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All of physics stands as an objection to "digital physics" which uses real numbers indispensably. Many things fall apart with discrete numbers (classical physic

All of physics stands as an objection to "digital physics" which uses real numbers indispensably. Many things fall apart with discrete numbers (classical physics becomes non-deterministic, quantum mechanics becomes non-linear, etc.). The loons on the "digital bandwagon" have yet to produce a single plausible work showing the geometrical spaces hiterto essential to physics can be replaced with anything discrete. This is just another pipe-dream of idealist-Platonist-AI fanatics for whom the world is an abstract discrete number only because their favourite toy is so-described.

lupire 4y ago
An epithet is not an argument. I'm not saying you are wrong; I am saying you are not even wrong.
- mjburgess 4y ago
  There is never a cabal of zealots who gather together to defend material reality, is there ? Who are the loons of the scientific method ? Which zealot says, "let's be conservative in our dreaming?" 'digital physics', constructive mathematics, AI, idealism -- etc. are all apparently respectable symptoms of an ideological project i reserve the right to call it as i see it, and name a purely ideological project for what it is the world is not a simulation, there is no digital physics, your consciousness will not be uploaded -- etc
  - DontchaKnowit 4y ago
    Preach
ingleso 4y ago
Is Planck a loon? > In 1900, Max Planck derived the correct form for the intensity spectral distribution function by making some strange (for the time) assumptions. In particular, Planck assumed that electromagnetic radiation can be emitted or absorbed only in discrete packets, called quanta, of energy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet_catastrophe#Solution https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet_catastrophe#Solu... How do you explain the zenos paradox’s place in reality? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno's_paradoxes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno's_paradoxes What’s with the hate on Plato’s ideals? What is a “chair”? Draw me a “circle”.
- mjburgess 4y ago
  Of course reality has discrete aspects. That really has nothing to do with whether it /only/ has discrete aspects, and indeed, whether they are abstract (ie., lack spatiotemporal properies). People who believe that today are mostly loons -- with the eyes, fervour and askew chalantanism of loons
nix0n 4y ago
> classical physics becomes non-deterministic Is the nondeterminism very large relative to the loss of precision from quantization? Or could this just be numerical imprecision? > quantum mechanics becomes non-linear I thought one of the central ideas of quantum mechanics is that space is discrete? Or am I misunderstanding what the Planck length is?
- tsimionescu 4y ago
  > I thought one of the central ideas of quantum mechanics is that space is discrete? Or am I misunderstanding what the Planck length is? Yes, that is a misunderstanding. The fundamental idea of quantum mechanics is that certain properties of matter are quantized, but space is not one of them - they are spin, charge, electroweak charge, color charge, and perhaps a few others. Space and time though are continuous. Planck's length comes in when we discuss the maximum precision that can be measured, as it's related to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle (and to other fundamental concepts, such as c or even black holes). So, the Planck length is the smallest unit of distance that can be meaningfully discussed, but that doesn't mean that distance between particles is an integer multiple of the Planck length.
  - DontchaKnowit 4y ago
    Wow I had no idea that was the case I had the same misunderstanding as the other posted. Thank you for that, I will be revisiting my understanding of time and space
    - tsimionescu 4y ago
      I have learned a lot at this not-even-layman level from following Sabine Hossenfelder - for example, her series on the basics of Quantum Mechanics: http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2020/04/understanding-quantum-mechanics-1-its.html?m=1 http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2020/04/understanding-quant... (each blog post is also delivered in YT video form, pick whichever you prefer)

lupire 4y ago

An epithet is not an argument. I'm not saying you are wrong; I am saying you are not even wrong.

mjburgess 4y ago
There is never a cabal of zealots who gather together to defend material reality, is there ? Who are the loons of the scientific method ? Which zealot says, "let's be conservative in our dreaming?" 'digital physics', constructive mathematics, AI, idealism -- etc. are all apparently respectable symptoms of an ideological project i reserve the right to call it as i see it, and name a purely ideological project for what it is the world is not a simulation, there is no digital physics, your consciousness will not be uploaded -- etc
- DontchaKnowit 4y ago
  Preach

ingleso 4y ago

Is Planck a loon? > In 1900, Max Planck derived the correct form for the intensity spectral distribution function by making some strange (for the time) assumptions. In particular, Planck assumed that electromagnetic radiation can be emitted or absorbed only in discrete packets, called quanta, of energy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet_catastrophe#Solution https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet_catastrophe#Solu... How do you explain the zenos paradox’s place in reality? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno's_paradoxes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno's_paradoxes What’s with the hate on Plato’s ideals? What is a “chair”? Draw me a “circle”.

mjburgess 4y ago
Of course reality has discrete aspects. That really has nothing to do with whether it /only/ has discrete aspects, and indeed, whether they are abstract (ie., lack spatiotemporal properies). People who believe that today are mostly loons -- with the eyes, fervour and askew chalantanism of loons

nix0n 4y ago

> classical physics becomes non-deterministic Is the nondeterminism very large relative to the loss of precision from quantization? Or could this just be numerical imprecision? > quantum mechanics becomes non-linear I thought one of the central ideas of quantum mechanics is that space is discrete? Or am I misunderstanding what the Planck length is?

tsimionescu 4y ago
> I thought one of the central ideas of quantum mechanics is that space is discrete? Or am I misunderstanding what the Planck length is? Yes, that is a misunderstanding. The fundamental idea of quantum mechanics is that certain properties of matter are quantized, but space is not one of them - they are spin, charge, electroweak charge, color charge, and perhaps a few others. Space and time though are continuous. Planck's length comes in when we discuss the maximum precision that can be measured, as it's related to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle (and to other fundamental concepts, such as c or even black holes). So, the Planck length is the smallest unit of distance that can be meaningfully discussed, but that doesn't mean that distance between particles is an integer multiple of the Planck length.
- DontchaKnowit 4y ago
  Wow I had no idea that was the case I had the same misunderstanding as the other posted. Thank you for that, I will be revisiting my understanding of time and space
  - tsimionescu 4y ago
    I have learned a lot at this not-even-layman level from following Sabine Hossenfelder - for example, her series on the basics of Quantum Mechanics: http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2020/04/understanding-quantum-mechanics-1-its.html?m=1 http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2020/04/understanding-quant... (each blog post is also delivered in YT video form, pick whichever you prefer)