I think Wolfram is probably doing excellent maths, but is doing physics in a somewhat backwards way.
I think good physics starts with observations, things that we notice as patterns or similar. Then seek good explanations of what we see.
In the link they start with an extremely general mathematical framework, with infinitely many different possible update rules. We have only ever (as a civilisation) seen a finite number of data points, and that will always be the case. Therefore, of this infinite number of update rules there are infinitely many that (given the right interpretational handles) can “explain” all human experiments ever performed perfectly. Of those infinite set of equations, the vast majority are about to be disproved by the very next observation.
I think that the mathematical structure Wolfram lays out is powerful enough that, without specifics, it can support anything. Any kind of universe. That may include ours, but that doesn’t tell us anything useful, because it also includes all the nonsense. By starting with the maths and then trying to “work up to” the physics I worry that this is like The Library of Babel of physics theories. Something equivalent to a true theory of everything is in the Wolfram framework somewhere, just like it is in the Library of Babel somewhere.
The fundamental flaw, as I see it, is from trying to start with the maths. Better to pick a single observation that current theories don’t explain well, try and fix that one problem. Most of the time this just reveals an error in the experiment or perhaps misuse of existing theory. But every so often it shows a glaring problem with the models we have, that is how we make physics better.
I think Wolfram is probably doing excellent maths, but is doing physics in a somewhat backwards way.
I think good physics starts with observations, things that we notice as patterns or similar. Then seek good explanations of what we see.
In the link they start with an extremely general mathematical framework, with infinitely many different possible update rules. We have only ever (as a civilisation) seen a finite number of data points, and that will always be the case. Therefore, of this infinite number of update rules there are infinitely many that (given the right interpretational handles) can “explain” all human experiments ever performed perfectly. Of those infinite set of equations, the vast majority are about to be disproved by the very next observation.
I think that the mathematical structure Wolfram lays out is powerful enough that, without specifics, it can support anything. Any kind of universe. That may include ours, but that doesn’t tell us anything useful, because it also includes all the nonsense. By starting with the maths and then trying to “work up to” the physics I worry that this is like The Library of Babel of physics theories. Something equivalent to a true theory of everything is in the Wolfram framework somewhere, just like it is in the Library of Babel somewhere.
The fundamental flaw, as I see it, is from trying to start with the maths. Better to pick a single observation that current theories don’t explain well, try and fix that one problem. Most of the time this just reveals an error in the experiment or perhaps misuse of existing theory. But every so often it shows a glaring problem with the models we have, that is how we make physics better.
[Library of Babel : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Library_of_Babel]