Science After Sunclipse

Via David Corfield at the n-Category Cafe, here is Max Tegmark’s latest, entitled “The Mathematical Universe”. (Not to be confused with The Mechanical Universe, that Caltech show I grew up watching on PBS and which is now watchable online for free.) Here’s the abstract to Tegmark’s paper:

I explore physics implications of the External Reality Hypothesis (ERH) that there exists an external physical reality completely independent of us humans. I argue that with a sufficiently broad definition of mathematics, it implies the Mathematical Universe Hypothesis (MUH) that our physical world is an abstract mathematical structure. I discuss various implications of the ERH and MUH, ranging from standard physics topics like symmetries, irreducible representations, units, free parameters and initial conditions to broader issues like consciousness, parallel universes and Gödel incompleteness. I hypothesize that only computable and decidable (in Gödel’s sense) structures exist, which alleviates the cosmological measure problem and help explain why our physical laws appear so simple. I also comment on the intimate relation between mathematical structures, computations, simulations and physical systems.

It’s best read while listening to Kraftwerk, Infected Mushroom or the Pi soundtrack. I hear tell that Tegmark works in a cycle: nine normal papers, followed by a Level IV Multiverse, then nine normal papers again. . . .

On a much more mundane level, I’d like to remind the viewing audience that this afternoon is an Information Theory seminar. Thanks to the modern pharmacopeia, the scourge of illness is defeated, and mathematics marches forward once again! Today’s topic follows from last Friday’s discussion and will attempt to answer the question, “What’s up with continuous entropy?”