Registered: Mar 2011
Posts: 23

Hi all,

In 2004 I had an idea about gravity and time. Here it is:
Assuming a finite (and distributed) computational engine rendering the Universe, it occurred to me that time might slow down in a gravitational field because the computational load is increased? If anybody has the time to share any thoughts on this? I ran it over a professor at a university and in the absence of an equation he called it poetry!

I'm assuming time and it's perception by a conscious being is independent of the computations being performed while the Universe evolves. In other words, in localized areas of space where there is more matter/information, time flows a different rates. Anyone well up on the mathematics of Special and General Relativity could enlighten me here?

Paul Meehan

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Registered: May 2009
Posts: 172

Does time slow down in a gravitational field because the computational load is increased? This is a very interesting question and I would like to know Wolfram's answer. My own answer is that if M-theory's valid physical interpretation consists of Seiberg-Witten M-theory with neutralino physics then my guess is that the answer is no. However, let us suppose that M-theory's valid physical interpretation consists of modified M-theory with Wolfram's mobile automaton together with a Fredkin delivery machine and a Nambu transfer machine. Then my guess is that the Nambu transfer machine is computing the quantum information in a particular volume of spacetime so that yes indeed Einsteinian time does slow down because the computational load for the Nambu transfer machine is increased. However, if the Rañada-Milgrom effect is not part of a great M-theoretical revolution in cosmology, then my opinion on this matter is probably completely worthless.

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Registered: Mar 2011
Posts: 23

Originally posted by David Brown
This is a very interesting question and I would like to know Wolfram's answer.

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Registered: May 2009
Posts: 172

Paul: In reply to your statement "I tend to think of digital physics in terms of mental visualizations, physical dynamics and properties of phenomena" there is a problem for all of us in visualizing quantum theory. Isaac Newton thought of light as being transmitted by extremely light, elastic corpuscles. However, Maxwell's equations show us that light consists of waves of electromagnetic energy. According to quantum field theory, light rays and all other measurable physical quantities have a weird wave/particle duality. Any physical system that can be completely visualized is a classical system and not a quantum system. How can we visualize quantum phenomena? The answer seems to be that our minds can do it partially but not very well. Witten and the other M-theorists suggest an 11-dimensional mystery domain for unifying gravitation and quantum theory. In NKS Chapter 9, Wolfram suggests that a mobile automaton runs a bizarre network below the Planck scale and gradually builds time, space, and energy for the unification of gravitation and quantum theory. At this point it appears that no one truly understands the foundations of physics.

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Registered: Mar 2011
Posts: 23

There is probably an underlying layer of order below the Planck scale from which the randomness of quantum physics arises. I believe that layer is discrete and Wolframs NKS is key to understanding or formulating it. I agree humans have difficulty generating visualizations for quantum phenomena, but I believe it will eventually be quite straightforward for us to visualize this discrete layer below quantum physics.

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