Some principles underpinning the running of the Universe are discussed. The most important, the machine principle, states that the Universe is a fully autonomous, self-organizing and self-testing quantum automaton. Continuous space and time, consciousness and the semi-classical observers of quantum mechanics are all emergent phenomena not operating at the fundamental level of the machine Universe. Quantum processes define the present, the interface between the future and the past, giving a time ordering to the running of the Universe which is non-integrable except on emergent scales. A diagrammatic approach is used to discuss the quantum topology of the EPR paradox, particle decays and scattering processes. A toy model of a self-referential universe is given.
Some principles underpinning the running of the Universe are discussed. The most important, the machine principle, states that the Universe is a fully autonomous, self-organizing and self-testing quantum automaton. Continuous space and time, consciousness and the semi-classical observers of quantum mechanics are all emergent phenomena not operating at the fundamental level of the machine Universe. Quantum processes define the present, the interface between the future and the past, giving a time ordering to the running of the Universe which is non-integrable except on emergent scales. A diagrammatic approach is used to discuss the quantum topology of the EPR paradox, particle decays and scattering processes. A toy model of a self-referential universe is given.
Based on a number of experimentally verified physical observations, it is argued that the standard principles of quantum mechanics should be applied to the Universe as a whole. Thus, a paradigm is proposed in which the entire Universe is represented by a pure state wavefunction contained in a factorisable Hilbert space of enormous dimension, and where this statevector is developed by successive applications of operators that correspond to unitary rotations and Hermitian tests. Moreover, because by definition the Universe contains everything, it is argued that these operators must be chosen self-referentially; the overall dynamics of the system is envisaged to be analogous to a gigantic, self-governing, quantum computation. The issue of how the Universe could choose these operators without requiring or referring to a fictitious external observer is addressed. The processes by which conventional physics might be recovered from this fundamental, mathematical and global description of reality are particularly investigated. Specifically, it is demonstrated that by considering the changing properties, separabilities and factorisations of both the state and the operators as the Universe proceeds though a sequence of discrete computations, familiar notions such as classical distinguishability, particle physics, space, time, special relativity and endo-physical experiments can all begin to emerge from the proposed picture. A pregeometric vision of cosmology is therefore discussed, with all of physics ultimately arising from the relationships occurring between the elements of the underlying mathematical structure.
We discuss the origin of causal set structure and the emergence of classical space and time in the universe. Given that the universe is a closed self-referential quantum automaton with a quantum register consisting of a vast number of elementary quantum subregisters, we find two distinct but intimately related causal sets. One of these is associated with the factorization and entanglement properties of states of the universe and encodes phenomena such as quantum correlations and violations of Bell-type inqualities. The concepts of separations and entanglements of states are used to show how state reduction dynamics generates the familial relationships which gives this causal set structure. The other causal set structure is generated by the factorization properties of the observables (the Hermitian operators) over the quantum register. The concept of skeleton sets of operators is used to show how the factorization properties of these operators could generate the classical causal set structures associated with Einstein locality.
Background/introduction This study is to discover the nature of the universe, consciousness and causality. Methods Comparing the universe to a Game of Life system. Results Found that the universe and a Game of Life system have the similar mathematical nature. Conclusions Humans are limited in what they know by the technical limitation of their cortical language network. A reality is a situation model. The universe is a self-driven objective parallel computing automaton which evolves by itself automatically – Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle can be explained under this situation model. If we are happy to accept randomness, it’s obviously possible that all other worlds in the many-worlds interpretation don’t exist objectively. Consciousness is actually the use of a mathematical model by a Turing machine (TM). A TM’s consciousness or deliberate decisions/choices shouldn’t be able to actually/objectively change/control/drive the fated world line of any elementary particle within this world. Except Schrodinger equation (or its counterpart) which is the only actual causality of the objective-reality, any other causality is only a (subjective) Granger causality.
This work proposes that time is not a fundamental cause but an emergent consequence of matter’s self-organization. At the deepest level, matter and spacetime possess complete temporal symmetry, allowing bidirectional time. As matter becomes increasingly complex — from particles to macroscopic structures and living systems — this symmetry progressively breaks. The breaking of temporal symmetry gives rise to irreversibility, memory, decoherence, the arrow of time, and the emergence of classical reality. Within this framework, classical matter represents only a tiny, chiral, asymmetrical fraction of a deeper racemic quantum domain existing in dual time. The visible universe arises as a projection — a “shadow” — of this temporally symmetric metastructure. From this perspective, relativity may be interpreted as a special, effectively classical case of quantum mechanics, emerging from higher-order organizational processes. Temporal self-organization thus provides a unified conceptual pathway linking quantum mechanics, relativity, matter–antimatter asymmetry, and the cosmological constant. Although this work does not claim to provide a complete unified theory, it offers a conceptual reorientation: a shift that replaces numerous disconnected explanatory “epicycles” with a simpler underlying principle based on temporal self-organization.Within this perspective, several seemingly independent phenomena — including the arrow of time, matter–antimatter asymmetry, decoherence, and the small positive cosmological constant — may be understood as different manifestations of a single fundamental process: the breaking of an underlying bidirectional temporal symmetry.
We start this chapter by introducing an ultimate limit of knowledge: as observers that are part of the universe we have no access on information concerning the fundamental nature of the elementary entities (particles) composing the universe but only on information concerning their behaviour. Then, we use this limit to develop a vision of the universe in which the behaviour of particles is the result of a computation-like process (not in the restricted sense of Turing machine) performed by meta-objects and in which space and time are also engendered by this computation. In this vision, the structure of space-time (e.g. Galilean, Lorentzian, …) is determined by the form of the laws of interactions, important philosophical questions related with the space-time structure of special relativity are resolved, the contradiction between the non-locality of quantum systems and the reversal of the temporal order of events (encountered in special relativity when we change inertial frames) is conciliated, and the “paradoxes” related with the “strange” behaviour of quantum systems (non-determinism, quantum superposition, non-locality) are resolved.Request access from your librarian to read this chapter's full text.
On the basis that the universe is a closed quantum system with no external observers, we propose a paradigm in which the universe jumps through a series of stages. Each stage is defined by a quantum state, an information content, and rules governing temporal evolution. Only some of these rules are currently understood; we can calculate answers to quantum questions, but we do not know why those questions have been asked in the first place. In this paradigm, time is synonymous with the quantum process of information extraction, rather than a label associated with a temporal dimension. We discuss the implications for cosmology.