Universe is a computer

Nature ^ | 3 June 2002 | Phillip Ball

[Texaggie79]

Whoever programmed my childhood is going to get an @$$ whoopin........

[Libertarianize the GOP]

fyi

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Hmmm!

Thanks for the ping! Hadn't heard of this one yet/.

To find all articles tagged or indexed using tech_index

Click here: tech_index

[jennyp]

42 BUMP

[AndrewC]

He estimated the maximum number of logical operations the Universe has performed by calculating its total energy with Einstein's E = mc2

I thought the total energy of the universe was essentially zero.

[LibKill]

Whoever programmed my childhood is going to get an @$$ whoopin........

I have a better idea, let's hack into the code!

[SkyPilot]

God is a wonderful Mathematician.

I always thought about that when I read the verse of Jesus saying: 'even all the hairs on our heads are counted.'

[A. Pole]

"If one regards the Universe as performing a computation", says Lloyd

Then one can see the Universe as a computer. If one sees the book of Shakespeare as physical object one can do an interesting analysis of the paper, shape, chemical content and even of the font used and frequence of specific letters. But the PROPER meaning of the book will be overlooked.

The trick is to know what to look at. For the MIT professor it might be right approach, but his perspective is very narrow and odd.

[blam]

The universe is not anything until you think it is. Whatever you think is your universe.

[techcor]

Whoever programmed my childhood is going to get an @$$ whoopin........

LOL! Bump. I've always suspected the Universe was a computer and liberalism is some virus we picked up from some porno e-mail. The Universe should get back to work and stop hitting those sites.

[blam]

Does the Universe Exist if We're Not Looking?

Eminent physicist John Wheeler says he has only enough time left to work on one idea: that human consciousness shapes not only the present but the past as well

By Tim Folger

The world seems to be putting itself together piece by piece on this damp gray morning along the coast of Maine. First the spruce and white pine trees that cover High Island materialize from the fog, then the rocky headland, and finally the sea, as if the mere act of watching has drawn them all into existence. And that may indeed be the case. While this misty genesis unfolds, the island's most eminent resident discusses notions that still perplex him after seven decades in physics, including his gut feeling that the very universe may be constantly emerging from a haze of possibility, that we inhabit a cosmos made real in part by our own observations.

Full text of this article can be found in the current issue of Discover Magazine.

(My son (Dr.blam, PhD physics) and I have already had a long-distance argument (...er, discussion) about this article. He thinks Wheeler is sensationalizing for Discover Magazine)
I couldn't figure out how to post/link the article.

[Focault's Pendulum]

Whoever programmed my childhood is going to get an @$$ whoopin.......

I concur......whoever programmed mine was still using WIN55

[ko_kyi]

Unfortunately there are probably only around 1080 elementary particles in the Universe.

They must be pretty big! I would have thought there were a lot more.

[TADSLOS]

Time to do a hard drive scan, delete the Islam virus and re-boot.

[DainBramage]

AM I LOGGED IN?

[zx2dragon]

Interesting concept. So perception would be a large part of reality and A will no longer equal A. Liberals will be
telling us we could wipe away the big bad guy with good thoughts instead of trying to be sensitive to his needs.

From Queensryche, called the thinking man's band:
"Maybe all I need
beside my pills
and the surgery
is a new metaphor for reality.

I'm... Dis con nec ted
feeling so... Dis con nec ted
oh... Dis con nec ted
you know"

[Dimensio]

I guess France is a hardware bug, like the floating point error in the original Pentium chips.

[DrDavid]

In the words of Douglas Adams:

We appologize for the inconvience....

[Free the USA]

bttt