Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast The Last Theory
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The search for solid ground with Stephen Wolfram | 09 Oct 2026 | 00:09:10 | |
Stephen Wolfram talks about how he knows what he knows, the interplay between theory and experiment, and the importance of building towers of knowledge on solid ground. — Stephen Wolfram — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Stop using quantum mechanics to science-wash your delusions | 03 Oct 2026 | 00:09:16 | |
I am tired of hearing quantum mechanics invoked in support of nonsense. You know the kind of thing. Quantum mechanics therefore crystal healing. Quantum mechanics therefore psychic powers. Quantum mechanics therefore homeopathic medicine. Quantum mechanics therefore universal consciousness. Quantum mechanics therefore manifestation. Quantum mechanics therefore reincarnation. Quantum mechanics therefore free will. It’s not just the crazies who do this. I hear otherwise highly intelligent, highly rational thinkers do it all the time. Please stop with the “quantum mechanics therefore nonsense“. Here are 7 reasons to stop using quantum mechanics to science-wash your delusions. — References: — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind The full article is here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| There are no rules in science | 21 Aug 2026 | 00:20:12 | |
I’m forever hearing that there are rules in science. If a theory breaks the rules, I’m told, it must be rejected. Trouble is, if, in the past, we’d rejected any theory that breaks the rules, we’d have rejected Copernicus’s idea that the Earth goes around the Sun, Galileo’s observation that there are mountains on the Moon, Newton’s laws of motion, Einstein’s theories of relativity, quantum mechanics – we’d definitely have rejected quantum mechanics – we’d have rejected everyimportant theory in the history of science. Truth is, every rule for science you’ve ever been taught is wrong. There are no rules in science. So... you may be wondering... if there are no rules, how do you know the difference between a good scientific theory and... nonsense? Well, that’s simple. There’s a formula for a good scientific theory. This 7-word formula has worked for every significant discovery in the history of science. And I’m willing to bet that you’ve never heard of it. — References:
Credits:
— The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind The full article is here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Stephen Wolfram's 10 ways to have big ideas | 28 May 2026 | 00:12:02 | |
Stephen Wolfram is an extraordinary thinker. He doesn’t seem to think like other scientists. He doesn’t seem to think like other technologists. And he certainly doesn’t think like an academic. So I asked him how he thinks. How does he have all the ideas I’ve been exploring at The Last Theory? Here are 10 ways to have big ideas, derived from Stephen’s answer:
— Stephen Wolfram Concept mentioned by Stephen — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Why are we in the universe we're in? | 30 Apr 2026 | 00:17:18 | |
If physics is computational, then what gets computed when? This is a surprisingly deep question. The seemingly even computation of the universe gives us a clue, not just to the nature of time, but to the nature of the universe. And it leads us to a wider question: Why are we in the universe we’re in? Let me introduce you to three different answers to that question... sodifferent that they don’t even agree on whether one universe exists, or every possible universe exists. — References Credits
— The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind The full article is here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Wolfram on philosophy | 22 Mar 2026 | 00:07:19 | |
Stephen Wolfram has many philosophical ideas, but I’ve not heard him talk about pure philosophy. When I asked him about the relationship between physics and philosophy, I understood why. Stephen revealed that he’s much more at home in the concrete world of computer experiments than in the arguments of the philosophers. “When I look at the arguments,” he says, “I can’t tell if they make sense or not. There’s too much wiggling...” —
People and concepts mentioned by Stephen — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| How different observers think differently with Stephen Wolfram | 05 Mar 2026 | 00:09:53 | |
Do different observers think differently? Or does the principle of computational equivalence mean that all observers think the same way? Stephen Wolfram takes this question and runs with it. If we had brains the size of planets, he suggests, the finite speed of light would force us to think of space and time differently, and abandon the fiction of an instantaneous state of space. If we had brains the size of molecules, he says, we’d no longer think of the motion of molecules as random, and we’d find the heat death of the universe a far more interesting prospect. And if we were able to hold multiple paths through the multiway graph in our minds at the same time, we’d have multiple threads of experience... and some complicated conversations! We think the way we think because we are the way we are... if we were much larger-scale, much smaller-scale or if we had multiway minds, then we’d think very differently. And this has some serious consequences, Stephen suggests, in fields as diverse as molecular biology and parallel computing. — Stephen Wolfram Credits
— The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| What is time in Wolfram Physics? | 05 Feb 2026 | 00:18:23 | |
Physics, the way we’ve thought about it for the last few hundred years, requires us to make assumptions about time. In our old way of thinking, just as we must assume three axes of space – scales along which we can measure what’s where – so we must assume an axis of time – a scale along which we can measure what happens when. It doesn’t matter whether, like Newton, we assume an absolute scale along which we can measure what happens when according to a giant clock in the sky, or whether, like Einstein, we assume a relative scale along which we can measure what happens when according to a tiny clock in each and every reference frame. Either way, we must assume an axis of time. Wolfram Physics, on the other hand, doesn’t require us to make anyassumptions about time. We need only posit the application of rules to the nodes and edges of the hypergraph, and time emerges. The evolution of the hypergraph is time... ...which gives us a profound clue, not just to the nature of time, but to the nature of the universe. — References
Credits
— The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind The full article is here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Think like an alien with Stephen Wolfram | 02 Jan 2026 | 00:09:13 | |
Different observers, from different regions of the ruliad, experience the universe in different ways. To what extent can these different observers communicate their different experiences? Can dogs, with their olefactory ways of mapping their worlds through scent, truly understand humans, with our one-dimensional ways of mapping our world through language? Can humans, with our one-dimensional streams of language, truly understand AI image generators, with their parallel diffusion models? If we ever met aliens, would we be able to communicate with them? How might it be to think like an alien? Stephen Wolfram explores some of the mind-bending implications of different regions of the ruliad giving rise to different experiences of the universe. — Stephen Wolfram References — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Ruliad + observer = physics ... also aliens | 18 Dec 2025 | 00:12:36 | |
The ruliad is every possible computation. What could you possibly say about such an enormous, all-encompassing object? Well, that’s where we come in. Particular observers sample the ruliad in particular ways. Observers like us sample the ruliad in ways that give rise to physics as weknow it. Ruliad + observer = physics. In this excerpt from my conversation with Stephen Wolfram, he explores how physics, mathematics and biology all arise from this same enormous, all-encompassing object, the ruliad. He gets to aliens, too, asking such provocative questions as how far from us in rulial space are the nearest aliens? — Stephen Wolfram References
— The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| How to simplify the causal graph | 11 Dec 2025 | 00:35:46 | |
The hypergraphs generated by Wolfram Physics are complex and chaotic. The multiway graphs that trace every possible evolution of these hypergraphs become extremely complex and extremely chaotic after only a few iterations. The causal graphs that plot which of the events in these multiway graphs has to happen before which of the other events look like spaghetti. If we’re going to find mass/energy or momentum in Wolfram Physics – or special relativity or general relativity or quantum mechanics – then the causal graph is the place to look. But if we’re going to have to find all of physics in a causal graph that looks like spaghetti, then I give up. If we’re going to find all of physics in the causal graph, then we’re going to have to simplify. How to simplify the causal graph? Two ways:
Don’t worry, by the time we’re done, that’ll all make sense! This is the pivotal episode in my exploration of Wolfram Physics. It establishes a firm foundation what comes next. From here on, we’ll be able to make serious progress... towards mass/energy, momentum, special relativity, general relativity and quantum mechanics. — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind The full article is here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Where's Mark? | 15 Nov 2025 | 00:01:07 | |
It’s been a while since my last episode of The Last Theory or Open Web Mind. Where am I? It might look like I’m lazing in the sun, but actually I’ve been working hard. For The Last Theory, I’ve been working on a long episode, more involved than any I’ve ever made, and more important than any I’ve ever made. It’ll unlock mass/energy, momentum, special relativity, general relativity and quantum mechanics. And I’ve been working on Open Web Mind, too, making serious progress towards launch. So I’m sorry for the delay, but it’ll be worth the wait. In the meantime, make sure you’re subscribed to my newsletters at lasttheory.com and openwebmind.com to be the first to know when the train’s leaving the station.
The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Black holes in the hypergraph with Stephen Wolfram | 29 Aug 2025 | 00:21:54 | |
Electrons may be tiny black holes propagating through the hypergraph. After all, electrons and black holes have much in common: they’re carriers of pure motion, they’re all the same – from the outside, at least – and we don’t know what’s going on inside them. Just as black holes may cloak the remants of collapsed civilizations, so electrons may hold secret histories of their paths through the universe. Stephen Wolfram takes this idea further. If particles, such as electrons, are the carriers of pure motion in physical space, what are the carriers of pure motion in branchial space and rulial space? Maybe, in rulial space, it’s the discrete concepts we use to communicate ideas from one mind to another. These are fascinating speculations, but Stephen insists that we need not know what a particle is to make progress with his framework. We can understand energy without knowing what a particle is; we can understand momentum without knowing what a particle is; maybe we can even derive Quantum Field Theory from the Wolfram model without ever knowing what a particle is. — Stephen Wolfram References
Videos and images
— The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| The causal graph is objective reality | 08 Aug 2025 | 00:12:41 | |
The multiway graph shows every possible evolution of the universe. So, if we can compute every possible reality, does that mean that there’s no single objective reality? Well, the causal graph, it turns out, collapses every possible reality into a single objective reality in a way that’s so unexpected that you’ll be left wondering: how did that just happen? — References:
— The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind The full article is here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Stephen Wolfram on AI, human-like minds & formal knowledge | 12 Jul 2025 | 00:18:12 | |
In this fascinating exposition, Stephen Wolfram connects two of the most important breakthroughs of our time: AI and the ruliad. I ask Stephen how he thinks about knowledge hypergraphs, which I’m exploring at Open Web Mind. He offers several important insights. Stephen draws a distinction between human-like minds and formal knowledge. Human-like minds include both our own brains and Large Language Models. Such minds, Stephen suggests, are good at making broad but shallow connections. Formal knowledge, on the other hand, is deep and precise. Stephen has spent a lifetime building computational towers of such knowledge. He proposes that Large Language Models might serve as interfaces to formal knowledge. He warns, however, that much of this knowledge might be inaccessible to minds like ours. To illustrate the difficulty, Stephen contrasts the 50,000 or so concepts to which we humans have assigned words, such as “cat” and “dog”, with the infinite variability an AI can generate, both within human concepts and in the interconcept space in between. Tying this back to physics, Stephen Wolfram posits that the concepts of space, time, energy, etc. we have internalized occupy only a tiny part of the ruliad. — Stephen Wolfram Related writings from Stephen
More on knowledge hypergraphs at Open Web Mind: — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Multiway minds with Stephen Wolfram | 21 Jun 2025 | 00:05:43 | |
Can you hold in your mind two different threads of experience? In this five-minute excerpt from my conversation with Stephen Wolfram, he introduces the strange idea of a multiway mind. Most of the time, we as observers succeed in weaving multiple different paths through the multiway graph into a single thread of experience. In some circumstances, however, we’re unable to do this. If we’re unfortunate enough to find ourselves on the surface of a black hole – at the event horizon in physical space, at the entanglement horizon in branchial space – we might find ourselves frozen, unable to form a classical thought. In just five minutes, Stephen not only introduces the possibility of multiple threads of experience in a single mind, he also succeeds in weaving in diverse topics from quantum computing to societal decision-making. — Stephen Wolfram Concepts mentioned by Stephen — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Do fields exist? | 22 May 2025 | 00:17:43 | |
Fields don’t exist. I mean, a field with grass in it, that kind of field does exist. But a field in physics? A gravitational field? An electric field? A magnetic field? A quantum field? No such thing. I’m not knocking the physicists who came up with these fields. These fictions can be convenient. But sometimes, these fictions can blind us to the underlying reality. And that’s what’s happening right now in physics. Our long-time love affair with fields is blinding us to the true nature of space and everything in it. — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind The full article is here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Aggregation – how the Wolfram model weaves the future – with Stephen Wolfram | 27 Apr 2025 | 00:08:51 | |
In the previous excerpt from my conversation with Stephen Wolfram, I asked him how I can remain a single, coherent, persistent consciousness in a branching universe. In this excerpt, we went deeper into this question. As a conscious observer, I have a single thread of experience. So if the universe branches into many timelines, why don’t I branch into many versions of me? Stephen’s answer touched on many profound aspects of the Wolfram model. He started with the failure of the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics to consider the possibility that different branches of history can merge, in other words, come back together again. This failure is rooted in assumption that the universe is continuous; as soon as we start thinking of the universe as discrete, such merging seems not only possible, but inevitable. He went on to consider the concept of causal invariance, the idea that it doesn’t matter which of countless similar paths you take through the multiway graph, you end up in the same place. In the Ruliad, he said, causal invariance is inevitable. Then we got to the core of the concept of the observer. According to Stephen Wolfram, an observer equivalences many different states and experiences the aggregate of these states. I did not expect Stephen’s next move, to apply the concept of aggregation not just to observers, but to the universe itself. He made the profound proposal that in the Wolfram model of physics, in addition to the computation of the hypergraph through the application of rules, there’s a process of aggregation of possible paths through the multiway graph to weave the future. — Stephen Wolfram Concepts mentioned by Stephen
— The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| When the universe branches, what happens to me? with Stephen Wolfram | 15 Mar 2025 | 00:12:32 | |
When the universe branches, we branch with it. Those branches don’t remain forever apart. They come back together. So we, as conscious observers, are rescued from splitting into an immense number ever-so-slightly different versions of ourselves. When the branches of the universe – and the versions of ourselves – come back together, we don’t worry that the many paths we took to get there are ever-so-slightly different. We equivalence all those different paths. We treat all those ever-so-slightly different branches of history as if they were more-or-less the same. I asked Stephen Wolfram about this strangest of consequences of a branching universe. Through all this splitting and coming-back-together, how can I remain a single, coherent, persistent consciousness? Stephen’s answer takes us through branchial space to quantum computing, the maximum entanglement speed and the elementary length. — Stephen Wolfram Concepts mentioned by Stephen
People mentioned by Stephen — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| What is the causal graph in Wolfram Physics? | 02 Mar 2025 | 00:15:38 | |
The causal graph is at the core of Wolfram Physics. It’s crucial to the derivations of Special Relativity, General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. And if that’s not enough to convince you that you need to know about the causal graph, how about this: The causal graph is a reflection of the nature of causality, the nature of objectivity, the nature of reality itself. — Einstein’s train thought experiment What is the multiway graph? video ⋅ podcast ⋅ article What precisely is causal invariance? video ⋅ podcast ⋅ article Causality ain’t what you think it is video ⋅ podcast ⋅ article — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web Mind I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here. The full article is here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Is everything determined? with Stephen Wolfram | 13 Feb 2025 | 00:08:03 | |
Is everything that’s ever going to happen in the universe already determined? Or does something else – maybe randomness, maybe free will – play a role? Stephen Wolfram’s answer to this question is straightforward: the ruliad is fully determined. But there’s a twist. The ruliad is determined, but how we observe the evolution of the universe depends on where we are in the ruliad. In a fascinating introduction to the role of the observer in the Wolfram model, Stephen touches on some of the deepest philosophical questions in physics, finishing on one of the deepest: is there an objective reality? — Stephen Wolfram — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Why is space three-dimensional? with Stephen Wolfram | 15 Jan 2025 | 00:19:36 | |
Hypergraphs can have any number of dimensions. They can be 2-dimensional, 3-dimensional, 4.81-dimensional or, in the limit, ∞-dimensional. So how does the three-dimensional space we observe emerge from the hypergraph-based Wolfram model? Why is space three-dimensional? Stephen Wolfram’s surprising answer to this questions goes deep into space, time, computation and, crucially, our nature as observers. — Stephen Wolfram People mentioned by Stephen — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web Mind Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| The first wow for Stephen Wolfram | 09 Jan 2025 | 00:08:52 | |
Stephen Wolfram reveals that his first major wow along the path towards a fundamental theory of physics was his realization that General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics are the same theory, played out in different kinds of space. Many other dominos have fallen along the way, from the derivation of Einstein’s equations to applications of the ruliad beyond physics. But the aspect of Wolfram Physics that Stephen Wolfram himself finds maybe the most compelling is this mirroring of the two pillars of twentieth century physics. Perhaps General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics aren’t as incompatible as they’ve so long seemed. In this first excerpt from my conversation with Stephen Wolfram, he tells the story of how he came to apply hypergraphs and hypergraph rewriting rules to the universe itself, and arrived at the first traces of a path towards what might be the last theory of physics. — Stephen Wolfram People mentioned by Stephen — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web Mind Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| 5 reasons to take Wolfram Physics seriously | 23 Dec 2024 | 00:06:37 | |
It feels like everyone has their pet Theory of Everything these days. So why should you take my preferred Theory of Everything seriously? Well, give me 5 minutes, and I’ll give you 5 reasons why I find Wolfram Physics more compelling than anything else that’s happened in physics in my lifetime... ...and maybe you’ll want to take it seriously too. — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web Mind The full article is here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Why does the universe exist? | 30 Oct 2024 | 00:16:58 | |
Here’s a question. Why does the universe exist? Why is there something rather than nothing? One of Stephen Wolfram’s boldest claims is that he has the answer. Let me know whether you’re convinced by his argument! — Ideas: People: — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web Mind The full article is here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Causality ain't what you think it is | 15 Sep 2024 | 00:18:21 | |
Do you know what causality is? If you do, let me know, because I’m not sure. I’ve never come across a conception of causality that makes sense to me. After all, our universe seems to follow simple equations like Einstein’s equations, and there’s no mention of causality in these equations. It makes me think that there’s no such thing as causality. Unless... Well, here’s the thing. I’m no longer sure that our universe does follow these continuous equations. I’m beginning to think that at the smallest scale, our universe might evolve through discrete computations. If that turns out to be true, it allows for a limited conception of causalityafter all. It’s causality, Jim, but not as we know it. — References:
The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web Mind The full article is here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| What precisely is causal invariance? | 28 Jul 2024 | 00:15:10 | |
Causal invariance is a crucial concept in Wolfram Physics. It’s how we get special relativity from the Wolfram model. It’s how we get quantum mechanics from the Wolfram model. So what precisely is causal invariance? This question will take us deep into the multiway graph, to an even deeper question: what is causality? — What is the multiway graph? video ⋅ podcast ⋅ article — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web Mind I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here. The full article is here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Jonathan Gorard: the complete first interview | 01 Jun 2024 | 02:48:59 | |
I’ve heard from many of you that you’d like the whole of my conversation with Jonathan Gorard in a single podcast. So here it is, the complete first interview. These three hours are a brilliant exposition of Wolfram Physics from a figure whose contributions to the project are second to none. — Jonathan Gorard
Jonathan’s seminal papers
Stephen Wolfram’s writings
A complete list of links to the research, concepts and people mentioned by Jonathan is here Images
For images from the Los Alamos National Laboratory: Unless otherwise indicated, this information has been authored by an employee or employees of the Triad National Security, LLC, operator of the Los Alamos National Laboratory with the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. Government has rights to use, reproduce, and distribute this information. The public may copy and use this information without charge, provided that this Notice and any statement of authorship are reproduced on all copies. Neither the Government nor Triad makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any liability or responsibility for the use of this information. — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web Mind Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| In defence of Stephen Wolfram | 09 Apr 2024 | 00:16:44 | |
You like Stephen Wolfram, right? I mean, if he’s to be believed, he has reinvented physics, not to mention philosophy. How could you not like such a thinker? Well... it turns out that there are plenty of people who don’t like Stephen Wolfram... or his physics... or his philosophy. Here are four criticisms of Stephen Wolfram I regularly hear... ...and here’s why these criticisms, though they hint at uncomfortable truths, nonetheless miss the mark. — Stephen Wolfram:
Stephen Wolfram’s claims:
Some of the things Stephen Wolfram created:
Other people involved in the Wolfram Physics Project: Other people mentioned in this episode:
Brilliant people of the past:
Other episodes of The Last Theory mentioned:
Reference:
Images:
— The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web Mind The full article is here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Beyond physics: applying the Wolfram model in biology, chemistry, mathematics with Jonathan Gorard | 09 Mar 2024 | 00:13:30 | |
In this final excerpt from our conversation in October 2022, Jonathan Gorard explains how ideas from Wolfram Physics can be applied in fields beyond physics, including biology, chemistry and mathematics. He describes the concept of compositionality, and digs deeper into why the hypergraph is able to model so much of our universe. — Jonathan Gorard
Concepts mentioned by Jonathan:
People mentioned by Jonathan: — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web Mind Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Who is Stephen Wolfram? | 11 Feb 2024 | 00:09:36 | |
You know who Stephen Wolfram is, right? Whether you love him or, you know, don’t love him, there’s no denying that Stephen Wolfram has founded a host of fascinating projects... most of them named Wolfram-something-or-other. What are all these Wolfram-branded projects? Who is Stephen Wolfram? — Some of the things Stephen Wolfram created:
not to mention:
More about Stephen Wolfram: Stephen Wolfram’s education: Some of Stephen Wolfram’s special subjects: Some of Stephen Wolfram’s books: Other people involved in the Wolfram Physics Project: Reference:
Image:
Some of my own projects:
— The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web Mind The full article is here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Where's the evidence for Wolfram Physics? with Jonathan Gorard | 19 Jan 2024 | 00:14:32 | |
I asked Jonathan Gorard the question I’m asked the most: can the Wolfram model make testable predictions about reality, predictions that differ from those of general relativity and quantum mechanics, predictions that might prove that Wolfram Physics is right? Jonathan showed how the Wolfram model might shed light on some of the most mysterious phenomena of our universe, from black hole inspirals to quantum entanglement. He focused on four areas where the class of theories encompassed by the Wolfram model might predict observable phenomena: 1. Cosmological consequences of global dimension change 2. Astrophysical consequences of local dimension change 3. Discretization effects during extreme astrophysical events 4. Quantum mechanical effects such as maximum entanglement speed These dozen minutes of my conversation with Jonathan were dense with insights into Wolfram Physics, a true pleasure to revisit! — Jonathan Gorard
Concepts mentioned by Jonathan
People mentioned by Jonathan: — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of Open Web Mind I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| The knowledge hypergraph | 11 Jan 2024 | 00:01:03 | |
The Open Web Mind is a protocol for shared human intelligence, based on the knowledge hypergraph. Take a look at this quick introduction for subscribers to The Last Theory, then jump to the 2-minute trailer on the new channel. And if you haven’t done so already, make sure to subscribe to the new Open Web Mind channel, podcast and newsletter. If you’re interested in Wolfram Physics, I think you’ll find Open Web Mind fascinating! — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery founder of Open Web Mind I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Are electrons too big to simulate? with Jonathan Gorard | 17 Dec 2023 | 00:05:56 | |
How big are electrons compared to the hypergraph? Is one electron formed of 10 nodes, or 10100 nodes? And if it’s 10100 nodes, might it prove impossible to simulate an electron on any computer we can possibly imagine? When I asked Jonathan Gorard this question, he took us on a tour of the scales of the universe, from the Planck scale to the Hubble scale. He revealed how the Wolfram Physics Project’s early estimate of the scale of the hypergraph was based on a tower of rickety assumptions. And he explained how the Wolfram model might connect with particle physics regardless of the disparities of scale. — Jonathan Gorard
Concepts mentioned by Jonathan
— The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web Mind Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| How to measure the curvature of space | 07 Dec 2023 | 00:15:56 | |
What if you’re inside a universe, and you want to measure the curvature of space? It’s important because getting a measure of the curvature of the hypergraph takes us one step further in Jonathan Gorard’s derivation of General Relativity from Wolfram Physics. Einstein’s equations relate the curvature of space to the presence of matter. So if we’re going to prove that Einstein’s equations follow from the Wolfram model, we’re going to need that measure of the curvature of the hypergraph. Once again, a two-dimensional crab comes to the rescue, given us a way to measure the curvature of a universe from inside that universe. — See Stephen Wolfram’s announcement, under Curvature in Space & Einstein’s Equations, also included as the introduction to his book A project to find the Fundamental Theory of Physics, page 20, for more on measuring the curvature of space Concepts: — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web Mind The full article is here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| A toy model of particles with Jonathan Gorard | 16 Nov 2023 | 00:08:01 | |
In this excerpt from my conversation with Jonathan Gorard, he proposes that particles in Wolfram Physics might be persistent topological obstructions in the hypergraph. He starts with a toy model in which elementary particles are non-planar tangles moving and interacting in an otherwise planar hypergraph. But he doesn’t stop there. He explains that there’s an infinite variety of hypergraphs that give rise to such persistent topological obstructions. These localized tangles behave in ways that look a lot like particle physics. — Jonathan Gorard
Concepts mentioned by Jonathan
Image:
— The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web Mind Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| How to tell if space is curved | 02 Nov 2023 | 00:11:38 | |
What if you’re inside a universe, and you want to know whether space is curved? The reason I’m asking is that according to Einstein’s general theory of relativity, our universe is curved, by the presence of matter. If Wolfram Physics is to be a true model of our universe, then the space represented by the hypergraph must also be curved by the presence of matter. Which means that determining whether space is curved is crucial to Jonathan Gorard’s derivation of Einstein’s equations from the Wolfram model. Fortunately, there’s a way to find out that’s so simple that even a crab or a space frog could do it. Here’s how to tell if your universe curved. — Dimensionality:
Space-time: Euclidean geometry: — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web Mind I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here. The full article is here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| How special is general relativity? with Jonathan Gorard | 19 Oct 2023 | 00:06:16 | |
I asked Jonathan Gorard what it felt like when he realized that general relativity can be derived from the hypergraph. His answer took us in an unexpected direction. If the Wolfram model is to be an accurate model of our universe, then it must give us the Einstein equations. But what if any old model with any old rules can give us the Einstein equations? What if general relativity isn’t so special? This is one of the shorter excerpts from my conversation with Jonathan, but it’s a fascinating one. It takes us to one of the most powerful aspects of the Wolfram model: its ability to answer questions about why our universe is the way it is, questions that were once in the realm of philosophy but may now be within the scope of physics. — Jonathan Gorard
Concepts mentioned by Jonathan — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web Mind Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Why scientific theories need not make predictions | 07 Oct 2023 | 00:13:08 | |
In my exploration of Wolfram Physics, I’ve come across one objection more than any other. Over and over again, people have told me that the Wolfram model must be rejected because it makes no predictions. I could respond by saying that Wolfram Physics does make predictions. It predicts Einstein’s equations. It predicts Schrödinger’s equation. But it’s true that it doesn’t make any predictions that differ from those of general relativity and quantum mechanics. At least, not yet. So here’s my more robust response to the objection: all scientific theories make no predictions when they’re first formulated. If we dismiss any new theory solely because it doesn’t make any predictions, then we’d dismiss all new theories. It’s time for academics to learn the lessons of the history of science, and open their minds to bold, new ideas, like Wolfram Physics. — Ideas:
Ancient astronomies: Images:
— The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web Mind The full article is here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| How to derive general relativity from Wolfram Physics with Jonathan Gorard | 21 Sep 2023 | 00:13:38 | |
Here’s a masterclass from Jonathan Gorard. One of the most compelling results to come out of the Wolfram Physics is Jonathan’s derivation of the Einstein equations from the hypergraph. Whenever I hear anyone criticize the Wolfram model for bearing no relation to reality, I tell them this: Jonathan Gorard has proved that general relativity can be derived from the hypergraph. In this excerpt from our conversation, Jonathan describes how making just three reasonable assumptions – causal invariance, asymptotic dimension preservation and weak ergodicity – allowed him to derive the vacuum Einstein equations from the Wolfram model. In other words, the structure of space-time in the absence of matter more or less falls out of the hypergraph. And making one further assumption – that particles can be treated as localized topological obstructions – allowed Jonathan to derive the non-vacuum Einstein equations from the Wolfram model. In other words, the structure of space-time in the presence of matter, too, falls out of the hypergraph. It’s difficult to overstate the importance of this result. At the very least, we can say that the Wolfram model is consistent with general relativity. To state it more strongly: we no longer need to take general relativity as a given; instead, we can derive it from Wolfram Physics. —
Jonathan Gorard
People mentioned by Jonathan Research mentioned by Jonathan
Concepts mentioned by Jonathan
From A Project to find the Fundamental Theory of Physics by Stephen Wolfram: Images
— The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web Mind I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| How to derive quantum mechanics from Wolfram Physics with Jonathan Gorard | 07 Sep 2023 | 00:15:34 | |
Here’s the first of two crucial excerpts from my conversation with Jonathan Gorard. The core idea of Wolfram Physics is that we can model the universe as a hypergraph. If we want this idea to be taken seriously, we’re going to have to derive physics from the hypergraph. The twin pillars of physics, as we know it, are quantum mechanics and general relativity. In this episode, Jonathan explains how quantum mechanics can be derived from the Wolfram model, indeed, how quantum mechanics unexpectedly fell out of the model. It’s a fascinating story. We start with the role of the observer. According to Jonathan, it turns out not to be necessary to narrow our focus to only causally invariant rules. Why not? Because macroscopic observers like ourselves impose causal invariance through our coarse-graining of the hypergraph. In other words, by squinting at the universe, seeing only its large-scale features and glossing over the finer details, we reduce multiple paths through the multiway graph to a single timeline, and, in the process, impose causal invariance. Jonathan goes on to explain that this coarse-graining can be modelled with completion rules. These are fake rules, similar to the true rules of Wolfram Physics, but posited solely to model the coarse-graining of the hypergraph by the observer. And here’s the thing. According to Jonathan, these completion rules are formally equivalent to the collapse of the wavefunction in quantum mechanics. In other words, we finally have an explanation for how the observer causes the collapse of the wavefunction, reducing Schrödinger’s half live, half dead cat to one that’s either dead or alive. If Jonathan’s right, then this is a true breakthrough, not just in quantum mechanics, but in the philosophy of physics. In the next episode, we’ll move on to the other pillar of physics: Jonathan will explain how to derive general relativity from the hypergraph. There’s much more to explain about each of these derivations, but we’re finally getting to the crux of Wolfram Physics, the question of whether it can, after all, model our universe. —
Jonathan Gorard
Concepts mentioned by Jonathan
Stephen Wolfram’s books — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web Mind I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Peer review is suffocating science | 24 Aug 2023 | 00:14:37 | |
You know peer review, right? It’s the way academics check each other’s research papers. It ensures that only the good ones are published and prevents the bad ones from getting through. Right? Wrong. Peer review does precisely the opposite of what you think it does. It prevents the good papers from being published, and ensures that only the bad ones get through. Peer review is suffocating science. If we want to reverse the stagnation of science over the last 50 years, then we’ve got to get rid of peer review. —
Scientific papers:
Physicists:
My projects: Image of Adam Mastroianni by permission from Adam Mastroianni — The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web Mind I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here The full article is here Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Is the universe a tautology? with Jonathan Gorard | 10 Aug 2023 | 00:10:30 | |
“Sorry, this is now getting very metaphysical,” says Jonathan Gorard part way through this excerpt from our conversation. We start by talking about applying more than one rule to the hypergraph to create rulial multiway systems. This takes us part way towards applying every possible rule, in other words, towards the ruliad. We move on to the idea of measuring the complexity of a structure in terms of the minimum amount of information needed to express it. Jonathan applies this idea to the ruliad, pointing out that it takes almost no information to express, since it encompasses all possible rules. Since he believes, however, that there is some content to the universe – that it is not a tautalogy – this leads Jonathan to reject the idea of the ruliad. We dig into why he has this intuition is that the universe is not a tautalogy. Jonathan invokes theologians like John Duns Scotus, who promulgated the idea the the world is neither completely reducible nor completely irreducible. He follows the scholastics in steering a middle path, suggesting that there’s enough content in the universe that it’s interesting, but not so much content that we can’t write down well-defined laws of nature. This brings us, for the first time, to the role of the observer in the Wolfram model. Again, Jonathan steers a middle path between placing the computational burden entirely on the universe and placing the computational burden entirely on the observer. I find this 9-minute exposition fascinating. It gets to the heart of some of the philosophical differences between Jonathan Gorard and Stephen Wolfram, and to the nature of the universe and our role as observers. —
People mentioned by Jonathan Research mentioned by Jonathan
Concepts mentioned by Jonathan
— The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web Mind I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| What is a particle in Wolfram’s universe? | 27 Jul 2023 | 00:17:32 | |
It’s pretty easy to see how three-dimensional space might arise from Wolfram Physics. The hypergraph kinda looks like space, and, for some rules, it kinda looks like it’s three-dimensional. But our universe isn’t just empty three-dimensional space. It’s mostly empty space, but there are also particles moving through that space: photons, neutrinos, electrons, quarks. Sometimes, these particles interact, annihilating each other and producing new particles. If Wolfram Physics is to be a successful model of our universe, it must, of course, model these elementary particles and their interactions. So where are the particles in the hypergraph? What is a particle in Wolfram’s universe? — Animations:
Sources:
Tools:
Images:
Sounds:
— The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web Mind I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here. The full article is here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| One rule to rule them all? with Jonathan Gorard | 13 Jul 2023 | 00:07:24 | |
In the early days of the Wolfram Physics Project, Stephen Wolfram seemed to be seeking a single rule that, when applied to the hypergraph, could generate our universe. More recently, however, Wolfram has promoted the idea of the ruliad, the application of every possible rule to the hypergraph. So I asked Jonathan Gorard, who was instrumental in the founding of the Wolfram Physics Project, whether all rules might be applied to generate our universe, or whether he was searching for one rule to rule them all. — Stephen Wolfram’s 2010 TED talk in which he said he was committed “to see if within this decade we can finally hold in our hands the rule for our universe”. Jonathan Gorard
Concepts mentioned by Jonathan
— The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web Mind I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| John von Neumann and the art of being there | 30 Jun 2023 | 00:15:36 | |
John von Neumann might be the most important figure in Wolfram Physics prehistory. Whenever any of the most important prerequisites to Wolfram Physics were happening – quantum mechanics, Gödel’s theorem, Turing machines, electronic computers, cellular automata – John von Neumann always seemed to be there. How did John von Neumann always come to be in the right place at the right time to contribute to some of the most significant developments in physics, mathematics and computation history? For this, another high-budget, big-hair episode of The Last Theory, I flew all the way to Budapest, where John von Neumann was born, to point to a plaque and get some answers. —
People
Concepts
Computers Images
— The Last Theory is hosted by Mark Jeffery, founder of the Open Web Mind I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here. The full article is here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| How to find interesting and plausible rules with Jonathan Gorard | 15 Jun 2023 | 00:08:24 | |
The Wolfram model allows an infinite number of rules. Some of these rules generate interesting universes that are complex and connected, some of these rules generate plausible universes that look a little like our own, and others... go nowhere. In this excerpt from my conversation with Jonathan Gorard, I ask him how to find rules of Wolfram Physics that are both interesting and plausible. —
The paper referred to by Jonathan
Concepts mentioned by Jonathan
—
Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| Why has there been no progress in physics since 1973? | 01 Jun 2023 | 00:12:13 | |
The twentieth century was a truly exciting time in physics. From 1905 to 1973, we made extraordinary progress probing the mysteries of the universe: special relativity, general relativity, quantum mechanics, the structure of the atom, the structure of the nucleus, enumerating the elementary particles. Then, in 1973, this extraordinary progress... stopped. I mean, where are the fundamental discoveries in the last 50 years equal to general relativity or quantum mechanics? Why has there been no progress in physics since 1973? For this high-budget, big-hair episode of The Last Theory, I flew all the way to Oxford to tell you why progress stopped, and why it’s set to start again: why progress in physics might be about to accelerate in the early twenty-first century in a way we haven’t seen since those heady days of the early twentieth century. — Eric Weinstein’s claims that there has been no progress in physics since 1973: — I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here. The full article is here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| How to find causally invariant rules with Jonathan Gorard | 18 May 2023 | 00:05:13 | |
Causal invariance is a crucial characteristic for any rule of Wolfram Physics. According to Wolfram MathWorld, if a rule is causally invariant, then “no matter which evolution is chosen for a system, the history is the same, in the sense that the same events occur and they have the same causal relationships.” Causal invariance is one of the assumptions Jonathan Gorard needs to make to derive the equations of General Relativity from the hypergraph. That’s how crucial it is! Given that not every rule of Wolfram Physics is causally invariant, I asked Jonathan how we find the ones that are. Here, in another excerpt from our recent conversation, is his answer: how to find causally invariant rules. — Jonathan Gorard
People and concepts mentioned by Jonathan
— I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||
| How to knit the universe | 04 May 2023 | 00:10:50 | |
Now that I’ve introduced you to the different kinds of edges that might make up a hypergraph – unary, binary and ternary edges, as well as loops and self-loops – we can have some fun. Some of rules in the Wolfram model give rise to fascinating universes. Today, I’m going to show you a few rules that seem to fabricate space itself in much the same way as knitting needles might fabricate a blanket. And if you think that knitting is a far-fetched analogy, just wait until you see my animations! – I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here. The full article is here. Kootenay Village Ventures Inc. | |||