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

• Stephen Wolfram
• The Wolfram Physics Project
• Wolfram Institute
• Wolfram Institute Community Discord

References

• Ruliad definition
• Ruliad article
• Second Law of Thermodynamics article
• Second Law of Thermodynamics history
• Metamathematics article
• Metamathematics book
• Biological evolution article
• Biological evolution follow-up
• Computational irreducibility

—

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 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:

• use a simpler rule; and
• collapse multiple nodes representing the same event into a singlenode.

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

I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.

The full article is here.

Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

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.

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 hypergraph video ⋅ podcast ⋅ article
• The multiway graph video ⋅ podcast ⋅ article
• The causal graph video ⋅ podcast ⋅ article
• Causal invariance video ⋅ podcast ⋅ article
• Different observers might follow different paths through the multiwaygraph, but they see the same causal graph

—

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.

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

• Stephen Wolfram
• The Wolfram Physics Project
• Wolfram Institute
• Wolfram Institute Community Discord

Related writings from Stephen

• Generative AI Space and the Mental Imagery of Alien Minds
• How to Think Computationally about AI, the Universe and Everything
• The Concept of the Ruliad

More on knowledge hypergraphs at Open Web Mind:

• Open Web Mind
• Open Web Mind YouTube channel
• Sign up for my newsletter

—

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.

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

• Stephen Wolfram
• The Wolfram Physics Project
• Wolfram Institute
• Wolfram Institute Community Discord

Concepts mentioned by Stephen

• Quantum computing
• Distributed computing
• Event horizons and entanglement horizons
• Branchial space

—

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.

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

I release The Last Theory as a video too! Watch here.

The full article is here.

Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.