Collateral Software
A blog by fschuindt

Philosophical Perceiving Of Bits As The Fundamental Particles Of Our Universe

This post is archived.

Part of: Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry

Off-topic

UPDATE on 08-08-2020: I no longer believe this is accurate. Instead I see many flaws in it, the bigger being the misunderstanding of the Heisenberg’s Microscope thought experiment.

Modern physics describe our Universe as built of Fundamental Particles. In 1814, the French mathematician, physicist and astronomer Pierre-Simon Laplace stated:

We may regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its past and the cause of its future. An intellect which at a certain moment would know all forces that set nature in motion, and all positions of all items of which nature is composed, if this intellect were also vast enough to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in a single formula the movements of the greatest bodies of the universe and those of the tiniest atom; for such an intellect nothing would be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes.

This philosophical perception became known as the Laplace’s Demon.

Knowing each one of the fundamental particles of our Universe, where they are and how they interact with each other is enough to compute the whole past, present and future of everything in it.

Standard Model of Elementary Particles

Thinking about it raises me questions about the capability of creating a digital/simulated Universe.

You may say we already live in a simulation just like Matrix (which satisfies the Simulation Hypothesis), or we live in a real world. But none of those conditions remove us the possibility of creating ourselves a Universe simulation inside this one.

Once you know the nature of everything in a system, you can compute it. Incomputable programs only exists when some information is missing. That means everything in the Universe is computable, we just don’t have the information.

But from here we all must agree that consciousness (human thinking, emotions, imagination) is also computable. It fits inside a (x, y, z) dimensioned brain, which is inside this universe, no need to wonder.

No matter what you believe in, if we aren’t in agreement with each other, it’s due to some kind of religion/spiritual thing.

If you assume:

Then:

  • You assume every Fundamental Particle can be described in terms of 0 and 1.

So the real Fundamental Particles of the Universe can be perceived as 0 and 1.
The minimal components to describe all the other particles(?).

That’s a big question.

Now I see myself in the obligation to quote this part of the Yin and yang Wikipedia page:

In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang (陰陽 yīnyáng, lit. “dark-bright”, “negative-positive”) describe how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.

Nature seems to replicate itself in different scales, from galaxies, moons, particles. And we see many fundamental dualities present in everything. I’m not pushing to spirituality (far from it), but it’s a remarkable pattern in our lives.

Clarifying the Uncertainty Principle

Some people think that in Quantum Mechanics particles (and/or information) are created from nothing or just to please the observer. This is wrong. The Uncertainty Principle exists because we don’t posses a device to proceed those measurements in subatomic level without interacting with the system.

To look to a particle using something like (let’s say) an optic microscope, you will need to fire light to the particle so it reflects its image back to you. But the photon will interact with the particle and will change its state. So the measurement is uncertain.

References

In order of relevance.

Illustrations

  • A part of Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry from the Books of Hours.
  • Standard Model of Elementary Particles from Wikipedia.