Rick Rosner: So, the principles of physics are both emergent and convergent. They appear as the universe emerges—coming from a state of low information, little matter, and minimal space. But the principles are in the same place every time, so they're convergent. Unless, of course, the universe was precisely engineered from the outside to have …
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Why do objects and operators in the universe break down into something unique—something that holds a stable property in the universe? You look at one electron, and it's the same as every other electron in the universe. You look at a photon, and it's the same deal. So why? Why do fundamental …
Rick Rosner: A few nights ago, the president delivered his speech to Congress. As is customary, members of Congress brought special guests to emphasize political points. For instance, Trump brought a 13-year-old boy who is recovering from brain cancer and made him an honorary Secret Service agent. The Democrats didn't clap. Republicans used this moment …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1309: Peyton McNabb Volleyball Injury: Fact vs. Political Narrative
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What would be an alternate term for "consciousness" in an IC universe? I've been thinking about this more. What would be an alternative term for "consciousness" within an IC framework that decouples it from more mystical or metaphysical interpretations, making it seem less magical and more technical? Is there an existing term …
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Does the part of what is enforced in the Standard Model emerge from underlying informational processes? Are they the informational processes themselves as well? Rick Rosner: Numbers arise from underlying principles, and I assume that physical laws arise from underlying principles, too, where everything goes back to consistency and non-contradiction because you …
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: How does IC reconcile the view of the universe as an information-processing system with the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics, particularly the role of information in quantum states and the measurement process? Rick Rosner: I can answer the first part of that. We’ve talked about it before—Einstein hated the idea that the …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1306: Exploring Quantum Mechanics and Informational Cosmology
Rick Rosner: All right, so maybe we should do Rotten Tomatoes here, and I’ll tell you a crazy fucking thing I’m doing. All right, so you’ve met the brown dog, our white dog, and Frida and our brown dog, Rosie. We inherited Rosie from Carol’s mom. Rosie is 14 and a half. She has a …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1305: Experimental Cancer Treatment for His Dog: A DIY Approach
Rick Rosner: Every night, Carole and I watch some quality TV downstairs. Tonight, it was The White Lotus, the latest episode, plus the opening monologue of SNL. After that, we do squats, I do sit-ups, maybe some curls, and then, after an hour downstairs, we move upstairs and watch another 30 to 40 minutes of …
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Did you want to do any science stuff? Cellular automata is a discrete, rather than continuous, computational model dealing with grids of cells. In this case, these four-dimensional cells evolve based on rules. This is based on Stephen Wolfram's book A New Kind of Science. He argues that simple rules can generate …
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: How does informational cosmology account for time? Rick Rosner: There are various ways of framing time. We’ve talked about the set of all possible moments in all possible universes. Each moment implies a set of possible next moments, just as each moment implies a set of possible previous moments. We always experience …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1302: Informational Cosmology, Quantum Time, and Simulation Hypothesis
Rick Rosner 