"Quantum physics is almost phrased in terms of information processing it's suggestive that you will find information processing at the root of everything."
Vlatko Vedral, University of Oxford On so many levels the universe appears to operate at a binary level (up, down, +/-, spin and so many other properties) One of the fundamental aspects of reality that I have been curious about -- since hearing about the signal picked up (in 2008) by the GEO 600 gravitational wave detector in Hannover, Germany that seemed to suggest that space-time is pixelated -- is whether reality is pixelated. Is there a smallest pixel of space time (or does space time have infinite room at the bottom scale) If reality is pixelated at this fundamental level then it seems more likely to be computable; however if the Hannover signal was misinterpreted and even the smallest imaginable chunk of space time can forever be sub-divided into smaller and smaller space-time locus' or regions then computability becomes harder to imagine. Given the volume of posts on this list I am sure this has been talked about before, after all its not new news. I am wondering if the Hannover signals (and the interpretation of those signals) have been reconfirmed or not. Cheers, Chris From: everything-list@googlegroups.com [mailto:everything-list@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of LizR Sent: Monday, October 21, 2013 1:57 PM To: everything-list@googlegroups.com Subject: String theory and superconductors and classical liquids... ...these are a few of my favourite things! In the 12/10/13 issue of "New Scientist", in an article entitled "All or nothing?" I read that "certain aspects of the behaviour of [high temperature superconductors] are much easier to capture using the mathematics of string theory." And... "every state of matter matches up with a gravitational scenario that can be described using (...) string theory. Superconductors can be understood as stars made of charged particles and (...) Higgs bosons. Classical liquids can be modelled using the mathematics of black holes that do not have spin and have no electric charge." That struck me as rather mind-boggling. How can a theory of 10 (?) dimensional space-time and vibrating strings relate stars to superconductors, etc? (And are there other parallelisms waiting to be discovered - other physical phenomena that are mathematically identical when they go through the looking glass, as it were?) This seems to me to be saying something profound about reality. I just wish I knew what it was. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
