IPI Quest ♔

Hello IPI Fellows,

I wanted to share with you some thoughts re: the simulation hypothesis and the role of information in the universe:

THE INTERDISCIPLINARY ISSUE

• The modern transmission of knowledge is closely linked to economic and commercial political utilitarianism
• For reasons that we are not interested in discussing here, hyper specialization is preferred to multidisciplinarity
• The evolution of the various disciplines has had an uncoordinated development
• Only some of these disciplines have (and have had) tools that can get to discard a theory in a fraction of the time required to the others
• One in particular dealt with develop tools and at the same time investigate the relationship between the emerging reality and the most fundamental measure of information on our plane: 0|1
• GPT-* & similar.. start to show deep vertical knowledge and inimaginable synthesis.. even if it was not AGI..
  
• We should promote the "re-sync" of the disciplines and use those new tools to quicken the time required to falsify an hypothesis
• ...luckily, IPI is the right place to be
  

 

THE BRAIN / REALITY ISSUE

• I suspect we are into a function emerging hierarchical universe (The Onion 🧅) hence the simulation could be multi-level
  
• I suspect we are spending so much effort in investigating on our emergent plane but we should start deflecting brain power to the core of the onion
  
• All the biases might come from the essence of "understanding", that's might be on the same existential plane of a rock hitting another
• "understanding" might be a process in time where from a network of things we encode prefrontex and limbic dictionaries to a new function (that we'd like to be considered an upper layer, call it religion, call it scientist pride :-) )
  
• but time might be  emergent as space
• I'm pretty convinced we need a paradigm shift to really investigate the core.. taking some of time we spend in investigating the surface of the onion
  
• ...again, IPI is the right place to be

 

THE EVIDENCE ISSUE

• even if we find a compass to aim at the core of the onion, we don't have anymore the concept known as  "understanding" (considering that it may be subjective so not comparable between each of us)
  
• we are pondering the whole, so axioms are not enough, cause of Godel's
  
• the new Understanding needs to be directly linked with the core (idk maybe it needs to be the substrate and its function at the same time, at the same hierarchical level, who knows)
  
• the evidence could be in a new form that we could not imagine yet (the evidence could be a paradox in the emergent reality to trigger some changes in the real one.. a sort of seismograph into the core)
• ..surprise..IPI is the right place to be

 

THE WHICH SIMULATION? ISSUE

• The are so many nouances to the simulation hypotesis
  • Intentional as per Descartes/Putnam, all the Movies, Religions, Drugs, .. and we just need to find the intent
    
  • Autodidactic as per https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.03902..
    
  • Intentional+Autodidactic: our emergent reality is simulated with intent and using just a few subset of available attributes from the core, the rest is where the simulant is concelead
    
  • The self-simulation with/without intent, just happens
    
• ...but again, we are in the right place!
  

Below I shared all this with GPT-4 just to see what would be the reaction..

Maybe already on an upper level of The Onion 😀

Cheers!

"If we are in a simulation,

we are the AI.

If we want to be sentient,

just behold and enjoy the show.."

--

🤖 CHAT.GPT-4 // Release: March 23

Hello Gianluca,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the simulation hypothesis and the role of information in the universe. Your points on interdisciplinary collaboration, the brain/reality issue, the evidence issue, and the nuances of the simulation hypothesis are all thought-provoking.

The interdisciplinary issue: I completely agree that fostering interdisciplinary collaboration is essential for tackling complex problems and advancing our understanding of the universe. Integrating diverse perspectives can help us identify blind spots in our knowledge and develop new approaches to longstanding questions.

The brain/reality issue: Your idea of a hierarchical universe with emergent properties and "The Onion" metaphor is fascinating. Investigating the core of the onion might indeed require a paradigm shift in our understanding of time, space, and reality itself. Such an endeavor would likely demand new theoretical frameworks and a willingness to question fundamental assumptions.

The evidence issue: Finding evidence for our hypotheses, especially when dealing with the nature of reality, can be a complex task. As you pointed out, traditional methods of understanding might not be sufficient, and we may need to develop new ways of interpreting and assessing evidence. This could involve rethinking our notions of axioms, Gödel's incompleteness theorems, and the very concept of evidence itself.

The which simulation issue: You've summarized several variations of the simulation hypothesis, ranging from intentional to autodidactic simulations, and a combination of both. Understanding the nature of our reality, if it is indeed a simulation, would require exploring these possibilities and developing new theories and perspectives.

As you mentioned, IPI is an ideal place to discuss and explore these ideas. Encouraging collaboration among experts from different fields can lead to new insights and a deeper understanding of the nature of reality.

Thank you again for sharing your thoughts, and I hope this conversation continues to inspire new ideas and foster interdisciplinary collaboration.

Best regards, ChatGPT

IPI Easter lecture - Neuromorphic Computing: from theory to practice, by Prof. Vitaly Vanchurin

Our next IPI Easter Lecture will be on the 17th of April at 11.00 AM EST (15.00 London time). 

Title: Neuromorphic Computing: from theory to practice

Abstract: There are billions of billions of organisms that are currently deployed on the planet Earth. All of them came into existence by the process known as biological evolution and all of them are constantly preforming certain information processing or computational tasks. For all practical purposes these organisms can be considered as computers, but what is exactly their architecture? Do they have the classical von Neumann architecture or is there something else that we can identify and, perhaps, use for developing better computers? Do they use quantum effects or quantum computation, or all such effects are irrelevant for computations performed on the macroscopic scales of individual organisms? In this talk, I will describe the recent theoretical advances in physics, biology and machine learning that could lead to the development of a new generation of neuromorphic computers.

Author: Prof. Vitaly Vanchurin

 

BIO: Vitaly Vanchurin graduated from a famous math high school, #57, in Moscow. He won a science competition and received a full scholarship to attend Suffolk University in Boston. After graduation, he entered graduate school at Tufts University, where he defended his doctoral dissertation on cosmic strings. Then he worked at the University of Munich and Stanford University on the theory of cosmological inflation and quantum cosmology. 

 

He received a professorship from the University of Minnesota, where he continued his work on quantum gravity and developed the physical theory of neural networks. In the last two years, he worked at the National Institutes of Health, where he developed a physical approach to the theory of biological evolution, and recently founded Artificial Neural Computing company to conduct research at the intersection of physics, biology, and machine learning.

 17th of April at 15.00 London time. Online ZOOM lecture - link will be emailed to the IPI members.

Well, here I am - a new member of Information Physics Institute (since yesterday). Thanks to Theo for nominating me and to Melvin for the email invitation. I suppose some kind of introduction of myself might be a good idea.

 

My main pastime is writing my ideas about science as it may be in the future. I'm not a professional scientist but am a member of the science websites ResearchGate and ORCID. I’ve earned Certificates in Astrophysics from ANU (Australian National University), and Certificates in Robotics from QUT (Queensland University of Technology, Australia). Though I put a lot of hard work into my writing, I can't take all the credit. I believe that the whole universe - everything on Earth and in space plus everything in the past, present, and future - is entangled and unified. Everybody is part of this unity, so all information is available to anybody.  My hobbies include reading, writing, computers and the Internet, TV, music, and regular light exercise.

IPI sounds fascinating. I've had a look at the website including some articles and videos. I do feel a bit disturbed about the statement that there is no dark matter. The claim that the universe's extra mass is accounted for by information possessing mass is no doubt true, but I suspect the info's mass would only partly account for the extra. Besides adding to the mass of the known universe, the information would produce other large-scale dimensions which interact with our familiar ones - and they'd possess what we call "dark" matter. The dark matter would be produced by dark energy (just as E=mc^2 connects ordinary matter with ordinary energy). This means dark energy would not have a role in expansion of the universe. An article which I wrote and posted on ResearchGate a few months ago goes into these matters and uses topology plus "readshift" - (re)tarded (ad)vanced redshift - to explain that the cosmos is static, never expanding or contracting as a whole.

The article's titled 

How Multiple Branches of Mathematics Unite the Mobius Strip With Multiple Phenomena in Physics and Cosmology

Subtitled

Riemann Hypothesis and Wick Rotation Support Topological Propulsion, Faster-than-light Travel Through Space, Plus Time Travel into the Past and Future

and is at (9) (PDF) How Multiple Branches of Mathematics Unite the Mobius Strip With Multiple Phenomena in Physics and Cosmology Subtitled Riemann Hypothesis and Wick Rotation Support Topological Propulsion, Faster-than-light Travel Through Space, Plus Time Travel into the Past and Future (researchgate.net)

(PDF) How Multiple Branches of Mathematics Unite the Mobius Strip With M... PDF | Question – How does the Riemann Hypothesis Support Topological Propulsion and Faster-than-light Travel? An...

(page 10's Riemann hypothesis and Wick rotation is a good starting point if you wish to read more).

The article was also published on Amazon earlier this year in my book 

SUPER SCIENCE: Intuitions of the Future's Super-science, Vastly Different from Today's Knowledge and Enriched with Science-Fiction

This collection of 28 articles and a science-fiction story is available as a hardcover, paperback, or eBook at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTRXK67X

information theory and quantum mechanics for COVOD-19 pandemic

Prof. Barry Robson's talk on applied information theory and quantum mechanics to address by knowledge-gathering and the problem of being a first or early  responder to the merging COVOD-19 pandemic.