Cellular automata are curious and fascinating computer models programmed with simple rules that generate complex patterns that cause us to consider whether the universe is a computer and life an algorithm. Over at Science News, Tom Siegfried has the first of a two-part series on cellular automata:
Traditionally, the math used for computing physical laws, like Newton’s laws of motion, use calculus, designed for tasks like quantifying change by infinitesimal amounts over infinitesimal increments of time. Modern computers can help do the calculating, but they don’t work the way nature supposedly does. Today’s computers are digital. They process bits and bytes, discrete units of information, not the continuous variables typically involved in calculus.
From time to time in recent decades, scientists have explored the notion that the universe is also digital. Nobel laureate Gerard ’t Hooft, for instance, thinks that some sort of information processing on a submicroscopic level is responsible for the quantum features that describe detectable reality. He calls this version of quantum physics the cellular automaton interpretation.
"
If the world is a computer, life is an algorithm"
report this ad
YouTuber Latheman666 takes maglev to the next level by adding nine neodymium magnet cubes to a levitating magnet and then floating a pyrolytic graphite disc about 1mm above the neodymium. Hypnotic!
A new study suggests that the ominous background music often heard in shark documentaries correlates with viewers’ fearful and negative opinions of sharks. (For the source of this musical cliche, see the 1975 trailer for Jaws above.) From the Scripps Institution of Oceanography researchers paper in the scientific journal PLOS One: Using three experiments, we […]
For more than a decade, University of Southern California neuro-engineer Theodore Berger has been working on an artificial hippocampus, an electronic aid for the part of the brain that scientists believe encodes experiences as long-term memories. Now Berger and a new startup called Kernel are confident that the device is ready for prime time. “We’re […]
If you’ve ever seen a drone video, you know the footage blows traditional pictures and GoPro footage out of the water. And if you’re like us, you’ve been itching to get your hands on a drone of your own ever since. We fly the Code Black Drone with HD Camera because it’s both a quality camera drone, and […]
When carrying around a bulky DSLR camera isn’t ideal, we use these impressive add-ons to help turn our smartphones into quality cameras. Flexible Tripod for Smartphones and CamerasThe Flexible Tripod for Smartphones and Cameras ($8.99) is perfect for capturing a group shot or leveling out your phone on an uneven surface. Its flexible legs can wrap around anything, even a tree branch, […]
With all of the digital information out there—from credit card numbers to Instagram posts to consumer behavior—there’s so much data that businesses struggle with the task of storing, managing, and analyzing the information. That’s why Big Data is one of the fastest growing career paths in the world. Big Data is a giant, intimidating subject, which is why […]
report this ad
