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Doddie
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Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2020 5:51 pm |
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welcoming committee |
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Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2013 4:13 pm Posts: 1739 Location: Dunedin, Alba.
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I stumbled upon this today and thought it might be of interest to some on here... i know nothing about physics on this level but it did make me wonder... what if? Source: https://futurism.com/physicist-entire-universe-neural-networkQuote: "The idea is definitely crazy, but if it is crazy enough to be true? That remains to be seen."
It’s not every day that we come across a paper that attempts to redefine reality.
But in a provocative preprint uploaded to arXiv this summer, a physics professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth named Vitaly Vanchurin attempts to reframe reality in a particularly eye-opening way — suggesting that we’re living inside a massive neural network that governs everything around us. In other words, he wrote in the paper, it’s a “possibility that the entire universe on its most fundamental level is a neural network.”
For years, physicists have attempted to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity. The first posits that time is universal and absolute, while the latter argues that time is relative, linked to the fabric of space-time.
In his paper, Vanchurin argues that artificial neural networks can “exhibit approximate behaviors” of both universal theories. Since quantum mechanics “is a remarkably successful paradigm for modeling physical phenomena on a wide range of scales,” he writes, “it is widely believed that on the most fundamental level the entire universe is governed by the rules of quantum mechanics and even gravity should somehow emerge from it.”
“We are not just saying that the artificial neural networks can be useful for analyzing physical systems or for discovering physical laws, we are saying that this is how the world around us actually works,” reads the paper’s discussion. “With this respect it could be considered as a proposal for the theory of everything, and as such it should be easy to prove it wrong.”
The concept is so bold that most physicists and machine learning experts we reached out to declined to comment on the record, citing skepticism about the paper’s conclusions. But in a Q&A with Futurism, Vanchurin leaned into the controversy — and told us more about his idea...
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sboots
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Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2020 6:18 pm |
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Site Admin |
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Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2012 9:48 pm Posts: 2955 Location: New Jersey
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One theory is as good as the next. Quantum mechanics is way too abstract for me.
_________________ stephen boots Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020 "Life's always an adventure with computers!"
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jaylach
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Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2020 6:22 pm |
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Resident Geekazoid Administrator |
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Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:09 am Posts: 9460 Location: The state of confusion; I just use Wyoming for mail.
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Sort of made me think of my 'near death experience' while in the Navy. Had a conversation with someone/something. Who is to say that it was not a conscious universe?
Isn't it odd that a solar system looks like a huge atom?.....
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Acadia
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Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2020 7:02 pm |
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welcoming committee |
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Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2012 6:45 am Posts: 1073
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jaylach wrote: Isn't it odd that a solar system looks like a huge atom?..... And the atom is mostly empty space, just like the solar system. Bill
_________________ The blazing evidence of immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution. -- Emerson
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jaylach
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Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2020 7:25 pm |
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Resident Geekazoid Administrator |
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Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:09 am Posts: 9460 Location: The state of confusion; I just use Wyoming for mail.
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I guess it boils down to the fact that, in such matters, we are infants and I'm probably giving us too much credit by saying infants. We are probably still in the womb.
All I know for sure is that there is something beyond us. I just don't have the audacity to try to define what it may be. All I know is that, when I had my near death experience, they pretty much gave up on trying to get me to breathe again. Something asked me if I had done what I was supposed to do and I answered no. At that point I started breathing again. What was it that asked the question? I have no idea but, from the experience, I have no doubt that there is something beyond our current experience. If not, what asked me the question? I have no idea and totally lack the knowledge to begin to say as it is so far beyond my ability to understand that I don't even begin to understand.
The way I see it it could be the biblical concept of God or the Force in Star Wars. Why not a neural network throughout the Universe? Would that be any different than the biblical God or the Force in Star Wars? Just another name for something that we can't begin to really understand.
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Acadia
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Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2020 7:31 pm |
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welcoming committee |
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Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2012 6:45 am Posts: 1073
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Actually, I don't know why the belief in the biblical concept of God or the Force in Star Wars has to be mutually exclusive. Bill
_________________ The blazing evidence of immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution. -- Emerson
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JoanA
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Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2020 9:19 am |
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Moderator |
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Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2012 3:25 pm Posts: 1916 Location: Pembrokeshire, South Wales, UK
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Sorry but it's a bit too deep for me and it's not something I've even given any thought to.
I've got enough to worry about with what's happening with the here and now around me to wonder about what I can't control or understand.
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bbarry
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Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2020 9:42 am |
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welcoming committee |
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Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2012 12:47 am Posts: 2408 Location: North Central Arkansas
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What Joan said.........
I have a degree in physics, and I still don't follow his theory. Of course, I studied physics many years ago, lol.
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