Thanks for this. I've downloaded this, and will get to it soon. It sounds like an interesting approach.
On Thu, Apr 09, 2020 at 02:43:41AM +0000, 'Chris de Morsella' via Everything List wrote: > Read a thought provoking hypothesis proposed by Swiss physicist Nicolas Gisin > in four papers he authored that questions the widely accepted block universe > model of Relativity on a mathematical basis, centered on the proposition that > infinitely precise real numbers do not exist in nature. > > Mathematics assumes the existence of infinitely precise real numbers as a > given; Nicolas Gisin questions that assumption. Instead Grisin argues that a > hundred year old branch of mathematics called Intuitionust Mathematics that > rejects the existence of numbers with infinite digitsvof precision is used to > describe the evolution of physical systems, it becomes clear that time really > passes and that new information is being created. > > The block universe model of spacetime argues for a static -- pre-ordained -- > universe in which past, present and future are illusions and all that is > always > has been. > > Modern information theory however shows that information is physical, it > requires both energy and space. He questions how a block universe hypothesis > could contain -- essentially infinite -- all the information encoded in the > block universe in the initial state at the moment of the big bang. > > Intuitionist mathematics accepts the reality of irrational values such as say > pi that have an infinite series of digits of precision because a formula > exists > that can in theory calculate its value to any degree of precision. > > But say we have an arbitrary value x that is initially measured to some point > of precision of x=0.49999 (the example given) and that this value unfurls to > greater and greater degrees of precision. Perhaps the series of 9s continues > forever and thus x is exactly equal to 1/2, but if at any point a digit of > lower value is encountered this quantity will forever be less than 1/2. > Before > that happens we cannot know what x is equal to, our knowledge depends on this > unfolding sequence. > > "But before that happens, when all we know is 0.4999, “we don’t know whether > or > not a digit other than 9 will ever show up,” explained Carl Posy, a > philosopher > of mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a leading expert on > intuitionist math. “At the time we consider this x, we cannot say that x is > less than ½, nor can we say that x equals ½.” The proposition “x is equal to > ½” > is not true, and neither is its negation. The law of the excluded middle > doesn’t hold." > > "In other words, the world is indeterministic; the future is open. Time, Gisin > said, “is not unfolding like a movie in the cinema. It is really a creative > unfolding. The new digits really get created as time passes.”" > > Here is the link to the article, for those interested: https:// > www.quantamagazine.org/ > does-time-really-flow-new-clues-come-from-a-century-old-approach-to-math-20200407 > / > > -- > 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 [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ > everything-list/1883724681.2957102.1586400221647%40mail.yahoo.com. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders [email protected] http://www.hpcoders.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- 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 [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/20200413091932.GA3306%40zen.
