tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4367190233877799632.post3234714109435699461..comments2024-02-27T09:51:03.152-08:00Comments on On Memetics: Tim Tyler: Darwinian physicsTim Tylerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06623536372084468307noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4367190233877799632.post-80756409136390427562014-07-05T10:15:31.166-07:002014-07-05T10:15:31.166-07:00Hi Tim,
Good to see you are thinking about the im...Hi Tim,<br /><br />Good to see you are thinking about the important topic of Darwinism in physics.<br /><br />I recently came across a paper by Gerard 't Hooft, the Nobel Prize winner who amongst many other accomplishments introduced the Holographic Principle to physics. This monumental 207 page paper is title 'The Cellular Automaton Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics' and summarizes 't Hooft's research program on this subject over the past couple of decades. (http://arxiv.org/abs/1405.1548)<br /><br />While his theory is not explicitly Darwinian he considers that fundamentally Quantum physics takes place near the Planck scale where bits of information are confined to Planckian areas and may interact only with their nearest neighbors in a fully causal and deterministic manner. He considers standard quantum theory to be a statistical summary of these interactions. While information coded on an area that codes for physics within a volume may be a close analogy to biology's genotype/phenotype duality 't Hoofts theory requires a lot of development before it may be considered Darwinian.<br /><br />Lee Smolin's recent paper Temporal Naturalism (http://arxiv.org/abs/1310.8539) reads like a Darwinian manifesto and one gets the impression that Smolin's views have undergone a fundamental shift. He suggests that our conception of nature should be based on a model of evolution rather than on a mathematical model (quote): <br /><br /> I propose we develop a conception of nature contrary to the mathematical universe, based on taking time and its passage through a succession of present moments to be real and fundamental<br /><br />Wojciech Zurek has extended Quantum Darwinism into the realm of quantum gravity. One of the most promising approaches to quantum gravity in the 90s was the theory of Decoherent Histories which worked with the wave function of the universe. Unfortunately it was found that the theory predicted a huge amount of things that didn't happen along with those that did. Zurek is attempting to use Quantum Darwinism as a selection mechanism (http://arxiv.org/abs/1312.0331). He has promised a further paper on this subject.<br /><br />I am currently working on a book titled 'Darwin does Physics' and given your interest in the subject was wondering if you would be like to read some sections for the purpose of discussion.<br /><br />In the Social Sciences I found Herbert Gintis' paper 'A framework for the unification of the behavioral sciences' to be of interest. Have you seen this paper and do you have any views on it?<br /><br />Cheers<br />John Campbell<br /><br /><br />Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09580368820280302343noreply@blogger.com