Ask HN: Is the real world computational all the way down?
Stephen Wolfram states the entire universe is computational all the way down. Guillermo Rauch recently tweeted: Everything is code.
These may be soundbites. But I've been thinking about how the take-off of spatial intelligence within AI is setting the stage for actually expressing everything as source code.
I recently co-authored a paper on highly programmable 3D. For that, I surveyed quite a bit of the field. Philosophically speaking, when I see the likes of Astra/Fable generating ThreeJS, Blender or CAD objects, I feel this expressiveness can conceivably one day eat everything.
As they improve at synthesizing higher order differentials, their ability to produce unique shapes will improve too. And because code can express form and functionality both, expressing abilities is basically just encoding attributes in the software:
- I.e. when a leg is moved, at its core, it's something like rig['Leg_*_Hip'].rotation = 42° - When a vehicle turns, we're essentially doing something like w.rotation.y = 0.42 rad - When a jello jiggles, it's something like Σ A·e^(−λr)·e^(−decay·τ)·[(1−b) + b·cos(ωτ − kr)] · p̂
Have you seen code that has lasted for more than a few years that is able to handle all the changes around it without crashing? These days code has to be uodated every other hour just to give the apparence of stability.
its a very stupid mechanism if you want to create a scallop that lasts 500 million years surviving every possible change in the environment through that period.
So one can say, what's missing from this mental model is localized intelligence that is able to update said code on runtime.
Let's give that job to the scallop - and of course not code it.
> - I.e. when a leg is moved, at its core, it's something like rig['Leg_*_Hip'].rotation = 42°
Not much good for walking.
Yea of course. Wasn't meant to be a realistic example. More like a starting point.
> Stephen Wolfram states the entire universe is computational all the way down.
File with Deepak Chopra's Quantum Healing.