Changelog
Foreword
Preface
Motivation
Method and Approach
Acknowledgments
Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 Advances in Science
1.2 The Elusive Theory of Everything
1.3 Even Deeper Problems
2 The Primal Assumptions
2.1 The Quest for the Presumptionless Theory
2.2 The Barren Landscape of Lawless Theories
2.3 The Inevitability of the Starting Assumption
3 Quantum Gravity Candidates
3.1 Semiclassical Gravity
3.2 Perturbative Quantum Gravity
3.3 Nonperturbative and Geometric Approaches
3.4 Canonical Quantum Gravity
3.5 String Theory: A Rock Too Heavy
3.6 Emergent and Holographic Approaches
3.7 The Simulation Hypothesis: Reality as Software
4 Typical Software
4.1 The Hard Problem of Consciousness
4.2 The Problem with Pain
4.3 Proposed Sources of Consciousness
4.4 Equation of Pain
5 Evolution of Life
5.1 Natural Selection
5.2 Minimal Conditions for Evolution
5.3 Definition of Living Observer
5.4 Conclusion
6 Non-Physical Life
6.1 Soul as the source Consciousness
6.2 Religion and Logical Reasoning
7 Magic
7.1 Paranormal Experience
7.2 Conclusion
7.3 Definition of Magic
7.4 Definition of Physics
7.5 Conclusions
8 Science as a Belief System
8.1 Practicing Physics
8.2 Practicing Religion
8.3 Conclusions
9 Why Do We Believe in God
9.1 What is Moral
9.2 Theory of God
9.3 The Adaptive Evolution of the Divine
9.4 Conclusion
10 Reality
10.1 The Question of Reality
10.2 Designing Reality
10.3 A Rock, Some Energy, and an Unfortunate Toe
10.4 Relativity and What Is “Really” There
10.5 Quantum Mechanics and Abstract Machinery
10.6 Elusive Reality
11 Definition of Foundational Theories
11.1 Minimal Requirements
11.2 Classifying Current Theories
11.3 Conclusions
12 Quantum Mechanics
12.1 Introduction
12.2 Particles
The Wavefunction
12.3 Collective Behavior
12.4 Quantum Field Theory (QFT)
12.5 The Measurement Problem
12.6 Irreversible Recording
12.7 The Deep Nature of Quantum Mechanics
13 Implementing Quantum Mechanics
13.1 The Particle Class (Non-Relativistic QM Starting Point)
13.2 From Particles to Fields (Entering QFT)
13.3 Measurement and Decoherence
13.4 Gauge Symmetries
13.5 Practising QFT
13.6 Conclusions
14 General Relativity
14.1 The Role of the Observer
14.2 The Geometric Nature of Gravity
14.3 Time as a Personal Issue
14.4 General Relativity as Constraint: The Block Universe
14.5 Unexplained Assumptions
15 Implementing the Spacetime
15.1 The Spacetime Class
15.2 Minor Implementation Notes
15.3 Conclusion
16 The Problem of Unification
16.1 Quantum Gravity
16.2 The Vacuum Catastrophe
16.3 The Problem of Time
16.4 Why Einstein Instead of Hilbert?
17 The Deep Mystery of Mathematics
17.1 The Universal Agreement
17.2 Doctrines of Mathematics
17.3 The Predictive Power Problem
17.4 Axiomatic Systems
17.5 The Foundational Crisis
17.6 Non-Mathematics and Pluralistic Physics
17.7 Conclusions
18 DNA as the Blueprint of Life
18.1 History
18.2 Applications
18.3 Digitized DNA
18.4 Conclusion: DNA and the Architecture of Conscious Life
19 Running DNA Simulations
19.1 The Penrose’s View
19.2 Thought Experiment: The Nature of the Simulated World
19.3 Sense of Reality
19.4 Substrate Independency
19.5 Recursion and the Ontological Parity of Simulations
19.6 Anthropic Principle
Subjective Experience and Unknown Procedures
19.7 Pain Management
20 Humans as Axiomatic Systems
20.1 Basic Assumptions
20.2 Church-Turing Thesis
20.3 DNA Simulation Thought Experiments
20.4 Causality
20.5 Parallel Universes
20.6 Philosophical Zombies
20.7 Pain Hypothesis: From Philosophy to Physics
20.8 Pre-computing the Data
20.9 Conclusions
21 The Problem with Time
21.1 Alice as a Video
21.2 The Self-Mutating Computer
21.3 Conclusion: Time as a Representational Gauge
22 The Nature of Virtual Universes
22.1 Common Sense
22.2 Consciousness as Abstract Soul
22.3 Virtual Souls
22.4 Precision Problems
22.5 Motivation of Heaven and Hell
22.6 God as Axiomatic System
22.7 Free Will
22.8 Why did God Create Us?
22.9 The Master Plan of God
22.10 Why Hell?
23 Free Will
23.1 Code with Free Will
23.2 Random Indeterministic Systems
23.3 The Non-Computable Alternative
23.4 Cognitive Architecture as Code
23.5 Consciousness in Static Timeless Universe
23.6 Conclusion
24 The Problem of Being Inside the System
24.1 The Internal Perspective
24.2 The Method: Escaping the Trap
25 Black Holes: From Something to Nothing
25.1 The Execution Trace as Spacetime
25.2 The Simulation of Gravitational Collapse
25.3 Conclusion: The Exhaustion of Information
26 From Nothing to Something
26.1 The Time-Reversed Black Hole
26.2 Simulation Results
26.3 Conclusions and Cosmological Implications
26.4 Open Problems and Pathologies
27 The Filter
27.1 The Mechanics of Probability and Observers as Filters
27.2 The Observer as a Decompression Filter
27.3 Conclusion
28 Algorithmic Information Theory (AIT)
28.1 Introduction: Physics as Computation
28.2 Beyond Statistical Information
28.3 Kolmogorov Complexity
28.4 Solomonoff Induction and the Universal Prior
28.5 The Failure of Kolmogorov Complexity in Physics
29 The Deep Nature of Quantum Mechanics
29.1 Introduction: The Ubiquitous Wave
29.2 The Dithering Analogy
29.3 From Kolmogorov to Spectral Complexity
29.4 Emergent Order through Spectral Compression
29.5 Conclusions
29.6 Proof-of-Concept Videos
30 The Deep Nature of Geometry
30.1 The Mystery
30.2 Geometry Compresses
30.3 Why Two Separate Compressions?
30.4 Conclusion
31 The Interpretation Problem
31.1 The Mystery
31.2 Semantic Nakedness
31.3 Interpretational Explosion
31.4 Equivalence Classes - Interpretive Gauge Invariance
31.5 The Core Thesis
31.6 The Deep Mystery of Mathematics
32 The Framework of Nearly Everything
32.1 The Ontology: What Fundamentally Exists
32.2 Measure: What is Typical
32.3 Emergence: The Structure
32.4 Name (Observer-dependent nomenclature)
33 Proof of Concept
33.1 From Theory to Simulation
33.2 Implementation
33.3 The Fermion Problem
33.4 Conclusion
33.5 Accompanying Videos
34 The Problem of Emergent Fermions
34.1 Where to Go From Here
34.2 Proof of Concept
35 The Static Universe: Quantum Cosmology
35.1 Everett without Branching
35.2 Quantum Cosmology: Spectral Complexity and the Measure of Observers
35.3 Relational Observers in a Timeless Universe
35.4 Spectral Complexity as the Measure
35.5 Testing the Idea in a Simple Simulation
35.6 Conclusion
35.7 Future Work
36 The Hard Problem of Consciousness
36.1 The Mystery
36.2 Axioms
36.3 Derived Consequences
36.4 Discussion
36.5 Conclusion
37 Implications
37.1 The Terminator Thought Experiment
37.2 Entropy Gradients and Observer Self-Location
37.3 Mortality as Vanishing Measure
37.4 Mathematics as an Emergent Interpretive Structure
37.5 Informational Cost of Intelligence
37.6 The Broken Brain Thought Experiment
37.7 Conclusion
38 The Big Questions and a few smaller Ones
Can computer feel pain in principle?
38.1 Can computer simulate pain?
The source of the Power of Quantum Computers
Is this a "One-Parameter" Theory rather than Zero?
Where did all the matter in the universe come from?
Why something rather than nothing?
Why do particles follow a complex-valued wavefunction?
Why does the universe expand? Is there a link to entropy?
Why did the universe start with zero entropy?
Is the Universe Infinite?
What is gravity?
How does Gödel incompleteness affect the theory?
Are we living in a simulation?
Does the theory support QBism?
Why do we age and die?
Is this just Solipsism?
What motivates the Spectral Complexity?
Does the theory explain why the expansion rate is near-critical?
39 Novelty
39.1 Standing on the Shoulders of Giants?
40 Closure
40.1 Philosophical Satisfaction
40.2 Understanding Static Abstraction
40.3 Neural Networks
40.4 Free Will Reconsidered
40.5 Conclusion
41 Epilogue
Bibliography