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The more I learn about physics and math, especially with regards to quantum theory, I start to get really freaked out. The amount of "neatness" to the universe

The more I learn about physics and math, especially with regards to quantum theory, I start to get really freaked out. The amount of "neatness" to the universe is staggering. How there's no "inbetween" at the smallest scales. Everything is discrete. The fact that simple arrangements of symbols on a screen can perfectly describe this behavior is mind blowing. It leads me to think there's no possible way we're not living in some type of computer simulation.

platz 10y ago
> It leads me to think there's no possible way we're not living in some type of computer simulation. I find this line of reasoning inadequate. In the 19th century, would you not be compelled to believe that the universe was made of mechanical pulleys, levers, and pipes because the universe operated with the perfection of a well-designed machine? OK, so there are some phenomena that correlate (bear a resemblance to) with how computers behave. well, there are phenomena that correlate with a great many number of things; we shouldn't be surprised that computers and information theory are one of them
krastanov 10y ago
Minor nitpick: We definitely do not know whether everything is discrete. There are plenty of quantum mechanical phenomena that do not have discrete spectra (you can have light of any wavelength for instance (with some caveats at the extremes of the energy scales)). We also do not have theoretical or experimental proof that space-time is discrete at the Plank length-scale - all we know is that our current theories break at that scale. See https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/9720/does-the-planck-scale-imply-that-spacetime-is-discrete https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/9720/does-the-pl... (the given answer is pretty great, but beware, the author is known for being a bit hostile in his non-physics opinions)
- eutectic 10y ago
  Luboš is known for being extremely hostile in all his opinions. :)
- aphextron 10y ago
  Thanks for exposing my ignorance. I had an "aha" moment realizing that relativity makes it so that there can be no "final" level of energy.
gus_massa 10y ago
> How there's no "inbetween" at the smallest scales. Everything is discrete. I think the article is a bit misleading about this. We don't know if space and time are discrete or continuous. As far as we know space and time are continuous and all the current theories treat them as continuous values. Discretization of space and time is useful for numerical simulations, if you pick the grid small enough, but it's only a trick to do the calculations in the computer. Anyway, it is possible that someday in the future we will discover that space-time is discrete, and it has a really tiny grid, and it has a tiny effect in the calculations. But no one is sure if this will happen in the future or not.

platz 10y ago

> It leads me to think there's no possible way we're not living in some type of computer simulation. I find this line of reasoning inadequate. In the 19th century, would you not be compelled to believe that the universe was made of mechanical pulleys, levers, and pipes because the universe operated with the perfection of a well-designed machine? OK, so there are some phenomena that correlate (bear a resemblance to) with how computers behave. well, there are phenomena that correlate with a great many number of things; we shouldn't be surprised that computers and information theory are one of them

krastanov 10y ago

Minor nitpick: We definitely do not know whether everything is discrete. There are plenty of quantum mechanical phenomena that do not have discrete spectra (you can have light of any wavelength for instance (with some caveats at the extremes of the energy scales)). We also do not have theoretical or experimental proof that space-time is discrete at the Plank length-scale - all we know is that our current theories break at that scale. See https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/9720/does-the-planck-scale-imply-that-spacetime-is-discrete https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/9720/does-the-pl... (the given answer is pretty great, but beware, the author is known for being a bit hostile in his non-physics opinions)

eutectic 10y ago
Luboš is known for being extremely hostile in all his opinions. :)
aphextron 10y ago
Thanks for exposing my ignorance. I had an "aha" moment realizing that relativity makes it so that there can be no "final" level of energy.

gus_massa 10y ago

> How there's no "inbetween" at the smallest scales. Everything is discrete. I think the article is a bit misleading about this. We don't know if space and time are discrete or continuous. As far as we know space and time are continuous and all the current theories treat them as continuous values. Discretization of space and time is useful for numerical simulations, if you pick the grid small enough, but it's only a trick to do the calculations in the computer. Anyway, it is possible that someday in the future we will discover that space-time is discrete, and it has a really tiny grid, and it has a tiny effect in the calculations. But no one is sure if this will happen in the future or not.