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Origin >
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Is the universe a quantum computer?
Permanent link to this article: http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0386.html
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Is the universe a quantum computer?
Perhaps the universe is a very large quantum logic circuit, says Seth Lloyd in response to Edge publisher/editor John Brockman's request to futurists to pose "hard-edge" questions that "render visible the deeper meanings of our lives, redefine who and what we are."
Originally published January 2002 at Edge. Published on KurzweilAI.net January 21, 2002. Read Ray Kurzweil's Edge question here.
The universe is quantum mechanical, and its dynamics can be simulated precisely and efficiently using quantum information processing. The amount of quantum computation required to perform this simulation is finite and has been calculated. Consequently, there is no obvious way to distinguish the universe from a very large quantum logic circuit.
Copyright © 2002 by Edge Foundation, Inc.
www.edge.org
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Re: Is the universe a quantum computer?
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I've had similar experiences. And an anecdote about an experiment, and maybe a way to get some luck to rub off on yourself. And thoughts about karma.
I was going to a computer conference in Las Vegas. I knew I would lose gambling, so I looked for 'lucky' people at work. I told them if they gave me their money, I would mix it with mine, and I promised to either double it, or lose it all.
So I had $100 in my gambling pocket. Blackjack slowly ate away at it each night. We had an hour before we had to leave. I had about $15 left, and I remembered I'd promised to lose it all.
Back to the blackjack table, but now making bigger bets. Won, doubled my bets won, now betting $25 chips, and in a few quick hands I had $200.
Second anecdote - did it again. In Australia but for one night, told my story to some co-workers, slowly lost our combined money all night. Had a few bucks left. On my way out, passing a roulette table, put it all on a single number, it hit 36-1, giving me just about exactly twice what I began with.
Interesting karma if you will. I know I'll lose (be unlucky), and I do by myself. But it was important for me to pull off a stunt like this, and I won (got lucky) when I had other people's money in my pocket.
Dennis
www.reflection-idea.com
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Re: Is the universe a quantum computer?
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Is the universe a quantum computer? wouldn't the answer almost have to be yes? Are not quantum processes the the underlying foundation for all other processes in the universe? The foundation of the universe and reality is in quantum processes, these processes govern the behavior/interaction of energy/matter(which is all the universe is composed of), so these processes are basically instructions for manipulating information, thats all a computer program is, so if quantum processes are the foundation or code for a program, don't u need a computer to run the program? But if the universe is a computer(quantum or otherwise) then what is its function? I could be mistakin here, but would not ever increasing complexity result in a consciencness (or however its spelled)? and hasn't it already done so in us(and possibly others)? so then what could the function of this computer be? It must atleast have the function of maintaining itself, so that it might have atleast some hope of actually performing its primary function, but what is its ultimate purpose or primary function? I can only think of one possible answer, and that answer is simply to figure itself out(Yes i do watch alot of Scifi), atleast thats the only possibility i see, but if i'm right and the increasing complexity of the universe is an attempt by that vary universe to know itself, isn't it self defeating, because with every jump in complexity the universe would be more difficult to understand, and would require more complexity to understand past complexity, not unlike the difficulties in reaching light speed. But there is one side affect of this process which is life. Maybe i don't understand quantum physics but in the quantum world don't all things exist as tendencies or probablities, and they are not actually real or made to be one or the other until observed, like schrodinger's cat, its neither dead or alive, but both until the box is opened, opening the box creates reality, reality is simply our perceptions. We create reality by observing it. These perceptions help us to better know ourselves and our universe, but we cannot know everything, change is the only constant and because change is constant the aquisition of knowledge would have to be constant to keep up, but there is still no hope of knowing all, so we find our selves in the same perdicament as the universe, which i suppose is not wholly unexpected, and is even somewhat poetic because we are it, and it is us. So that only leaves us with the journy, and in order to make a journy one cannot remain static, thus the universe must not remain static or it would be un able to maintain itself AND have any hope to accomplish its goal of knowing itself. So it is the journy that stustains it, completing the journy would make it static, effectively killing it, so i don't know about you but that only leaves me with one conclusion, and i hate to sound cliche here but maybe indeed that is all that is important, the journey, but yeah its a computer....isn't everything?
;)
Dave |
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Re: Is the universe a quantum computer?
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I agree that it is pretty obvious that the Universe is a quantum computer. Think about it from programmer's perspective. If you create a program, is there anything that you can't do? Well, there are laws in nature that can't be broke. But suppose you could if you say, traveled really fast. Suppose you could freeze time just like in a video game. This would most likely stop movement also, but does it stop reality. No. The only difference is that whatever it is that takes one moment on to the next is not on. It is 0 instead of 1. What if it was 0 and 1 at the same time. Therefor if the only reason that you are where you are when you are is because you are observing that. The mind is always thinking just like the sun comes up at the same time everyday. This movement is constant, just like our existence is constant. Every location you ever where is relevent to everything else. Given a time and place, say New York City, June 1, 2000 @ 1:00 p.m., in your computer program you could put yourself there. Whatever happened and will happen will not affect you, even if you went back 200 years and killed your great great grandfather. The fact is that you exist in your mind and in spacetime, so your parents might never be born in that realm, but in another realm that are. I just want to know how to stop time, take a step, start time, and to all percievers I simply moved from point A to point B without taking any time, thus there was really no movement. I want to be in two places at once. Don't you? |
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Re: Is the universe a quantum computer?
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It could be that the universe is a logic circuit that is a closed feedback loop. The infinite tower of turtles would no longer be necessary.
There is a duality of physics for a circle of radius R and 1/R . Objects and the interstellar space within the galaxies shrink in tandem, while the intergalactic space shrinks at a slower rate, which gives the local perception of expanding intergalactic spacetime. It would really be a self contained "logic loop".
[<-[->[<-[->[U]<-]->]<-]->]
So the boundary for the universe is that it has no boundary. Universal resonance.
Very similar to the transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics, but also different.
Why not describe Einstein's equation as a rule that tells the geometry of space how to evolve as function of time? Lorentzian manifolds M, diffeomorphic to R x S, where the manifold S represents space, and t, an element of R, represents time. So spacetime is sliced into instants of time as an arbitrary choice, or possibly units of Planck's constant.
F: M---> R x S
Spacetime becomes quantized or "sliced up" but that could be what nature really does. According to relativity, an objects position and momentum can only be defined with respect to a another object. Yet the universe as a whole has no frame of reference outside of itself, so how can its momentum be defined? It can only be defined with reference to itself. Worldlines fill up spacetime and the criss crossing of world lines mark events beyond the need for coordinate systems or coordinates. Points in spacetime are given the name "events" so there is a coordinate independence.
The geometric view of physics means that the laws of physics are the same in every Lorentz reference system. Local Lorentz invariance. But since the universe has no exterior reference frame, and it must refer to itself, its world line intersects with itself. This quantized-evolution of spacetime dictated by GR and QM, means that the world line of the past intersects with the world lines of the present, for the universe. A geometric stacking of space like slices, parameterized by t, The universe is a function of itself. Spacetime becomes compressed. As the time evolution proceeds in the thermodynamic direction of t, the space like sheets continually increase in density. The information storage of space time.
Is it possible to also derive Einstein's field equation strictly in terms of quantum mechanical operators? using n-dimensional cross sections of cotangent vector spaces? Near a massive object M, the *isobar* cross sections increase in density, as wavefunction density gradients?
Two compression waves, in phase, with the same amplitude and wavelength moving in opposite directions, become resonating "standing waves":
As the entropy continues to increase in the universe, and if the universe is a closed system, the entropy may be considered to be the interpretation of a "damping force". This damping force may also be one possible solution to the dark matter enigma.
Solve the Schwarzschild solution for the entire universe, since the universe can be postulated to be a closed system with nothing outside itself. The condition of "nothingness" leads one to ask "What are the properties of nothingness?" Of course there are no measurable properties, but nothingness in itself must be a type of massless solid. A condition that has no distance - metric scales. In other words, there is no outside to the universe, no measurable border between something and nothing.
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