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The Last Theory
Trailer
Bonus
Episode 22
Season 1
From clockwork to computation in Wolfram Physics with Jonathan Gorard
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?
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Jonathan Gorard
- Jonathan Gorard at The Wolfram Physics Project
- Jonathan Gorard at Cardiff University
- Jonathan Gorard on Twitter
People and Concepts mentioned by Jonathan
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