Wednesday 7 October 2015

Time reflects the fact that everything does not happen at once. Space reflects the fact that everything does not happen to you.




At the far outer edges of my own knowledge, based on work that I did decades ago, I occasionally check out what the Information Physics community are up to. 

HERE is a presentation by Kevin H. Knuth (Information-Based Physics: An Intelligent Embedded Agent's Guide to the Universe) from a few years ago which shows you how deeply this community think about the foundations of physics, how we know about the world, why physical law is so closely connected to maths, how to make logical inferences about the world based on information. I will not pretend that I understand this, much less try and explain it. But somehow somewhere the principles that Knuth enunciates in English (before he goes on to explain in maths) appeal to my view of science.

INFLUENCE

I know about the universe because it influences me.
In fact, everything I know about the universe is conveyed via such influences.
Moreover, I cannot come to know about what does not influence me.

AGENT-CENTRIC VIEW

Everything I can know is completely describable in terms of how it influences me .

INFORMATION

Information acts to constrain our beliefs You can believe anything you want… until you obtain information.

PHYSICAL LAWS ARE SHAPED BY THREE FACTORS

The nature of influence.
Constraints on the quantification of such influences.
Inferences that can be made from the information obtained via influences.

I know about the Universe, because it influences me.