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With Constructor Theory, Chiara Marletto Invokes the Impossible | Quanta Magazine

“At the heart of constructor theory is the feeling that there’s something missing in our usual approach to physics.

The standard laws of physics — such as quantum theory, general relativity, even Newton’s laws — are formulated in terms of trajectories of objects and what happens to them given some initial conditions. But there are some phenomena in nature that you can’t quite capture in terms of trajectories — phenomena like the physics of life or the physics of information. To capture those, you need counterfactuals.

Which are?

The word “counterfactual” is used in various ways, but I mean a specific thing: A counterfactual is a statement about which transformations are possible and which are impossible in a physical system. A transformation is possible when you have a “constructor” that can perform a task and then retain the capacity to perform it again. In biology, we call that a catalyst, but more generally we can call it a constructor.”

https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/what-is-life/

A technologist takes a stab at the age old question.

“It turns out that all life on Earth also shares a single architecture. And at least on Earth, that massively simplifies the discussion – Anything built on that architecture is life, and we have yet to encounter anything that is remotely living that is not based on that architecture.”

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/endless-creation-out-of-nothing/

The subhead gives away a lot: “Could our universe have been an experiment by an ancient civilization?”. That’s not creation “out of nothing”… that’s just kicking the creation can down the road.

What the author seems to be saying is that it’s potentially possible to create universes “artificially”. Okay.

Also, there is no such thing as “nothing”, at least not in space because seemingly empty space always has “something” in it. Okay.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-simple-rules-bootstrap-the-laws-of-physics-20191209/

The idea here is that they’ve reduced the laws of physics down to the spin of particles. I still find that unsatisfactory and I don’t really see why the spin is inevitable or why there are particles at all.

Describing the operating system on a computer doesn’t explain why there is a computer. It feels like they are saying that because there is a computer.. there is an operating system as if that’s a given.

Update: A rebuttal: https://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=11513

(I have no idea what this person is talking about.. it’s far to technical. His bigger point about Quanta Magazine’s quality going down the drain is sad though. I hope they are wrong.)

https://www.quantamagazine.org/hologram-within-a-hologram-hints-at-solution-to-black-hole-information-paradox-20191119/

1. Black holes are back to being intergalatic harddrives.. they don’t lose data after all like Hawkings radation suggests (Yes, Stephen Hawking was wrong! again)
2. “It’s magic”.

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/weirdest-idea-quantum-physics-catching-there-may-be-endless-worlds-ncna1068706

Nothing new here.. it’s just interesting that this idea is starting to become mainstream. We believe weird stuff, everyone does.

https://aeon.co/essays/what-the-ctenophore-says-about-the-evolution-of-intelligence

TLDR: The ctenophore developed brains completely differently than every other creature on earth. So, if evolution was “re-run” brains would develop.. but possibly take a different path. Intelligence appears to be an inevitable conclusion of evolution. This also opens the up possibilities as to how aliens also might develop as well.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190709-would-humans-evolve-again-if-we-rewound-time?ocid=global_future_rss

“But what about the underlying physical laws – do they favour predictable evolution? At very large scales, it appears so. We know of many laws governing our universe that are certain. Gravity, for example – for which we owe our oceans, thick atmosphere and the nuclear fusion in the sun that showers us with energy – is a predictable force. Isaac Newton’s theories, based on large scale deterministic forces, can also be used to describe many systems on large scales. These describe the universe as perfectly predictable.”

TLDR: The foundational rules of physics will bring humanity into being every time. So, unless there is a universe out there with different physics… Humans, or similar beings, will inevitably come forth.. with every big bang.. assuming there are more then one and that this isn’t a simulation.

If you did make a Universe simulation with our fundamental physics.. intelligent life would pop out. Fun. Would they be considered “AI”?

https://www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-debate-hawkings-idea-that-the-universe-had-no-beginning-20190606/

“Questions abound about how the various proposals intersect with anthropic reasoning and the infamous multiverse idea. The no-boundary wave function, for instance, favors empty universes, whereas significant matter and energy are needed to power hugeness and complexity. Hawking argued that the vast spread of possible universes permitted by the wave function must all be realized in some larger multiverse, within which only complex universes like ours will have inhabitants capable of making observations. (The recent debate concerns whether these complex, habitable universes will be smooth or wildly fluctuating.) An advantage of the tunneling proposal is that it favors matter- and energy-filled universes like ours without resorting to anthropic reasoning — though universes that tunnel into existence may have other problems.”