Max Tegmark has some really good writing on this. I quite like the idea that the "universe Hamiltonian" acts deterministic in phase space such that the universe

Max Tegmark has some really good writing on this. I quite like the idea that the "universe Hamiltonian" acts deterministic in phase space such that the universe's wave function evolves deterministic. From the "inside" of the system, the atoms in our brain are just carried along on a stochastic path such that the conscious awareness we currently inhabit is one of many the many possible paths through the large phase space. From the "outside" the universe is a infinitely dimensional, phase space that evolves deterministically through time. That way I reason about it is that the big bang was a single "pixel" of super high energy in an infinitely dimensional phase space and the laws of physics are a Hamiltonian "kernel" that evolves the phase space in a similar way to the heat equation. Thus this kernel acts on the phase space from the big bang, mechanistically acting out the laws of physics, all the way until the heat death of the universe: effectively the fixed-point of the universe kernel. This may all sound like bullshit to a physicist, but it's the application of my limited understanding of physics and mathematics to the thought experiment. Good reading here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_universe_hypothesis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_universe_hypothesi... http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/mathematical.html http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/mathematical.html http://arxiv.org/abs/0704.0646 http://arxiv.org/abs/0704.0646