Algorithmic Theories of Everything (2000) | Hacker News Reader

Algorithmic Theories of Everything (2000)

arxiv.org

96 pointscanjobear32 comments

If I read this right, it's saying we live in a universe with either a short program, or a fast program (program here means theory). From an algorithmic information theory standpoint, this seems to suggest whatever fundamental theory of physics we find, it'll be short. I'm wondering if this points more to a cellular automata style theory being at the root of reality. Maybe Wolfram was right?

Why are we not living in a universe with all possible theories (short and long), and there is only one of these theories which we actually see? Of course, enumerating all possible theories might be actually a simple program ...

Wolfram actually touches on this near the end of his fairly recent blog post discussing recent advancements he and his collaborators have made on this topic: https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2020/04/finally-we-may-h...

>Why are we not living in a universe with all possible theories?

We are! At least if the article's assumptions are correct, which I think they are.

I assume it's a simple "cellular automata style theory", a coroutine like recursive function that once we discover, we will notice is obvious at every scale we look at. Wolfram is definitely heading in the right direction. I remember a movie called Digital Physics having a similar plot.

No program, just the set of a strings (or equivalently all integer). Consciousness interpreters these in the order it chooses, creating time and all the rest.

I'll probably get slapped on the wrist for this, but: Is this a way to understand the seven day time line in the first chapter of Genesis?

Do you mean simple/complex? short and fast describe spacetime, fundamental nature of reality breaks down to more fundamental concepts right?

No, I'm speaking in terms of algorithm information theory and logical depth. A DNA program can be short, with simple rules at the base layer, but the complexity is high at the level of the output of that DNA.

IMHO, a better title would be "Probabilistic Theories Of Everything"

Contrast with the recent work from David Deutsch, which eliminates all probabilities from physics.

Intro to Constructor Theory: https://youtu.be/wfzSE4Hoxbc

this is basically just what happens in any deterministic hidden variable theory

Yeah, the aliens who are simulating us could be using a 64 bit prng at the quantum level and we would still never know the difference, because our measurement technology isn't there. The universe would be deterministic but it's unlikely that we'd ever be able to prove it, unless they left breadcrumbs intentionally.

Jürgen Schmidhuber, in the year 2000

Then was he 20 years ahead of his time?

Well, he (+his students) were ahead of the time in many things like in LSTM, GAN, et cetera.

Can someone explain in layman’s terms?

ELI5 is: If the universe is computable, might we be in the simplest computable universe or the fastest computable universe? Can computer science and math help us figure out the reasons for the physics that run our world?

'Others, are... (whispers) antipoles'

Ask yourself: 'Mister, if i believed you, who'd believe me ?' (-;

When all the combinations have been played out, the universe will halt.

Like this? https://urbigenous.net/library/nine_billion_names_of_god.htm...

Infinite rewrite due to a non applicative Y combinator :-)

Going from the title, it's all just a materialized Fibonacci Heap (though the abstract would disagree with me).

Well I’d love to give GPT3 the abstract as a starting point and see what comes out the other end!

Here is what comes out: "The history of our universe is a sequence of random events. Each event is the result of a very small probability, and the events are independent of each other. The probability that any particular event will happen is very small. So the probability that any particular event will happen twice is even smaller. So the probability that any particular event will happen twice in a row is even smaller. So the probability that any particular event will happen three times in a row is even smaller. And so on."

"The probability that any particular event will happen is very small. So the probability that any particular event will happen twice is even smaller. So the probability that any particular event will happen twice in a row is even smaller. So the probability that any particular event will happen three times in a row is even smaller."

This sounds like a meta-joke, lol.

"So the probability that any particular event will happen four times in a row is looking a little suspicious. Five is right out"

"And I'm not even going to entertain the probability of six, though I can confirm it will be exactly as many degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon."

“Scientists have calculated that the chances of something so patently absurd actually existing are millions to one. But magicians have calculated that million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.”

- Terry Pratchett

Another attempt to gpt-3 filtering the intro section of the paper: This book is about how we can guess what will happen in the future. The first chapter is about how we can guess the next number in a sequence. The second chapter is about how we can guess the next word in a sentence. The third chapter is about how we can guess the next word in a book. The fourth chapter is about how we can guess the next word in all the books ever written. The fifth chapter is about how we can guess the next word in all the books ever written

This is also gpt-3 output based on the abstract as if explaining to an eight grader: The theory of everything (TOE) is a mathematical formula that can predict everything that will happen in the future. It is a theory of everything, so it can predict what will happen to the universe, and to us. We assume that the TOE is simple enough for us to understand, but we don't know for sure.

the hype cycle is alive and well!

I'll save you the trouble. It's 42.

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