I think it was well written as a pop-science piece, albeit some things were too technical for me and unnecessary in my view. Wolfram tries to make everything ab

I think it was well written as a pop-science piece, albeit some things were too technical for me and unnecessary in my view. Wolfram tries to make everything about cellular automata, which I'm not sure why is uniquely relevant here. The gist of it is pretty interesting to me: "things" only exist because we, as humans, observe the universe in a sequential manner through instants of time. If a collection of atoms stay the same through a few of those instants we consider that to have permanence, and be a distinct object or thing. By observing distinct things we can then count them, but that would be impossible if not for our experience of time. It is indeed unclear if that is how every being would necessarily observe the universe.