Is the Universe 'analogue' or 'digital'?

[j^aws]

Just 'popped' into my head so I had to post it!

I know there's 'wave theory' and 'quantum theory' etc. etc. and the 'dual' nature of matter etc. BUT,

Since they haven't unified 'the grand unified theory' there can only be 'one'! ...well, just choose one!

Is the foundation of the universe 'analogue' (continuos) or 'digital' (discrete) ?

Or post anything related as I've lost touch with alot of this!

 

[Guden Oden]

I'd vote in the poll if I just knew what the hell the subject of the topic was about!

 

[j^aws]

I'd vote in the poll if I just knew what the hell the subject of the topic was about!

Hehehe...I knew I shouldn't have posted anything that pops into me head like that!

It's simple really...do you believe that the universe is one continuos, unbroken, soup so to speak (analogue) or granular, discrete, made of lots of little 'bits' so to speak (digital)

 

[Heathen]

It's 'uncertain'...

 

[maosee]

it's analog

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/

 

[horvendile]

Hey, people! Isn't Jaws obviously biased? He's casting this poll where the votes themselves are discrete!

Arrgh, these fanboys...

 

[nutball]

It's neither, and it's both. The Universe is what the Universe is, concepts like "continuous" and "discrete" mean nothing to the Universe, only to humans who are trying to make sense of it.

What I'm saying is, don't confuse the models with the truth.

 

[Fred]

Umm, almost every scientist agrees that the universe is governed by quantum mechanics. I don't know if I would characterize that as 'discrete', since there are factors that are continuous in Qm, but for the most part Heisenberg rules supreme, at least to the best of our current knowledge.

String theory is fully governed by quantum mechanics, so I don't know how Brian would characterize it as analog. I'll ask him what he meant sometime.

At large scales, classical behaviour is what is observed. So galaxies, etc are much more analog, even though deep down they come in discrete chunks.

 

[sytaylor]

At large scales, classical behaviour is what is observed. So galaxies, etc are much more analog, even though deep down they come in discrete chunks.

Thank you for articulating what I was about to babble

 

[Crisidelm]

It's "eclectic"

 

[Diplo]

More to the point, which hardware does this Universe run better on? ATI or Nvidia?

 

[London Geezer]

This thread will start a flamewar. The fanbois are everywhere. We'll never be free. The force be with you.

The universe is your brain.

 

[sytaylor]

It's "eclectic"

No thats me

The fashion freak who was at a slipknot concert this year and loves finnish rock.

 

[j^aws]

Umm, almost every scientist agrees that the universe is governed by quantum mechanics. I don't know if I would characterize that as 'discrete', since there are factors that are continuous in Qm, but for the most part Heisenberg rules supreme, at least to the best of our current knowledge.
...

But quantum mechanics alone can't unify all theories...and Heisenberg still 'bugs' me as some sort of 'cheat' to aid our understanding. String theory remains a good bet at being the 'grand unifyng theory' and isn't it 'digital' and not 'analogue'?

Still, I find the notion of one continuous 'analogue' string connecting everything in the universe together more reassuring, where the illusion of discrete 'digital' bits come from some kind of 'knots' that are tied from this 'one universal string'! ...I think I need some more of those pills now...

 

[g__day]

At the level of reality we can either experimentally detect or reason to exist and show it is consistent with theoretical physics, I'd say its both.

Energy seems mainly quantised (digital) with the Higgs Boson as possibly the only odd man out. (But SuSy may show certain strings aren't quantised)

Time may be quantised (Planck moments 10 ^ - 45 second) but I think its continuous (analogue)

Space may be quantised (digital) into Planck spaces 10 ^ -45 metres.

This answers only what might the the defining attributes of the lowest level of reality we can so far even theorise exists - but reality could of cause go many levels below this and we might never know.

 

[pat777]

Loop Quantum Gravity is digital and it looks pretty promising in unifying GR and QM.

 

[g__day]

I think LQG is an very interesting area, but no quantum model is that far advanced yet to chill the champagne. We are still only working out the topology of a membrane, let alone what the hidden dimensions are and do, so its early to be speculating!

 

[ricercar]

Reminds me of my favorite pickup line: "Do you prefer the wave theory or the particle theory of light?"

 

[London Geezer]

My fav pick up line would be: "That's one fabulous pair of protons you have there!"

 

[DemoCoder]

See Fredkin's Digital Philosophy

The truth is, we don't know, and there may not even be any experiment in principle that could prove it one way or another. Hell, Wolfram thinks the entire universe is governed by a simple digital cellular automaton.