Exploring Cellular Automata and the Wolfram Physics Project

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Cellular automata have left a significant mark by introducing the Mathematica programming language and the Wolfram Language. Stephen Wolfram, the mastermind behind these developments, is deeply engaged in mathematics and fundamental physics. His book 'A New Kind of Science' proposed cellular automata as a key to revolutionizing diverse scientific fields like biology, economics, and physics. The Wolfram Physics Project aims to uncover the fundamental laws of physics from scratch. Despite facing criticisms for being outside the mainstream of physics research, the project lays the groundwork for potential future developments in understanding the universe.

It’s not easy, figuring out the fundamental laws of physics. It’s even harder when your chosen methodology is to essentially start from scratch, positing a simple underlying system and a simple set of rules for it, and hope that everything we know about the world somehow pops out. That’s the project being undertaken by Stephen Wolfram and his collaborators, who are working with a kind of discrete system called “hypergraphs.” We talk about what the basic ideas are, why one would choose this particular angle of attack on fundamental physics, and how ideas like quantum mechanics and general relativity might emerge from this simple framework.

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Stephen Wolfram received his Ph.D. in physics from Caltech. He is the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research, and the creator of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha, and the Wolfram Language. Among his awards are a MacArthur Fellowship. Among his books is A New Kind of Science. He recently launched the Wolfram Physics Project.

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