The Last Theory

Dugan Hammock lives in the fourth dimension. As Jonathan Gorard mentioned in our recent conversation on How to draw the hypergraph in Wolfram Physics, Dugan has worked on plotting the evolution of the hypergraph over time. We get into that in the second part of our conversation, but in this first part, I get to know Dugan as a mathematician and artist. Enjoy his amazing animations of three-dimensi...

Computational irreducibility means that there are no shortcuts when we apply rules to the hypergraph. I used to think that our existing theories of physics, such as general relativity and quantum mechanics, were examples of computational reducibility : shortcuts that allow us to make higher-level generalizations about how the application of rules to the hypergraph gives rise to our universe. Jonat...

There are two questions about Wolfram Physics I’m asked a lot: What’s beyond the hypergraph? And what’s between the nodes and edges of the hypergraph? There’s a simple answer to this question. Nothing. There’s nothing beyond the hypergraph. There’s nothing beyond the universe. But it’s not a very effective answer. So here’s a deeper response to the age-old question: What’s beyond the universe? – I...

The hypergraph is the universe. So if we want to see the universe, we need only draw the hypergraph. The question is: how? The nodes and edges of the hypergraph are determined by the rules of Wolfram Physics. But how we draw those nodes and edges is not determined. The drawing of the hypergraph is not the universe, it’s just a way of visualizing the universe. So I asked Jonathan Gorard how we migh...

What is the Big Bang in Wolfram Physics? There’s a straightforward answer to that question. It’s the point in the evolution of the universe where the hypergraph goes from nothing to something. It’s the start of the explosion that eventually yields the uncountable particles, planets, stars and galaxies of our universe. So that’s pretty straightforward, isn’t it? Well, yes, except that there’s one p...

Here’s a slightly technical question: Does Wolfram Physics really need hypergraphs ? Or could it based on graphs instead? Jonathan Gorard shares some interesting insights into the evolution of Stephen Wolfram’s model for a fundamental theory of physics. Wolfram started with trivalent graphs, in which each edge joins two nodes, and each node has three edges. But when he ran into issues implementing...

I’ve been blown away by your response to The Last Theory in 2022. How am I going to thank you for reading, listening, watching and subscribing? Well, by bringing you more Wolfram Physics in the New Year, that’s how. Here are 7 directions I want to take The Last Theory in 2023. — I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here . The full article is here . Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Wolfram Physics is based on hypergraphs. Why? What is it about hypergraphs that might make them a better model of the universe than, say, strings of characters, or cellular automata, or Turing machines? When I asked Jonathan Gorard this question, he gave an answer that was deeply insightful. It’s such a core question, so fundamental to why we should take the Wolfram model seriously, that I’ve list...

For the last few hundred years, all our theories of physics have been mathematical . If Stephen Wolfram is right, from now on, our most fundamental theories of physics may be computational . This shift from mathematics to computation feels to me like a scientific revolution. Recently, I asked Jonathan Gorard, who was instrumental in the founding of The Wolfram Physics Project, whether it feels to...

Jonathan Gorard admits that it was a risk, for his academic career, to work on the Wolfram Physics project. In this third excerpt from my recent conversation with Jonathan, I asked him how he thought about that risk and why he decided to take it. He told me that the opportunity to work with Stephen Wolfram on this new model is a bit like being given an opportunity to work with von Neumann and Ulam...

In Episode 15: Where to apply Wolfram’s rules? ( listen to the audio ⋅ watch the video ⋅ read the article ) I introduced a radical idea. When we’re applying a rule to a graph in Wolfram Physics, there are generally many possible places in the graph we could apply the rule, giving us many possible next states of the universe. Here’s the radical idea: rather than choose one of these possible univers...

This is the second of a series of excerpts from my recent conversation with Jonathan Gorard, who was instrumental in the founding of The Wolfram Physics Project. I asked Jonathan why he found the computational approach to physics so compelling. In his answer, he broached a wide range of fascinating topics in the philosophy of science: how we moved from a clockwork paradigm in the age of clockwork...

In my conversation with Jonathan Gorard about the founding of the Wolfram Physics Project, I said that I don’t like String Theory. Now, I’ll admit, I don’t really understand String Theory. It’s highly mathematical. And I’m not much of a mathematician. Actually, that’s an understatement. I’m not a mathematician at all. So if there’s a problem in the relationship between String Theory and me, it mig...

In 2019, Jonathan Gorard and Max Piskunov goaded Stephen Wolfram into pursuing his ideas for a new kind of science. This led to the announcement of The Wolfram Physics Project in 2020. Last week, I talked to Jonathan Gorard about the revolutionary ideas that have come out of the project. In this first excerpt from our conversation, Jonathan talks about his instrumental role in the founding of The...

Wolfram Physics models the universe as a hypergraph. Maybe I’m just seeing things, but it seems to me that hypergraphs are everywhere : physics, chemistry, biology, neurology, ecology, sociology, technology. What I want to know is: Why? Why are hypergraphs everywhere? — Molecular structure Styrene-butadiene chain2 by Guido Raos, professor of chemistry, Politecnico di Milano, Italy licensed under C...

As you’ll know from Episode 8: Where’s the computer that runs the universe? ( read ⋅ listen ⋅ watch ), I have my doubts about the existence of a computer that’s whirring away, applying Wolfram’s rules to Wolfram’s graphs, performing the computations required to run our universe. This computer, if it exists, is necessarily invisible to us, and as I warned in Episode 12: Beware invisible things ( re...

Here are answers to some fundamental questions about hypergraphs: A hyperedge can connect any number of nodes: one, two, three, four, seventeen or any other number. And a hypergraph can include any of these different kinds of hyperedge, or all of them. Let’s take a look at what this means for Wolfram Physics... and at some of the beautiful hypergraphs it allows us to generate! I release The Last T...

In previous episodes, I’ve been simulating Wolfram Physics using graphs. But you may have come across simulations of Wolfram Physics using hypergraphs . What’s the difference? What is a hypergraph? — This epsiode refers to previous episodes on dimensionality: How to measure the dimensionality of the universe audio ⋅ video ⋅ article Are Wolfram’s graphs three‑dimensional? audio ⋅ video ⋅ article Wh...

Confession time: I haven’t been entirely honest with you about applying a rule to a graph in Wolfram Physics. I’ve explained precisely how to apply a rule, but I’ve been strangely silent when it comes to where to apply the rule. I know, it’s unlike me to be silent, right? Time to come clean. It turns out that the question of where to apply Wolfram’s rules is not as easily answered as you might thi...

In his General Theory of Relativity, Einstein combined the three dimensions of space with the one dimension of time in what we now know as Einstein’s equations . Ever since, physicists have thought of space and time as effectively the same thing: components of four-dimensional space-time. This might be the biggest blunder physicists have ever made. Stephen Wolfram, on page 22 of his book A project...

We’re used to thinking of space as continuous . A stone can be anywhere in space. It can be here. Or it can be an inch to the left. Or it can be half an inch further to the left. Or it can be an infinitesimal fraction of an inch even further to the left. Space is infinitely divisible. The graphs of Wolfram Physics, however, are discrete . If, as Stephen Wolfram proposes, the universe is a graph, t...

We humans have always been fond of invisible things. Poltergeists, fairies, unicorns, the Yeti, the Lost City of Atlantis. Just because you can’t see them, it doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Scientists, no less than any other humans, suffer from this fondness for invisible things. Phlogiston , miasma , ether , strings . Just because you can’t see them, scientists have insisted, it doesn’t mean the...

We know what it means when we say that our universe is three-dimensional: it means that we can move in three orthogonal directions: left-right; up-down; forwards-backwards. But what would it mean to say that a universe is 2½-dimensional? Or 3.37-dimensional? Or 9-dimensional? When I measured the dimensionality one of Wolfram’s graphs, I found it to be at least 3.37-dimensional. If Stephen Wolfram...

Are Wolfram’s graphs three-dimensional? In Episode #009: How to measure the dimensionality of the universe – watch the video or read the article – I introduced a mathematically-minded crab, which was able to determine the dimensionality of its universe by measuring how much space it covered moving different distances in every possible direction. Now I’m going to use the same crabby method to deter...

Today’s episode includes a lot of visuals, so I recommend you watch the video or read the article rather than listen to the audio. In Episode #007: The expanse: dimension, separation & explosion – watch the video or read the article – I argued that the graphs of Wolfram Physics are going to have to be three-dimensional to be a true representation of our universe. But how can we tell whether th...