Monkey Business - Part II
Its all fine to monkey around with some typewriters, but what about where the monkeys came from; where did life come from, and in fact how did the universe get here? Was it by chance, random happenings like the monkey's typing randomly on the keyboards, or was there some non-random causative influence. What if the monkeys were typing in computer programs? Could computers execute the program? Well, Seth LLoyd in his book Programming the Universe has some very interesting revelations about this.
Actually, these questions concern some of the most heavy philosophical and religious questions ever posed by man, as well as questions in the areas of quantum physics and information theory. Did life evolve from a random collision of fundamental particles that by chance evolved into combinations that had survival potential? Current molecular biologists are working very hard to support this theory, and have made some convincing arguments for how some of the basic materials of life could have evolved. Yet, even they admit there are big holes in the theory for which they have no answers. I am going to cop out and not go into any details, because it is beyond the scope of this article, but Lloyd argues that the current state of the universe could not have come about by chance. He argues that there is much too much organization present to be accounted for by chance. He believes there were physical laws which governed its development. This brings me to one of the two topics I would like to take up though.
First, how the physical universe acts as a computer.
As in the classic experiment by Galileo, if you roll a ball down an inclined plane, the laws of the physical universe can actually compute for you. Let's say in the first second of travel down the inclined plane that the ball travels distance D. Then in the 2nd second of travel it will travel 3 times as far as the first second, or a total distance of 4D. In the third second, because its speed is accelerating, it will travel 5 times as far as in the first second, or a total distance of 9D. And so on. If we put this in a table we would see:
So, if we wanted to know the square of a number, we could easily calculate it with a ball and the inclined plane (if the plane were long enough). What is calculating the result? Its the physical law of the acceleration of gravity. The physical universe, with its law is calculating for us.
By extending this idea, we find this is how quantum computers work. Only this time it is laws concerning particles like electrons and how they behave. Though the laws get quite weird by our normal intuitive standards, like the fact particles are in multiple states simultaneously, they are nonetheless predictable laws of our universe. Notice that we could go about trying to get the inclined plane and ball to calculate for us, but whether we gave it an input and looked at the output, it would still be calculating.
Lloyd goes beyond the idea that humans have to be involved in giving input to one of these physical computing devices. This is not necessary to make it into a physical computer. He shows how things like electrons and atoms are computing all the time. They are in a certain state and based on what they encounter, and the physical laws of this universe, they change state, or compute, accordingly. And taken to the final conclusion, he believes the whole universe is computing constantly and its result is what we see observe as the physical universe. I know I have skipped a lot here, but read the book and you will be filled in on all the missing steps in logic. Its really a quite convincing theory.
Next, how physical matter, and the universe, stores data.
Actually, these questions concern some of the most heavy philosophical and religious questions ever posed by man, as well as questions in the areas of quantum physics and information theory. Did life evolve from a random collision of fundamental particles that by chance evolved into combinations that had survival potential? Current molecular biologists are working very hard to support this theory, and have made some convincing arguments for how some of the basic materials of life could have evolved. Yet, even they admit there are big holes in the theory for which they have no answers. I am going to cop out and not go into any details, because it is beyond the scope of this article, but Lloyd argues that the current state of the universe could not have come about by chance. He argues that there is much too much organization present to be accounted for by chance. He believes there were physical laws which governed its development. This brings me to one of the two topics I would like to take up though.
First, how the physical universe acts as a computer.
As in the classic experiment by Galileo, if you roll a ball down an inclined plane, the laws of the physical universe can actually compute for you. Let's say in the first second of travel down the inclined plane that the ball travels distance D. Then in the 2nd second of travel it will travel 3 times as far as the first second, or a total distance of 4D. In the third second, because its speed is accelerating, it will travel 5 times as far as in the first second, or a total distance of 9D. And so on. If we put this in a table we would see:
So, if we wanted to know the square of a number, we could easily calculate it with a ball and the inclined plane (if the plane were long enough). What is calculating the result? Its the physical law of the acceleration of gravity. The physical universe, with its law is calculating for us.
By extending this idea, we find this is how quantum computers work. Only this time it is laws concerning particles like electrons and how they behave. Though the laws get quite weird by our normal intuitive standards, like the fact particles are in multiple states simultaneously, they are nonetheless predictable laws of our universe. Notice that we could go about trying to get the inclined plane and ball to calculate for us, but whether we gave it an input and looked at the output, it would still be calculating.
Lloyd goes beyond the idea that humans have to be involved in giving input to one of these physical computing devices. This is not necessary to make it into a physical computer. He shows how things like electrons and atoms are computing all the time. They are in a certain state and based on what they encounter, and the physical laws of this universe, they change state, or compute, accordingly. And taken to the final conclusion, he believes the whole universe is computing constantly and its result is what we see observe as the physical universe. I know I have skipped a lot here, but read the book and you will be filled in on all the missing steps in logic. Its really a quite convincing theory.
Next, how physical matter, and the universe, stores data.
posted by Eclectricz at
12:50 AM
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