a graph is two-dimensional, or three-dimensional, or even two-and-a-half-dimensional, from inside the graph?How would we measure the dimensionality of our own universe?Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

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?I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

In the last episode, I introduced two fundamental characteristics of space: position and distance.Today, I’m going to introduce three more characteristics of space: dimension, separation & explosion.If it’s to be a viable theory of physics, Wolfram Physics has to accurately model space as we know it, including all five of these characteristics.Let’s see how it measures up.—Today’s episode includes a lot of visuals, so you might prefer to read the article, or watch the video, where they’re animated.In the episode, I refer back to Episode #006: What is space? the where and the how far. Again, I recommend you watch the video or read the article rather than listen to the audio for that episode, since you’ll want to see the visuals!Doppler siren by jobro reproduced under CC BY 3.0Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

What is space in Wolfram Physics?I’ve talked about the basic concepts of Wolfram Physics: nodes, edges, graphs & rules.I just threw these concepts out there. No explanation. No rhyme, no reason. Nodes, edges, graphs & rules. Take them or leave them.Naturally, this raised a few questions in some people’s minds.These questions can be summed up as follows:Wait... What? Nodes, edges, graphs & rules? Why?This a deep question.Let’s get into it.—This episode includes a few visuals, so you might prefer to read the article or watch the video.In this episode, I refer back to Episode #004: Different rules, different universes. This one, too, includes a lot of visuals, so again, I recommend you watch the video or read the article rather than listen to the audio for that episode.I also refer to a Polynesian stick chart. You can find it here: Micronesian navigational chart.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

I like being asked questions about Wolfram Physics.When I try to answer them, though, I often find myself trapped in an infinite regress.To address a question about Wolfram Physics, I might first need to address another, more fundamental question, about physics.And to address that question, I might first need to address another, more fundamental question, than might be more philosophy than physics.Today, I’m going to go to one of those deep questions that need to be asked, if not answered, before I can begin to address many of the questions I’ve been asked about Wolfram Physics.What is physics?Prefer to watch the video? Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.