Is “the theory of everything” merely the ultimate ensemble theory? Export

@misc{citeulike:940795, abstract = {We discuss some physical consequences of what might be called ``the ultimate ensemble theory'', where not only worlds corresponding to say different sets of initial data or different physical constants are considered equally real, but also worlds ruled by altogether different equations. The only postulate in this theory is that all structures that exist mathematically exist also physically, by which we mean that in those complex enough to contain self-aware substructures (SASs), these SASs will subjectively perceive themselves as existing in a physically ``real'' world. We find that it is far from clear that this simple theory, which has no free parameters whatsoever, is observationally ruled out. The predictions of the theory take the form of probability distributions for the outcome of experiments, which makes it testable. In addition, it may be possible to rule it out by comparing its a priori predictions for the observable attributes of nature (the particle masses, the dimensionality of spacetime, etc) with what is observed.}, archivePrefix = {arXiv}, author = {Tegmark, Max}, citeulike-article-id = {940795}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9704009}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://arxiv.org/pdf/gr-qc/9704009}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1998AnPhy.270....1T}, day = {1}, eprint = {gr-qc/9704009}, keywords = {accessibility, all-categorical-structures, all-mathematical-structures, all-possible-worlds, complexity, computability, computability-theory, constructivization, control, controlability, decision-procedure, exploitation, exploiting, exploration, exploring, extendability, extraction, formal-interoperability, formal-problem-solving, formal-science, formal-theories, formalization-hypothesis, goedel-machine, hierarchy-of-machines, higher-dimensional-category-theory, hypercomputability, hypercomputing, hyperefficiency, intelligence-order-relations, interconnectivity, interoperability, mathematical-structures, metaevolution, metalogical-frameworks, metalogics, metamathematical-frameworks, metamathematics, metaphilosophy, metascience, metaselection, philosophy-of-science, physical-structures, power, presentation, quantum-computability, regularities, representation, resource-allocation, selection, specification, survivability, topos-theory, transformation}, month = {Dec}, posted-at = {2007-07-15 18:08:19}, priority = {2}, title = {Is ``the theory of everything'' merely the ultimate ensemble theory?}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9704009}, year = {1998} }

TY - ELEC ID - citeulike:940795 L3 - citeulike-article-id:940795 N2 - We discuss some physical consequences of what might be called ``the ultimate ensemble theory'', where not only worlds corresponding to say different sets of initial data or different physical constants are considered equally real, but also worlds ruled by altogether different equations. The only postulate in this theory is that all structures that exist mathematically exist also physically, by which we mean that in those complex enough to contain self-aware substructures (SASs), these SASs will subjectively perceive themselves as existing in a physically ``real'' world. We find that it is far from clear that this simple theory, which has no free parameters whatsoever, is observationally ruled out. The predictions of the theory take the form of probability distributions for the outcome of experiments, which makes it testable. In addition, it may be possible to rule it out by comparing its a priori predictions for the observable attributes of nature (the particle masses, the dimensionality of spacetime, etc) with what is observed. TI - Is ``the theory of everything'' merely the ultimate ensemble theory? KW - accessibility KW - all-categorical-structures KW - all-mathematical-structures KW - all-possible-worlds KW - complexity KW - computability KW - computability-theory KW - constructivization KW - control KW - controlability KW - decision-procedure KW - exploitation KW - exploiting KW - exploration KW - exploring KW - extendability KW - extraction KW - formal-interoperability KW - formal-problem-solving KW - formal-science KW - formal-theories KW - formalization-hypothesis KW - goedel-machine KW - hierarchy-of-machines KW - higher-dimensional-category-theory KW - hypercomputability KW - hypercomputing KW - hyperefficiency KW - intelligence-order-relations KW - interconnectivity KW - interoperability KW - mathematical-structures KW - metaevolution KW - metalogical-frameworks KW - metalogics KW - metamathematical-frameworks KW - metamathematics KW - metaphilosophy KW - metascience KW - metaselection KW - philosophy-of-science KW - physical-structures KW - power KW - presentation KW - quantum-computability KW - regularities KW - representation KW - resource-allocation KW - selection KW - specification KW - survivability KW - topos-theory KW - transformation AU - Tegmark, Max PY - 1998/Dec/01/ UR - http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9704009 ER -